Matt Serra has a clear perspective on what makes a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy worth your time, especially for beginners trying to choose the right environment.
“It’s a good question. When you walk in, get the energy of the place. Is it a bunch of guys just being meatheads? You’ll get the vibe of a place. Is it people smiling, having a good time? Is the instructor greeting you and introducing you to people? That’s number one.”
For Serra, the atmosphere is only part of the equation. How a gym handles complete beginners plays an equally important role, particularly during the first few weeks of training when everything feels unfamiliar.
“The hardest part is one, to walk into a new school. And two, when you get on the mats, that first month is crucial. You don’t have any of the answers. Everything you’re doing is wrong. When I had Rodrigo Gracie in here, he was even mentioning that when somebody’s mounted on you, what do you look to do? You look to push up or give your back. You’re doing everything wrong. You have to unlearn that.”
He emphasized that throwing beginners into live training too early can create a negative experience that pushes them away from the sport entirely.
“If you put them on the mat to roll too early, they’ll be like, ‘This is effective, but I just got the heck kicked out of me. What am I paying for? What is going on here?'”
At his academy, Serra takes a more structured approach, easing new students into the process before exposing them to full resistance training.
“Two weeks at least, they’re doing the technique, doing the warm-up, and then they’re watching, doing some drills on the side, some flow drills. So that way by the time they get to do some live training, which is actual rolling, they’ll have some tools in the toolbox to be able to achieve their objective instead of just doing totally the wrong thing or just not having any answers, which is a horrible feeling, which is why you’re showing up to the school in the first place.”
His final advice remains straightforward and practical.
“Go into the place, do a trial class, see if you feel like it’s a fit.”
