Same technique from your first night — what changes is the pace, not the material. Your first class is free, and most of the people who take it have never trained before.
Not ready to book? Call us at +1 470-230-3889.
You pick any class on the schedule, you train in it, and then you decide. There's no trial period to sign up to and nobody will pitch you at the end of it.
Prefer to talk it through first? Call +1 470-230-3889.
Our mission is to help you get as good at jiu-jitsu as you possibly can — and to enjoy the process of getting there. Both matter. We don't think one comes at the cost of the other.
Jiu-jitsu is fun. The work of improving at it should be fun too. That's the gym we wanted to train at when we were coming up. So that's the gym we built.
We believe you get better at this by training with people who know what they're doing. So we don't teach you a beginner's version of it.
There's a version of learning this where you're taught a simplified escape, a simplified grip, a simplified way of standing up — shortcuts that work well enough against other people who've just started, and stop working the moment they don't. Six months in you find out the escape you were taught was never really the escape, and you spend the next year unlearning it.
We don't teach that. On your first night you'll be shown the same technique, with the same details, that the most experienced person on the mat is being held to. The difference isn't the material. It's the pace: you go slower, you get more explanation, and someone stays with it until it clicks. Getting that pace right is our job, not yours.
There's also no separate beginners' class to be parked in. We run one room. People on their first night, people who've been here since we opened, and people who compete all train in it — because the fastest way to learn what a technique is supposed to feel like is to have it done to you correctly by someone who knows.
Owen Jones, black belt, coaches every evening class. He placed 4th at the 2024 ADCC World Championships — the world championship of no-gi grappling — is a Polaris champion, and is currently ranked in the world's top ten at 145lbs. He still competes at that level.
Elliot Ward, brown belt, coaches the 6:30am classes and is on the mat alongside Owen every evening. Same curriculum, same standard, so it doesn't matter which one you can make.
Every class is capped at twenty, and one of us is on the mat for all eight of them. That cap is the reason the standard holds: we know who's in the room tonight and what each of them is working on.
It also means we can put you with the right partner on your first night instead of whoever happens to be nearest. If you've never trained, tell us when you book. It's the single most useful thing you can say to us.
Two things decide how fast you get good at jiu-jitsu: how often you turn up, and the quality of what happens when you do. The first one is yours. The second one is ours, and it's the one most gyms leave to chance.
You learn this sport by feel — by having something done to you correctly, over and over, until your body works out what happened. That means the information you're getting back has to be right. Your grip failed because it was the wrong grip. Your escape worked because it was the right escape. You find that out the same night, from someone who can tell you which it was, instead of a season later.
Here's the part that runs against most people's instinct: skill is what makes a partner safe. Control is a learned thing — knowing how much pressure a position needs and stopping exactly there. Two people who haven't learned that yet are the riskiest pairing in any gym, which is why we don't build a room out of them. We pair deliberately, we name the danger in a position while we're teaching it rather than after, and a coach is on the mat for every single class.
Being the least experienced person in a room where people know what they're doing isn't the problem. It's the fastest place in jiu-jitsu to stand.
Eight classes a week, all No-Gi. The difference between them is what's on the board, not who's allowed in.
Tuesday & Thursday, 6:30–7:30pm · Owen and Elliot
Fundamentals is a subject, not a tier. It's the small number of positions everything else is built on — the escapes, the guard retention, the passing frame — worked in a tighter frame with more repetition. Experienced members train in it on purpose, because these are the things that decide matches at every level. If you've never trained before, this is the easiest place to land, and nobody ever graduates out of it.
Monday, Wednesday & Friday, 6:30–7:30am and 6:30–7:30pm · Elliot in the mornings, Owen and Elliot in the evenings
All Levels is the full curriculum — a technique or a position worked through in depth, then drilling, then live practice scaled to who you're with. “All levels” means what it says: a first-nighter and a competitor are taught the same thing in the same hour, and the coaching adjusts around them. You are not waiting for permission to attend this one.
Every class is capped at twenty. Mornings are 6:30–7:30am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; evenings are 6:30–7:30pm, Monday to Friday. We're closed on weekends. See the live schedule →
Before you leave the house. Shorts or leggings, and a rash guard or a close-fitting t-shirt. Nothing with zippers or pockets. Bring water. That's the whole list.
Getting here. 3365 W Hospital Ave, Suite H, Chamblee. Free parking on site. Come fifteen minutes before the class starts — not so we can process you, but so you're not walking in cold.
The first ten minutes. One of us will find you, take your shoes-off-at-the-mat-edge tour, and ask what you've done before. Then you'll be introduced to the person you're training with, chosen on purpose rather than by proximity.
The hour itself. A technique gets taught and broken down. You drill it with a partner, slowly, while a coach watches and corrects. Then live practice, scaled to who you're with — and on your first night that means controlled, unhurried, and with someone who knows how to keep it that way.
Afterwards. Hot showers if you want them. Nobody will corner you about a membership. If you want to join, you call us and we'll sort it in about five minutes.
Lite is $120 a month with a $25 joining fee. Unlimited is $165 a month with a $50 joining fee. No contract, no exit fee. Online checkout is off at the moment, so joining happens on the phone — call +1 470-230-3889 and we'll do it in about five minutes.
