Gym Name: Tenerife Submission Grappling

Location: Adeje – Tenerife, Spain

Head Coach: Cam & Diego Petkoff

Class Types: No Gi, Wrestling

Mat Fee: 10eu

Review:

Following on from the successful landing and meeting up and training with Judith, she invited me to come to train at a more local (to her) gym up in Adeje town. As is often the case with women in BJJ, we tend to flock together especially when it comes to classes – if we know a few of us will be attending a class, more of us will try to get to that class specifically! 

So, another lady from the SurFight class – Asta, came to the class up in Adeje town. As the name suggests there is no Gi classes…wait, no it’s NoGi. That’s the same thing. The class was taught in English though of course finer details for individual students were done either in English or Spanish as the brothers are fluent in both. I enjoyed that it was a progressive format from standing to a submission or two – and a few counters. The pace of. the class meant there was plenty of time to get reps in as we stacked each movement on top of another so by the time we went into drill specifics rounds the flow was certainly easier to pick up and maintain. 

That said I still fell back into bad habits as and when bigger blue belt guys hadn’t figured out how to roll with like 40-50% intensity and I just defaulted back to full defensive Turtle/Panda guard. I got the opportunity to roll with Cam and it’s always fun to experience someone’s explicit style of Jiu-Jitsu. Whilst I’m still new to Catch Wrestling, I’m aware enough to understand the moves and the intensity it has. 

The venue itself is Radical Fitness and Self-Defense, so the whole space is equipped for a few different martial arts and fitness and conditioning classes. 

The changing spaces at the back have a dedicated female changing space and unisex showers and toilets with adequate space. The ladies’ changing room is closed off and has benches and would probably fit 5 women comfortably. 

After the class, I went and sat in a coffee shop around the corner from the gym that did great little post-workout pots of fruit or you could get a smoothie. The aesthetics were IG-worthy kitsch and it was right next to the bus stop…which I was facing looking at the busses regularly showing up. Until I needed to get one at around 1.30 pm. Dear reader, this is the worst time to get a bus as everyone’s clocked off for an afternoon siesta and schools are done so timings are off and buses are full to the rafters. I had to wait a good 90 minutes until a bus showed up with space in the right direction. 

So…bear that in mind.

Gym Score: 6.5/10