Guys if you're coming to Moscow, Russia check out these gyms:
Lion Team
Lion is the oldest BJJ club in Moscow and has two branches, Lion Crocus (located on the border between Moscow and Moscow region) and Lion Baza (Begovaya Area)
Both clubs have suitable gi and no gi classes, run regularly by experienced instructors so its worth visiting and giving it a try.
Lion Baza runs regular morning classes, something that is seldom offered by other clubs for those of you with work committments. All the information is available on the website, but if any questions please post here!
The club was founded back in 2006 by Leonid Gatovskiy, first Russian Black Belt. Currently classes are lead by Ali Magomedov, European BJJ Champion at Purple (Now Brown Belt) and Stas Varshavskiy, a well known competitor teaching at Lion Crocus. Both are english speakers.
Ludus Team
A good club based in the center lead by Alexandre Deda Faria, a brazilian black belt who regularly runs seminars across the country. Check out their Frunzenskaya location if convenenient. They run their evening classes open for everybody and you may see some top black belts joining you in training down there.
Checkmat / Adaev Team
Setup as a Checkmat branch, the academy offers both gi and no-gi classes with a focus more on the no-gi. The head instructor is Daud Adaev who was one of the students of Leonid Gatovskiy.
Kristian Cestaro Team (Ribeiro Jiu Jitsu Moscow)
Lead by Kristian Cestaro, a brazilian black belt relocated to Russia, this is one of the leading clubs with several branches in Moscow, successfully competing in the local tournaments. The club is affiliated with the Ribeiro associated.
Ronin Family
This is one of the local clubs run by Igor Lunyakov, a young purple belt and student of Leonid Gatovskiy. The club is affiliated with Roy Dean academy is despite being one of the younger clubs in Moscow is now active on the local competition scene.
You can find all the information about them on their website roninfamily.ru
Ronin I think has a lot more newer belt competitors but will sure show better results in the coming years.
Despite what people say, Strela Team is perhaps the most successful and big team on the local Moscow competition scene here. A lot of the top guys from Lion moved there 4-5 years ago while others left Strela due to their focus on team loyalty / politics which has pushed also a lot of people away out of the club. You can see this from their interview approach for visitors or new members.
Dmitriy Selivakhin is the head instructor down there and no doubt they will remain one of the most important clubs on the local bjj scene for years to come.
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Drop by a post if you have any questions or comments. I have mentioned a few major clubs with some other notable such as Zaleev Team (focused on No-Gi Grappling), Creonche and a few smaller clubs (without websites) out of the picture and probably no the best choice for visitors coming over.
I also wrote this post many years ago in 2009! if you are interested how the scene has changed
For those looking to do some training in Moscow, I decided to write a little about this. When I first thought to do some Judo training, I was very surprised by how difficult it is to find a decent club where you can train at a time convenient for you.
Of course, as anyone else, I started googling for likely suspects on the Internet. What I was surprised to see that actually there are under-5 decent judo club websites devoted to Judo in the whole of Moscow and near Moscow region. None of these are in the centre of Moscow, and the majority require you to take a bus once the underground stops being available for the rest of the journey. The reason for this is that many of the dense populated areas are outside the city centre and given the extremely high property and rent prices, this is where they locate.
I would add that not only do their websites dont work, but it typically is just a phone number which when you call:
90% of the time: no answer!
5% of the time: the person that you start talking to doesnt know anything about the club, times etc
and finally! 5% of the time: you actually are lucky enough to speak to somebody, but more often that not you find out that what was written on the Internet has changed, there is no training etc etc
It is better to call though, because if you do turn up and dont call, you run a danger that nobody will be there and no one will know anything about this.
The other thing I thought really deserves a mention are facilities. When I lived in the UK and trained there for judo, the one thing I never thought was worth complaining about are the facilities. Normally clubs use fitness clubs which allow people to practice judo without purchasing a fitness club membership which normally is considerably more expensive.
In Moscow however, this is different. Having reviewed all possible websites, there are no serious clubs that use fitness centre facilities. By "serious" I mean that many of the fitness centre courses have 1-hour long sessions, once or twice a week which is not nearly enough to learn anything really about jiu jitsu or judo.
