Takeaways from Alliance Eastlake Jiu-Jitsu Foundation
I wrote a short piece on why I like to travel to new schools HERE that serves as a bit of a backstory to this article. One of those places that I have visited, and have been training at regularly the past several weeks, is Alliance Eastlake in Chula Vista, California. I have walked away from every class there thoroughly impressed with the place because of the quality of the instruction and the quality of the students . I have learned a lot in my short time training there and have gotten a bunch of takeaways from them. One of the things that has really stood out, and that I thought was worthwhile writing about is the Gallagos Association and their affiliation, or team training. You can check out a more detailed background about the school and affiliation HERE.
I'm not sure on the exact number, but there are about 10 or so different schools in the San Diego area that are a part of the Gallagos Association. Members of the association are freely welcomed and encouraged to train at other schools within the association that are different from their home school. This itself is a great way to visit other schools and be exposed to a different style of instruction, as well as get a fresh look at their game with new training partners. The thing that really stood out to me though is the team training. About once or week or so, all of the affiliate schools are invited to meet up and train at a different academy. I have gotten to go to two of these meetups, one at Eastlake and the other at Apex Jiu Jitsu. This creates a type of hybrid seminar that is awesome and an experience that is difficult to capture in words but is simply unique. The mats are packed, the training is tough, and their is a plethora of new students to challenge yourself against.
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| The team meetup at Apex Jiu Jitsu |
Another thing that has really impressed me about the affiliation is that even though I am a visiting student, I get treated like family. When the instructor found out that I was competing in upcoming tournaments, he threw me in with the other competitors for competition focused training. It is common to be welcomed into a school for training, but this is the next level of hospitality that continues to amaze me.
These team meetups are a great opportunity for students to get to be a part of. They strengthen the comradery within the team through frequent meetups. It exposes students to new techniques and concepts. It brings a lot of upper belts into one place and lets them challenge themselves against each other, something that promotes growth and gives an honest assessment of your progress. Maybe most importantly, it is a ton of fun! Anytime you can combine all of those elements into a training session it is a great time that results in new friendships and great stories.
This is just one of the many things that I have learned here, but has been one of my biggest takeaways so far. I hope that when I return from my traveling this is something that I can encourage and help to promote at my home school.
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