NYC Gym Series 03: Unity Jiu Jitsu

Facility / Location: On a bone-chilling December night, circa 2017, I decided to check out Unity Jiu Jitsu (formerly on 37th and Madison). Having arrived early, the door was firmly shut. I'm told they were just finishing up an impromptu pro-training.  As I waited in my parka and jeans on the staircase of some questionable midtown structure, I could feel the steam seeping through the cracks of the door. Ten or so minutes go by and I'm now half-sweating. 

Finally, the door swings open ... it's time.  Like a true Manhattan studio, it's incredulously tiny. The white mats take up 95% of the space, with the remaining being a small reception-desk and a closet equipped with a shower. That's it. 

Nearly twenty or so people showed up on a Christmas holiday ready to take a two hour class. We start with guard-retention drills and move on to some spider-attacks. After we finish the drilling portion, having already felt like someone's soggy diner napkin, I become giddy as the timer sets for 10 six-minute rounds. 

Simply put, rolling inside Unity Jiu Jitsu is like being inside an industrial dish-washer: getting wrung out from the physical intensity and level of Jiu Jitsu, moistened up by the sweat that sticks to your skin, and finally dried up from the heat that mounts and mounts like your grandma's pressure-cooker. "Porrraaaddaaaa!!!!" one of the Brazilian upper-belt shrieks.

As the class ended, with our backs against the wall-mat, I chatted with a blue belt who spoke so highly of Murillo Santana.  He urged me to come back to take a class with him. Santana wasn't there today. "Yeah maybe soon..." I told him.

Disoriented, I walked out of the gym and was now sauntering through Korea-Town. I had only been around Jiu Jitsu for six-months and was experiencing my first BJJ culture shock.

Location v2

The new Unity, on 14th st. and 6th ave, seems to solve all of old the Unity's problems. The reception is huge, with bean bags and benches to relax. The locker-room is a comfortable size with two showers.  The mat-space rivals Marcelo's and fits forty to fifty adequately. They've just opened a few months ago, so the facility remains unfinished.

Instruction: Peter Drucker once said, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast," and well in this case, you're breakfast and Unity is culture. Murillo commands his class like a drill sergeant, with his Navy Seals such as Bones, Leary-Jones, Miyao brothers, Silva, Ocasio, and others by his side, both ready to perform and help the trainees. Today Murillo is teaching some advanced entries and sweeps into and from the 50.50 guard. It's a review. But even as a self-proclaimed Jiu Jitsu nerd, I'm having a hard time keeping up with body-mechanics and technique. It's superb and precise. And with an distinguishable deep voice that makes mine seem like a pre-pubescent twelve year-old, Santana says, "If you weren't here, just do the first one; or if you're a white belt, try to just work on the concepts, do your best." We drill over and over again, which is not a bad problem to have. One thing that sears into the experience however is Murillo's attention to detail. It's bar none. He's like a hawk watching every single step you do, even twenty feet across the room. Suddenly, you'll hear your name, conflated with, "hand there!" 

Cost: They are shy about pricing, so out of respect, I won't say too much. However they are flexible with you. Expect $220, but typically more, depending on how your commitments are worked out.

Schedule: Pro-training. Late night. Early morning. Open mats. Long class times, which  translates into not having to do plyo-metrics every hour. And there does seem to be an emphasis on the Gi .. sorry no gi guys. (I can't comment on that portion, since I didn't take it anyways.)

Misc:  Perhaps the one down-side with the facility is the lighting, it feels lit in some areas and others not, creating this oddly unsatisfying aesthetic. Their usage of white mats appears like a feeble attempt to be modern academy, but the grittiness of the basement seems to smack that idea right in its face. Nit-picking, I know, but it does bother me. 

On the plus (or minus), the gym seems to cater to the smaller player.

Till the end of my existence, I will be star-struck by the Miyao Brothers. I'm sure others in the gym are as well.  And though the Brothers are indeed highly, highly respected and equally reserved, they feel like students more than they do super-stars.  

Conclusion: 

What I'm trying to illustrate in this entire post is probably better summed up by Dom Bell, "When training with your team for competition, you need to be people at the same time. On one hand, you're a friend.... On the other hand, you need to be the toughest, most gueling opponent your teamate has ever faced. You show no mercy, no kidness, or pity. You try as hard as you can to make them feel as utterly uncomfortable as possible, pushing them to their breaking point and you expect the same in return... And after the dust settles, you stretch out your hand, help each other up and thank them for taking you a limit that you can't reach alone." 

Unquestionably bushido; incredibly academic; exceedingly competitive. Unity is a special collegial hell-hole made for those who strive to better. "Hard work by good people" is their mantra, and remember as Drucker says, CULTURE EATS.