We have had a summer full of packed mats and fantastic classes. We have welcomed many new members, some of whom were already friends before they became training partners. If you have friends who you think might like to try jiu jitsu, our Summer Referral Program is still LIVE! 

We kicked off summer with our new Mondays at Rita’s opportunity, where all Zombies get 10% off at the Rita’s next door on Mondays!! Keep taking advantage of this refreshing deal as long as Rita’s is open for the season! 

In May we started deep cleaning the mats! This will happen bi-monthly, so get excited! This will help to maintain cleanliness, but will also help to keep our mats in the best condition possible. 

In mid-May, we had an exciting guest - Paul Nava taught a seminar for us at Zombie. Paul is head instructor at his school in Phoenix, AZ, and has been friends with one of our black belts, Eric Thomas, since 2015. Eric was promoted to purple belt in 2017 by Paul, although they were no longer consistently training at the same school.

During the seminar, in addition to learning some great moves, including choke details with a set up from a closed guard sweep, Paul’s Q and A yielded some very helpful advice related to his experiences and maintaining longevity in the sport. Paul began BJJ in his 30’s, has over 20 years of training, and has attained 10 world champion titles in the master’s division. One key piece of wisdom that he imparted that resonated with many attendees was to choose your training partners wisely.

We do have many people training at Zombie who are over 30, and I know we all hope to train for many more years. Paul voiced that you should not be afraid to say “no” to someone who asks to roll if they are not a person who is willing to or is able to respect the needs and limitations of your age, size, gender, etc. One of our core values here at Zombie is  respect, and we pride ourselves on being a gym with considerate training partners, whose style of interaction and training reflect respect for our gym and the individual journey of all its members.