Lite
$120/ month
$25 one-time joining fee
Join on Lite — call us →Unlimited
$165/ month
$50 one-time joining fee
Join on Unlimited — call us →None. Choose any class on the schedule as your first class, free. Tell us what you've done before when you book — even if the answer is nothing — and the coach on that night will know before you walk in.
Almost certainly not, and the honest answer is more useful than the reassuring one. Age changes two things: how quickly you recover, and how much you can lean on speed. It doesn't change whether you can learn jiu-jitsu. If anything, the technical side of this sport rewards people who can't just muscle through a position — you're forced to learn the mechanics properly, and the mechanics are the part that still works in twenty years' time. It's one of the very few contact sports people take up in their forties and are still doing well in their sixties. Tell us your age and anything your body doesn't like when you book, and we'll pair you accordingly.
Absolutely not. In fact, jiu-jitsu is unusual in this regard — most people get tired in their first few sessions regardless of fitness level, because they're moving their body in ways they haven't before. Fit, unfit, somewhere in between: everyone arrives the same. You'll build the specific kind of fitness this sport asks for as you train. Most people find it happens faster than they expected. Fitness is something the training gives you. It isn't something you're expected to bring.
On your first night, yes. So was everyone else on that mat, including both of us, and there's no arrangement of words that makes that untrue. What matters is what happens next. Classes are capped at twenty and a coach is on the mat for every one of them, so nobody gets left in a corner to work it out alone. And being the least experienced person in a room where people know what they're doing isn't the problem — it's the fastest way to stop being that person. Nobody is keeping a table, either. Everyone in this sport is training with someone better than they are, all the way to the top of it.
It's the reason to come, not the reason to stay away. Think about what that record actually means for someone on their first night: the person showing you how to hold a position knows exactly what it looks like when it works against the best grapplers in the world, so the version you get taught on a Tuesday isn't a watered-down approximation of it. That's the whole point.
And a competition record doesn't put you on the mat with him in a live round. It puts him next to you while you're learning the movement, in a class of twenty, alongside Elliot. What you'd actually experience is more attention than you'd get almost anywhere else, not less.
The one thing that genuinely matters is that we know you're new. Tell us when you book.
If you've never trained, Tuesday or Thursday at 6:30pm — No-Gi Fundamentals — is the easiest landing. It's the small set of positions everything is built on, with more repetition. It isn't a beginners' class, though: experienced members train in it on purpose and nobody graduates out of it.
If those nights don't work, book any All Levels class instead — Monday, Wednesday or Friday, 6:30am or 6:30pm — and say it's your first time. All of them are taught to the same standard, and none of them require experience to attend.
A few different ways. We have rules every member follows — no slams, for example, and others — that exist purely to keep training safe. We pair people thoughtfully, based on size, experience, and what they're working on. And we coach with risk in mind — when there's danger in a position or submission, we explain it as we're teaching it, not after.
There's one more thing worth saying, because it's the opposite of what most people assume. Control is a learned skill: knowing how much pressure a position needs and stopping exactly there. Two people who haven't learned it yet are the riskiest pairing in any gym. That's most of the argument for being taught correctly from night one rather than being left to figure it out among other new people — sloppy technique is what hurts people, so teaching the correct mechanic on day one is a safety decision before it's a coaching one.
Jiu-jitsu, like any sport, carries a small risk of injury — but we focus on smart training and minimizing risk wherever we can. We have a duty of care to every member, and we want our students to be able to keep training. That's what all of this is for.
No. Every class we run is No-Gi — all eight of them. It's the faster, more open version of the sport, it's what our head coach competes in at the highest level, and it's what you see at the world championship of no-gi grappling. There's no gi to buy and no uniform to order.
Wear shorts or leggings with a rash guard or close-fitting athletic shirt. Choose clothing without zippers, pockets, or anything sharp, and bring water.
It's a fair question and the honest answer is that it depends on your week, not on the number. Eight classes, all No-Gi: 6:30–7:30am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and 6:30–7:30pm Monday to Friday. We're closed on weekends.
We run the schedule we can genuinely staff to the standard we've described — one of us on the mat for every class, both of us every evening, twenty people maximum. Adding classes we'd have to hand off to whoever was available would break the thing this gym is actually for. If none of those eight times work for you, call us and say so. It's the most useful feedback we get.
Self-defense is not part of our weekly class schedule. We host focused self-defense workshops in Chamblee as periodic events. Call us at +1 470-230-3889 for the next announced date.
Your first class is free. After that, memberships are month-to-month: Lite is $120 a month with a $25 joining fee, Unlimited is $165 a month with a $50 joining fee.
Online checkout is switched off at the moment, so joining happens on the phone. Call +1 470-230-3889 and we'll do it in about five minutes. There's no sales appointment and nothing to sit through.
No. Memberships are month-to-month. You can cancel any time, no exit fees, no awkward conversations.
Nothing — your membership is the price you pay for access, not a contract requiring you to attend a set number of times. Some weeks you'll come more than your plan suggests, some weeks less. It evens out.
If you're new, book your first class free and choose any class on the schedule. Existing members use the Apex Member portal to book, cancel, or join a waitlist.
Chamblee, GA 30341
Free parking on site. Mat space, hot showers, and twenty people maximum in any class.
Pick any class on the schedule. Your first one is free.
