Tag Archives: food

A Visit to Marcelo Garcia’s Academy in New York City

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I was visiting NYC for a day, and decided to stop by Marcelo Garcia’s Academy. A day pass there is $40 and only $20 if you are a member of MGInAction.com.

Overall it was a great experience. I enjoyed the chance to train in a friendly environment with a lot of high level grapplers that I haven’t trained with before. That’s probably a good thing to do for anyone looking to expand their game.

The Butterfly System

When I started jiu jitsu two years ago, I was put on the butterfly guard (and x-guard) path right off the bat. I took a liking to the butterfly guard not because I was good at it, but because I was terrible at it. It seemed that unlike the closed guard and half guard, holding on for dear life is not an option for butterfly, so I knew I would have to learn good technique to prevent my butterfly guard from being passed.

A lot of the fundamentals (as well as the advanced details later) about butterfly and x-guard I took from Marcelo’s instructional dvds and MGInAction (his online video library). Marcelo really believes in that system, and his students do as well. So it was a surreal experience for me, because I got to train with some great technical players that all had amazing butterfly guards and more importantly had good defenses for mine.

The hardest part for me was safely passing the butterfly in no-gi. I had to be very patient and not make any mistakes. Especially the higher ranks were very quick to take advantage of any opening.

Advice for Visitors

I did 4 classes (2 gi and 2 no-gi). I was sore going into it, which was frankly a mistake. There are a lot of good technical players there and in order to really appreciate the experience I think you need to be able to go toe-to-toe with them. That takes a lot of physical and mental energy. It’s almost similar to a tournament. So my recommendation is to get a good night’s sleep and make sure you’re well rested before the visit, especially if you are looking to do multiple classes.

If you live in Philadelphia like I do, take a bus there! BoltBus or MegaBus will take you from 30th St Station in Philly to within a couple of blocks away from Marcelo’s academy. The ride takes exactly two hours, and is comfortable, especially when you’re sleep deprived as I am and spend the whole ride there and back passed out (probably snoring and/or drooling on yourself).

Do laundry in the city! Marcelo’s academy is on 36th and 5th. There’s a cheap coin laundry place on 30th and 5th: L C Laundromat. So even if you want to do multiple classes, you can still bring just one gi and it’ll be nice and clean for both training sessions.

The last piece of advice I have falls into the category of common sense: don’t over eat. Did I follow this advice? No. There was a Subway footlong. There was pizza. There were lots of apples and coffee. It wasn’t too much food, but just enough to make training less fun than it otherwise would have been ;-)

How Much Does it Cost To Compete

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I’ve done about 30-40 local tournaments in the last 2 years, so I figured I’d reminisce about all the money I spent in that time. There are a bunch of costs to consider, and it always varies, but I wanted to put some numbers up so that people that are looking to compete for the first time are aware of it, and save up ;-) Also, I know I still pretend to myself that a competition is no more than an entry fee, when in reality the entry fee is often less than half the cost. So this post is also for myself and others in similar situations to help in financially planning for these events. In this post the focus is on “local” tournaments that are 2-3 hours away from where I live. Multi-day tournaments you have to fly to are on a whole another level financially.

For the purpose of this post, I assume I’m going to a competition in New York City from Philadelphia. I’m weighing in the night before, and staying over night. Later, I’ll discuss how that cost can be cut down. The cost is based on my experience.

  • Entry fee (for two divisions, second is usually about half price)
    • $60-100, but let’s say $80
  • Travel
    • Gas: $30 (source)
    • Tolls: $30 (source)
    • Car rental (2 days): $80
  • Hotel
    • $110
  • Food afterwards (to celebrate)
    • $20

So, here are the total costs depending on how many people are going to split the travel and hotel:

  • You go alone: 80+30+30+80+110+20=$350
  • 2 people: $225
  • 3 people: $183
  • 4 people: $163

Going the same day removes the cost of one day’s car rental and hotel. The total cost then is:

  • You go alone: 80+30+30+40+20=$200
  • 2 people: $150
  • 3 people: $133
  • 4 people: $125

There are several objections you might have to the above numbers. First, you might say, “but I already have a car”. I find that when multiple people go, you should really treat it as a cheap rental and contribute at least some money to the driver over what the gas and tolls cost. But certainly, if someone already has a car, it turns out cheaper.

Second, you might say that you can easily save the $20 for food by not going out afterwards. In my experience, going out afterwards is an essential part of unwinding after a tournament, gathering your thoughts, and talking about what you learned and have to work on. But also it’s just good for bonding. Nothing forms friendships like being in “battle” together.

The above might seem like a lot of money. Probably because most people think of the cost of a tournament as just the entry fee. I don’t mean to discourage you from competing. But you have to be realistic and plan your finances accordingly, so that you don’t feel like the whole experience was not worth what you ended up paying for it.

The moral of the story for me is that going with 4 people is the best idea. I prefer going the night before so that weight is not an issue. Also it makes the whole experience more like a road trip if you go the night before.

Chewing Gum

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I sometimes get heartburn when training. It’s unpleasant, distracting, and prevents me from really pushing myself. I would say the worst part of it is that it prevents me from enjoying a long training session, but not enough where I have to stop. So I just go on, annoyed.

I’ve heard a few other folks complain about heartburn on the mat, and their solution is not to eat for several hours before training. That’s just not an option for me. I eat small meals about every two hours and wouldn’t be able to last through a hard practice if I didn’t eat at least an hour before hand.

Anyway, for me, for some reason chewing gum helps with heartburn. I don’t know the physiology of this, nor do I care, it just works (for me). So, I’ve gotten into the habit of popping in a piece of gum before training. Plus, it helps make me smell a little less like a pot of coffee, since by the time I actually get to training, I’ve probably consumed 1-2 pots. Yes, I’m an addict. And yes, I know, coffee is terrible for heartburn.

That’s a lot of writing to get to the comment that I actually wanted to make, which is: I feel that chewing gum helps me in training by reminding me to relax and breath. For example, I was guillotined today in training for about 2 minutes with very little ability to breath, and as crazy as it sounds, chewing gum helped put my mind into that relaxed “I’m just chilling” state and I was able to ride it out. Later, a 250 lbs guy was on my back and had a body triangle on tight for 2-3 minutes while working a choke. I was able to relax through that also. It’s all psychological, but gum seems to be a useful catalyst, as absurd as that sounds.