It kills me to not to give this place a 5-star review, but I got smacked with an injury at this location, and this month marked month 6 of going to physical therapy to build around it. To be 100% fair: these are combat sports. Come out and play and you're risking getting injured. I own that. That said, I came in to what was obviously a very solid school run juuuust lax enough that night that something avoidable happened. I'm 110lbs and 5'1" and came into NOLA BJJ while in town from NYC to stay warm for upcoming NAGA tournaments in my home state. I took a no gi class.
The instructor was great--concise, knowledgeable, confident, athletic. My home academies are Brazilian and Israeli-run, so I'm used to loose and funky bjj in broken English or militant, precision takedown tech. NOLA BJJ that night was Sambo heavy, careful work on Russian spins and reversals. I was digging it and getting solid personal attention during corrections from the instructor. The only other girl in class was about 5'7" and 150lbs, and inevitably we were paired up. I let her know I was a 8-month(ish) white belt, turned out she was too. Cut to rolling, where we're in theory supposed to be working in back takes and the spins, and first move is I get picked up and muscled into the mats like a child's toy, face down mat up--nothing new, Im the nerf football of grappling and easy to throw around, even my training partners at home full time lose their awareness sometimes and toss me like a grape, but we're talking going pretty hard on a visiting student with a 40lb weight difference. I know this girl's a muscler now, so I play some better defense. She pulls guard and slides all the way down into an ankle lock.
And she slams that ankle lock like its the finals at PanAm's--no eye contact, no gradual pressure, just SLAM...and I feel the dreaded pop in that ankle. I know it's controversial as a subject, but at the academies I've attended white AND blue belts and first-timers are NOT supposed to throw ankle locks or heel hooks at all, unless actively training with a sparring partner on the competition team. There's nothing more dangerous than a white belt with a little knowledge about a dangerous attack. It took exactly 40 minutes at NOLA BJJ for me to get my Achilles partially torn during what seemed like "don't go all out" light sparring. AND would have tapped in full submission to this girl, I just didn't have time. NO EGO, you win!
I felt the POP of the tendon, but actually fine okay in a few minutes and returned to rolling. At that point it was switch partners time, but the instructor let all the guys trade while she and I were to continue together. I asked her to watch the ankle and roll for technique, which turned into over-unders and me getting face muscle-mashed into the floor again. I was BUMMED. I wanted to roll so bad in NOLA! And roll with these lighter, clearly high levels guys at the school. Instead I only rolled with the one female, in a not helpful way, and that actually ended when the instructor approached us and explained to her she could be picking off gorgeous high-C's and firemans and ogoshi on someone my weight, but was muscle-slamming me instead, and why that was a waste of training time. Afterwards she apologized, but at that point my ankle was blowing up past my spats and NAGA was clearly not happening in the near future.
NOLA BJJ obviously has a great foundation in grappling and wrestling and clean, no BS teaching style, and now that I'm moving to NOLA I WANT to recommend it as well as go back and roll more, but don't feel safe doing so. Torn ACL not worth it. If you're a more advanced belt, or even novice, make sure you voice what you're okay with re: heel hooks/leg locks, etc. These are such avoidable injuries during competition season that it's not worth it to feel dominant over a foot for a minute in a free roll with a stranger. Props to the instructor for eventually noticing I was mismatched and making it a teachable moment for his student, who needed to learn "light ass girls = throws and takedowns," not joint murder.
Now what am I going to do about my legs CHARLIE MURPHY?! read more