Instead, most clubs use state owned facilities whether these belong to a school, police, sport stadium etc. The fact is though that unless these facilities have been redone with private money, they tend to be dreadful, with no showers, changing rooms etc.
Now the places I normally go to but that of course does not mean that there arent other great places to visit.
For Judo:
1. Moscow Kodokan 7:00-8:30pm Mondays and Fridays. The address is Chistoprudniy Bulvar 14.
Good facilities and very nice teacher. Lessons are focused much more on sparring rather then on technique. There is also far more newaza (groundwork) than is normally, with 3-4 randori fights as part of the session.
Again, they dont have a website, but it is a good school and there are plenty of other martial arts classes in the same building including Aikido, Karate, Wushu, Sambo etc as well as Yoga. The owner is an ex-world champion judoka Sergei Kosorotov, a very well known figure.
The Sambo that is practiced here is combat Sambo. Most of the students are beginners but the teacher is very good. Sometimes we judokas spar against sambokas for practice.
Here is a link to their latest websites - Moscow Budokan is another option here taught by Kosorotov himself, not sure if I am a fan of his teaching methods though, a bit controversial:
2. Shabolovka. Mitnaya street 42/44. (tel. 236-03-66 )
This is a state facility where facilities are not to a high standard at all (I mean if you don't mind water from melting snow dripping from the roof on to your head while you train, then go here).
Nevertheless, this is a very spacious place to train and the teaching is very good, highly technique-focused. Training is monday, wednesday and Friday in the evening starting at 8:30 pm. Also morning lessons are available 8:00 am to 9:30 am on Mondays and Fridays.
This one is included in the Russian Judo Federation website list at www. judo.ru
Many of the data there is clearly out of date however. The other website to check is www.judo-moscow.ru but the situation with their list is just the same.
I used visit these guys on Tuesdays and Thursdays and was very satisfied here until the instructor had to leave and the group was moved to the present schedule.
It seems like this place is more for higher level guys and girls who are still in their teens and train during the day. It really does feel like noone owns this facility when you get there. In the video you can get a sense of what the club is like.
3. Dmitriy Nosov School. (940-72-89)
A number of locations available and I have heard some good things about this club. Please take a look at the website for more information here
The Nosov club offers several classes in three different locations and I understand Dmitriy himself actually sometimes teaches the celebrity class near Tverskaya.
They are also doing quite a lot to motivate their guys organizing interclub competitions and also awarding grades unlike all the other schools that don't do this for casual adult fans.
As you can see from the video, the club is growing quickly and they are organizing gradings and competitions which is a lot more than many others are doing at this point.
4. Several Others - here are a few links to some other places where you can practice Judo
http://judoforall.ru/bronnaya-sloboda.html - four clubs including Shabolovka with time table, instructor details and address. I am going to visit Bronnaya Sloboda club soon, to find out more.
http://oneginclub.ru/docs/242/ - this is my fitness club but I am pretty sure there are maybe only 2-3 fitness clubs in Moscow that offer Judo so if you are looking to casually try the sport out and also be a member of a fitness club, this could be the place to go. Situated in the centre of Moscow, it is also much more convenient compared to may other choices. Not great club for serious Judo/BJJ player as the classes are mainly for beginners.
Brazilian Jiu Jisu
Now, I have much to say about BJJ in Russia but I will leave this for my next blog. What I will do is just give contact details of the only 2 clubs I know in Moscow:
1. Lion Sport Club: http://sportclublion.ru. Krilatskoye Metro Station
This is the only Gracie Barra official school in Russia with a brown belt teacher, Leonid Gatovskiy (highest ranked in Russia). Very good facilities - changing room, showers and weights room included.
Good teaching and quite a bit of emphasis on no-gi training, MMA and standup than is usually the case.
Muay Thai boxing classes are also available at the gym as well as mixed martial arts.
If you want a really solid BJJ and grappling teacher, I would say this is the club to go to. It is certainly the largest BJJ-focused club in Russia regularly organizing open grappling tournaments that gathered in the past more than 100 competitors from all over Moscow and beyond.
