Gracie Barra Jiu-Jitsu

On Saturday, October 11, 2014, Gracie Barra Vancouver & Raz Chan Fitness presented Women’s Self-​Defense Seminar as a fundraising event for Battered Women’s Support Services. Seventeen women attended and it was excellent!
Much gratitude to Raz Chan, Anica Simon, Max Rathburn, Norm Leung, Andrea, Robert and Carla. It was excellent!

I have had tons of fun training here, and everyone is super friendly and inviting. The facility are in top shape, but just a tad on the small size for how big their classes are (always feels crowded when rolling). The instructors are great and you get a lot of hands on corrections by them. As well as one on one demonstrations. But unfortunately I will never go back as I now get grossed out being there. You see a short while ago I developed a nasty infection on my neck. Now I have been training in Jujitsu for years and until now have never had the pleasure of catching a skin infection. Of course anyone who has practiced a grappling martial art for long enough knows that eventually you’re likely to catch a little bit of something. But this shit turned out to be quite nasty, and took a good solid 2 weeks of antibiotics pills and cream to get ride of. Meanwhile I had to deal with gross scabbing all down my neck. I’m just really happy it didn’t turn out to be viral. Mats should be cleaned and disinfected after every class no matter what, as they are a huge breeding ground for bacteria and viruses. And please people shower your ass before coming to class and take advantage of the shower rooms provided after.

After days of eating and drinking, I felt the call of the mats. Being a visitor to this city I decided to train at a place that’s similar to home, landing me at Gracie Barra Vancouver.
In an interesting neighborhood surrounded by hipster shops and restaurants, Gracie Barra is located on Main St. Vancouver, a short straight bus ride away from the station.
I trained here on a Tuesday night and had a chance to train in three of their classes: Beginner, Black Belt, and Advanced. All of the instructors were great and were engaging with every student. I noticed they followed some formalities like attendance cards, matching training partners, and courtesies like handshakes.
Still compared to most strict schools and martial arts, they had a very relaxed environment and very welcoming approach. Even as a newcomer who was obviously not signing up for a membership, they introduced me to everyone and everyone I trained with didn’t treat me differently like they would their normal training partners. And that is such an important thing. I hate coming to a school and just because of the colour of my belt, have everyone gunning for me to see how tough my school is. Yeah I’ll represent GBC, but after a day of eating chinese food, that is the last thing I need, haha.
The class taught by the school’s head instructor, Professor Rodrigo Carvalho was a great class. Though I needed a blue belt in order to attend, I felt this was a fair rule considering the technique taught was high quality. Note: If you’re all about arm-​bars and finishes, take this class, you’ll learn that BJJ-​especially with Gracie Barra– that its not about fancy moves but all-​round control and technique.
Overall for what appears to be an international organization, GB Vancouver has a local approach that is reminiscent of my own school. Anyone wants pure instruction in the gentle-​art (ARTE SUAVE!) in Vancouver, this is the place!