Around the World but there's no Place like Home
Our home schools are in many ways exactly that, home. Our team becomes a part of our extended family, as well as a big part of our lives. Our team is there for us to celebrate our promotions and cheer us on at tournaments. They are also many times there for us to help us through the challenges of life. It's a strange thing really, a group of people that meet up and try to strangle each other or break limbs and ligaments. The struggle that we go through together and the trust that we place in our teammates forms a special bond that I have only seen in families and in military units.
Over the past 8 years of training I have visited 24 different schools across the country. Every single one of them has a had a unique style, culture, and team composition that makes them special. At every school that I have visited, I have tried my best to study the various aspects of them with the hopes of becoming a better competitor, student, teammate, and maybe one day instructor. That time has also highlighted many of the things that has makes Cornerstone BJJ such a phenomenal school. Capturing the qualities of Cornerstone is a big undertaking because there are so many, but I will try my best in this post to capture the highlights that I believe make this school so special.
It is a military town school
While all of the students are not in the military, there is a large percentage of them that are either currently serving or have served. This has a unique impact on a school. The first is that the military instills many qualities into a person that makes them a good student. They have a higher level of fitness than the average individual. They are accustomed to hard work and have developed grit, which is an essential element required for success. Jiu-Jitsu is a tough sport that requires a certain level of toughness. Most students will undoubtedly encounter plateaus and low points in training. It takes perseverance to keep showing up to class and training to overcome these times, something that the military tries to instill into it's member.
The second thing about being in a military town that is really beneficial, is that military members are constantly relocating. The military pulls people from all over the world is various backgrounds, and with regards to Jiu-Jitsu, brings in people with a wide variety of skill levels, experience and styles. Maybe a purple belt is visiting from Colorado for a few weeks and trains at the school during that time, or a black belt from Brazil is stationed at FT. Bragg for several years, or a blue belt from Hawaii relocates with their family to the area and joins the school. For me, this has allowed me to be exposed to different grappling styles and techniques from all around the world, without having to travel anywhere.Class Availability
Mat time is unarguably a necessary component for a improvement. The humorous, and at times, frustrating answer that many instructors give their students when asked how to get better at Jiu-Jitsu is to train more. While not the only component, the more time that a student can be at class, typically the better that they will be. Cornerstone BJJ offers one of the most robust schedules that I have seen, with adult practitioners being able to get up to 6 hours in on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and 3 hours on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
There is also a really good variety of classes that are offered as well. Everybody knows that it goes down on Tuesdays, and if you love rolling, that is the day to be there. Wednesday offers no gi classes, and Thursday focuses on throws and take-downs. There is a good variety of fundamentals, advanced, competition, self defense or even just open mat times that are available for students to select from. This allows people to make a schedule that best fits them, or get everything in if they want to.
Quality Instruction
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| Coach and Professor Steve Hall |
Professor Charlie or just Coach as he is known by his student, isn't just a good instructor, but he cares a lot about all of his students. There are many stories that I could share about this one, but the one that sticks out is that when I was in a car accident, I called him after calling the police, and he was the first one there. I know myself and many other students have been recipients of actions like this that really speak volumes about the type of person that he is.
Atmosphere and Culture
Cornerstone has a very welcoming, family orientated culture to it. Many of the students train together as a family, and those that don't feel like it. Cornerstone is also very welcoming to traveling, or just visiting students. It is a Globetrotter school, and has hosted an unknown number of traveling students. We all like to train hard and particularly roll a lot (My personal favorite part of Jiu-Jitsu), but we also like to have a lot of fun during class time. It is uncommon not to hear laughter coming from some corner of the mat during training.
Summary
Our home gym is special to all of us that train, and I am no exception to that. As I visit new schools while traveling for work and for fun, I hope to pass along and demonstrate the things that I believe make my own home school so special to me. My team at Cornerstone has been instrumental in my progress and competitive successes.
If you are ever in the FT. Bragg/Fayetteville NC area, I would invite you to drop into the school so that you get some great training in and enjoy some of the things that make the school so unique.
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