Leonid Gatovskiy himself is an outstanding grappler and BJJ player and has competed in many tournaments in Russia and abroad taking gold in each one. He is also a black belt in traditional jiu jitsu.
Daud Adaev is a purple belt there and is a supporting instructor.
The club also annually travels to Poland for a jiu jitsu training camp under the Gracie Barra Draculino banner.
I think if you live in the area, this is a good place for BJJ and Judo for kids. Currently the club offers both Judo for kids and Jiu jitsu/Combat Sambo for teens. The instructors are very professional so anyone considering which club to join should certainly consider Lion.
The cost is a bit higher then most other clubs but the facilities and the teaching quality is worth it.
Also would like to mention that for the first time this year, Leonid Gatovskiy has promoted himself four of his students to blue belt. It is always great to see promotions of these four guys who have really earned their new grades. Well Done Guys!
2. Capoeira Club at metro Baumanskaya. (Axe Capoeira) Please visit: www.axecapoeira.ru
The club is located on police premises.
Very poor facilities and the teaching is a bit of mix between bjj, sambo and judo. For a beginner however still a good start since all the techniques are relevant. For me this one was very convenient, so also worth it.
The teacher is a blue belt in BJJ, but a lot of the teaching is done by experienced Sambo practitioners. I have found these lessons were extremely useful as I had a chance to revise some of the common leglocks that can be useful.
3. Capoeira Camara Moscow - this club I have not been to but the teacher is the Sambo guy from Axe Capoeira. Here is the link
These guys also appear to be located at Baumanskaya offering 4 lessons a week in the evenings. For those who live in the area I guess another option for BJJ.
I think its great that this blog exists and this is one of the most visited web pages by foreigners who come to Moscow and are looking for a club to train. So many major cities in the world it is hard to find an english website that gives this, so for Moscow, I decided to make this myself and welcome people to train. Russian Judo Federation sucks, so I guess we have to do their work for them.
A great group of guys have setup mmablog.ru so I attach the link to their club list as well as I think it maybe helpful http://mmablog.ru/content/zaly
PS: thank you very much and please let me know if any of the information here is not accurate and of course if you have anything to add, feel free
Now I have visited a few schools here and there in both Judo and BJJ. For me I think it is exciting training in different schools at the same time. You get to see how different people are doing, how they are doing in terms of their training regimen and find out news about what is happening in the club.
Currently I visit 3 clubs regularly. My base club at the moment is a BJJ academy, where I try to train 4 times a week (monday, wednesday, friday and saturday), although saturday is just sparring really which is also good in a way since you get to really relax and just practice the moves you have learnt during that week. The other club I visit normally once a week is a judo club (either Tuesday or Thursday) where I practice throws from standing. It is for beginners and they focus very thoroughly on a single throw which is then used as a base around which several exercises are performed. I value standing technique a lot even though I feel my progression in this area is far slower then ground fighting.
The other club that I sometimes visit at the expense of bjj is a traditional Kodokan-style (rather than sport) judo club where there is a lot of sparring. I used to train there regularly and the teacher is nice to work with. The reason why I kind of left is that we do not practice enough technique and a lot of the techniques which we do practice are the same, so it does not feel like I am growing in terms of my abilities and knowledge. This club only has 2 training sessions a week, so many of the members there are very casual and therefore it only makes sense for me to carry on practicing there in combination with some training elsewhere.
It seems like a lot but of course with work and sometimes injuries I miss training sessions!!
Training sessions themselves also differ quite widely and in particular the warmups. Some are really focused on spending a tremendous amounts on warming up. Running around the map and performing, sometimes a little strange exercises such as for example moving on knees across the mat which feels like something out of Aikido with little application in real sport-like grappling. (Well at least I have never seen anybody move on his knees in a judo or bjj match) On the other hand for general coordination I accept that it adds certain benefit. I just feel that long warmups are often done at the expense of practicing techniques. I think formal warmups with the teacher should be a short affair while students should warmup when they arrive to the dojo/academy prior to the start of the class.
Anyway these are some of my thoughts on the subject. Certainly interested in much opinion on the subject.
