In the summer of 2022, my family decided to take a family vacation to see New York City and Washington DC. We planned on doing a lot of sightseeing and generally had a very tight schedule. I was fortunate to have one evening available to try and squeeze in a Jiu Jitsu training session. New York is considered one of the meccas of Jiu Jitsu and has many world-renowned gyms available to train at. I took the opportunity while I had it to pencil in a session at a large famous gym. After researching online I narrowed the results to Renzo Gracie, Marcelo Garcia, and Unity Jiu Jitsu gym. After reviewing schedules and the closest location to my hotel, I ultimately ended up going to Marcelo Garia’s gym and the experience was great! Below is my experience as a blue belt attending two drop-in sessions at Marcelo Garcia Academy in New York City.
Website and Drop in Sign Up
The website for the Marcel Garcia Academy is a great resource of information for the school and what to expect when training or looking to train at the academy. The amount of information and transparency was one of the main reasons I chose to drop in at Marcelo’s rather than any of the many other options available. On the website, there is a link for planning your visit. This page was very helpful and gave all of the information you need to plan your drop in including pricing, hours, address, schedule, and an online waiver to sign. Another nice feature is a general question-and-answer section that gives in-depth details on what you can expect at a drop-in. The other sections of the website are packed with information including about the school and Marcelo Garcia and an online shop.
Location
The Marcelo Garcia Academy is located in downtown New York City. The address is:
250 W 26th St. – 3rd floor
New York, NY 1001
I took an Uber to the academy and found that you have to be buzzed into a residential-looking building. Once let in, you have the option of taking the stairs or the elevator up to the third floor where the academy is. Upon entering the academy you will first encounter the front desk.
Customer Service
Upon entering the academy I was warmly greeted by a very nice worker and Jiu Jitsu practitioner. This person was very friendly and welcomed me to the gym eagerly getting me signed up for the drop-in. I paid the drop-in fee and was offered a quick tour of the facility.
Cost
The cost I paid for the single drop-in was $50. This allowed me to attend any of the classes offered that day. I choose to attend back-to-back classes including a fundamentals class and an advanced class after.
Visitor passes are offered as a day pass, week pass, or monthly pass. The current prices as of this writing are:
| Frequency | Cost | Info |
| Day Pass | $50 | Attend all classes within 1 Day. Visitor passes are available to purchase at the front desk. |
| Week Pass | $200 | Visitor passes are available to purchase at the front desk |
| Monthly Pass | $300 | Attend all classes within 1 Month. Visitor passes are available to purchase at the front desk. |
Facility
The facility is very nice. There are two large mat spaces for different types of classes to be run at the same time. The mats are well taken care of and branded throughout the dojo. The facility was clean and you can tell well taken care of. The locker rooms had ample space to accommodate many students. Within the locker room, there are also showers available including complimentary shower gel. Another nice addition for a drop-in student is posted academy rules and general etiquette signs.
Fundamental Class
My first class was a fundamentals class. The class started with a warm-up that was primarily Jiu Jitsu movements via line drills like shrimping and rolling up and down the mat. At my home gym, we generally warm up on our own by drilling, stretching, or even light rolling. This was the first time I went through an official warm-up. I liked the warm-up and it got my heart rate up and ready to grapple.
A black belt led the class and we reviewed some positioning and a submission from half guard. The instruction was very clear, detailed, and professional. The move would be demonstrated and then we would actively drill the move while the instructor and a few coaches walked around and helped the students.
After the drilling, we did some situational rolling with one person starting in closed guard. We did about 3-4 rounds of rolling and finished the class. Overall I enjoyed the fundamentals class and felt like I fit right in as a blue belt.
Advanced Class
The advanced class began almost right after the fundamentals class. I was pretty tired already after walking all day in New York and from rolling in the fundamentals class but decided to tough it out and do the advanced class. The advanced class started the same way as the fundamental class with warm-ups via the line drills.
Unfortunately during my visit, Marcelo Garcia was not in town, but teaching the advanced class was ADCC champion, Matheus Diniz. Matheus was a great teacher and did a great job explaining the move the class was focusing on. We practiced back control and recovery for the move of the class. It was a very large class with 30-40 people and the majority of the practitioners were mostly purple belts and above, including around 5 black belts. I think with me there were probably only about 5 blue belts and no white belts attending the training.
After we finished training I got my very first taste of professional competition training. I think many fighters were preparing for a large tournament and the vibe was competition minded. Up to this point, I’ve never competed and my home gym is not competition focused. For the competition training, Matheus split the class into two groups by weight. He had each group line up against the wall and pulled about 5 people out of the line onto the mat. The goal of the live roll was to win by scoring the first point. Both partners would start standing. Point scoring could come from a takedown, a sweep, a pass, or a submission could end the round. If you won the match then you would stay on the mat and a fresh guy from the line would jump in.
This was my first competition-style training and I was one of the least experienced people there. The matchups were intense and most of the people that I went against were going full speed. Matches would come very quickly too with waiting in line only being 1-2 minutes. I got a lot of matches and maybe won 25% of them. I was gassed within 10 minutes, but as some of the better practitioners had multiple matches they began to tire and the field started to level out and I was able to land some takedowns and passes. This went on for about 30-40 minutes nonstop and the room was a sweaty hot mess after the intense sparring.
The competition rolling was an amazing experience for me and well worth the time and price of the visit. This was the first time my eyes were opened to the intensity of professional grapplers and how they prepare for battle. I was humbled as a hobbyist while being re-energized to continue developing my Jiu Jitsu.
Merch
After the advanced class, I cleaned up and thanked the front desk person for an awesome visit. As a thank you, I purchased a shirt from the academy as a souvenir of my visit. The academy has many items on site including shorts, rash guards, tee shirts, and Gis all available for purchase.
Final Thoughts
I had a great time doing a single drop-in at Marcelo Garcia’s academy in New York. I would highly recommend a drop-in if you are in the area. I would seriously consider joining the gym as a full-time member if I was living in New York. The instruction was top-notch, the facility was nice, and the training partners were excellent. I do not see how you could regularly attend classes at Marcelo’s and not develop a strong Jiu Jitsu game. The only thing I was disappointed in was not getting a chance to see Marcelo, but his black belts teaching and coaches were top-notch. I will visit again if I have the opportunity.