If you want to attend a Brazilian Jiujitsu school where the owner and head instructor dates his female students and gets them pregnant. While forbidding his adult male and female students from dating each other outside of school grounds, which is a private matter between two consenting adults. Maintaining a double standard of "do as I say, not as I do" then this is the place for you! If you want to be accused, labeled, and threatened to cancel your membership or kicked out without getting the facts first because the owner doesn't know how to handle conflict resolution, then this is the place for you! If you get injured, and you're not able to attend training due to your injury, and you asked the owner to put your paying membership on hold temporarily because your orthopedic doctor has you on medical orders, be careful! The owner is more concerned about money than your health! He will get upset and ridicule you for putting your paying membership on hold. Somehow the owner has a medical degree! If you want to attend a Brazilian Jiujitsu school where you're a new student who has suffered a knee injury and another female student who happens to be a white belt, with no experience, and with a tremendous amount of ego and does a leg lock on your injured leg and you questioned their technique or asked them not to such a technique out of concern for your health and safety. Then this is the place for you! If your role with a student that practices "Tickle Jiujitsu" with his opponent, then you rough him up for doing something dumb and stupid, then he goes and cries foul 3 weeks after the fact to the academy owner. Then the academy owner blames you for being rough and informs you that this "student" has a 20% stake in the academy. Then this is the place for you! If you want to be ridiculed or embarrassed in front of others of a misunderstanding of the facts not yet known, then this is the place for you! If you want to attend a Brazilian Jiujitsu school where some students are too sensitive and act like babies, their egos get shattered. Then go cry foul, then this is the place for you! If you're under the impression that you're having a private telephone conversation with the school owner without him asking you permission for others to listen to such dialogue. Disregarding your privacy, then this is the place for you! If you want to attend a Brazilian jiujitsu school where the owner is more concerned about money more than your well-being, then this is the place for you! If you want to attend a Brazilian Jiujitsu school where the owner suffers from anger issues, acts unprofessional, rude, and hangs up the phone on you because the owner doesn't know how to handle constructive criticism, then this is the place for you! If you want to attend a Jiujitsu school were the owner has cameras all over the place without posted legal signs indicating that you're being recorded during training or anytime thereof, this is the place for you! I don't like to post negative reviews because of the love that I have for Jiujitsu. After leaving a well-respected Jiujitsu school and visiting "Soul Fighters" Andre Maneco, Brazilian Jiujitsu school, and staying for a short time, I experience all of the above. It's unfortunate and sad, but I feel compelled to leave a negative review because I wish not to elaborate any further due to the reasons above and many others. Male and female students have left this academy for personal reasons, and I'm just another casualty of the rude, unprofessional character and behavior from Andre Maneco. I wouldn't recommend this school, not even to my worst enemy! I was warned, but I choose not to listen... With so many good, professional, caring, and understanding BJJ schools around Chicago, this is "NOT" the one! Stay away! Lesson learned! read more

So when I'd been wanting to start BJJ for years but was always intimidated. I even tried a couple intro classes at another gym in Chicago and the vibe was just all wrong for me. This is why I'm so happy to have found Soul Fighters Chicago. Such a great gym with top notch instruction. Andre has found what is the perfect balance of seriousness/intensity in training while maintaining a welcoming and relaxed atmosphere. One thing I've found particularly great about the instruction is the attention to detail. Somehow if your foot is not quite in the right place or your hand needs to be rotated Andre can spot this from across the room and will correct you so you're not drilling with mistakes, its truly impressive. While I don't make it to a ton of evening classes (6:30 am crew checking in!) I'd also like to shout out to Zito's instruction in the fundamentals classes. He's really great at making the new people feel relaxed and comfortable all while being a great teaching of techniques and concepts. This also brings me to the other students and overall vibe of this academy. Everyone is there is get better, have fun, and really takes the time to help each other. The feeling of camaraderie here is high and is what has allowed me to get over that initial intimidation and end up as a regular student going 2-4 times a week for the last 8 months. Overall I can not recommend Soul Fighters enough if you're interested in BJJ. read more

I train here when I come to Chicago for work. I recommend training here. They have a good schedule, friendly and respectful students, knowledgeable instructors, and a clean facility. Check it out. read more

Great training environment ! The gym is filled with positive people always looking to help eachother. The facility is very nice with a good mat space and kept VERY CLEAN. Andre Maneco is a world class fighter and possibly even a better instructor. The gym caters to everyone from the person looking to get in shape and learn jiu jitsu to the person looking to be the next world champion. read more

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If you've never done any type of martial arts before like me, walking into a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu academy for the first was intimidating. To say the least. After all, BJJ is bad ass and a master like Andre attracts students dedicated to the craft. However I quickly found that starting out was not as nearly as intimidating as I imagined. Andre is very welcoming and everyone who trains with him has the same mentality: a rising tide lifts all ships. Not only is Andre one of the best BJJ fighters in the world, he is also one of the most patient instructors you will find. The other students I train with are also very patient and always take the time to help me improve. In fact, it's not uncommon for him to train with us on a Thursday night, fight in Portugal on Saturday and be back to train with us on Monday night. You will be hard pressed to find anybody who competes as much as Andre. This has a huge positive impact on the atmosphere at his academy. A key aspect of getting good at anything is how much time you spend honing your skills. One of the coolest things about training with Andre is as a white belt, once he's certain you have the basics down (and won't kill anybody), he will let you spar as much as you like. This is how you get better. Fast. As a white belt, you will get lots of mat time sparing with lots of blue and higher belts. In fact, you will get as much mat time as a purple belt. If you checkout other academies, you will find this is very rare. Very very rare. Most white belts get minimal mat time. At other academies, you will also find most of them are in the business of selling you Jiu Jitsu training packages like a high pressure time share pitch. With Andre, there is none of that. You join the academy, you show up and you train. Occasionally, he will have some special guests fighters hosting specialty workshops. However he doesn't sell it like a buy-here, pay-here car lot salesman. Andre is in the business of turning you into a bad ass BJJ fighter. Period. Whether it's to learn some basic self defense, to fight MMA or to compete in BJJ competitions. read more

Honestly, one of the most positive experiences I have ever had anywhere. I have been wanting to take jiu-jitsu for over a year and I finally pulled the trigger and I am super happy that I picked Andre Maneco. I get really nervous and scared when I try new things with complete strangers but I was welcomed with literally opened arms here. The first week I started taking classes, Andre and Pierre were out in a competition and so Andrew taught a few of the classes. So far, I have only taken the fundamentals BJJ but Andrew explained everything really well, very welcoming and patient. The last few classes I have taken with Pierre and he is also an awesome teacher! He is thorough, patient, positive and really cares about us learning. No one knocks you down or makes you feel uncomfortable for not knowing the basics. In one class, I had a hard time with what seemed like a very easy movement; I was at a point where I was really frustrated and embarrassed but one of the instructors took me off to the side and helped me get it down. I really love the sense of community here, in addition, jiu-jitsu is a very technical and beautiful art, it has definitely been an amazing and humbling experience for me so far. read more

The place is outstanding. The instructor is very passionate about you learning the technic and operating it perfectly.