Absolutely not. The vast majority of the new students that enroll in our Brazilian Jiu Jitsu program have zero experience. All new students will begin their BJJ journey in our Foundations program, learning the most fundamental (and most important) aspects of the sport. In addition to learning the basic elements of jiu jitsu with other beginners, Foundations classes are taught at a moderate pace so that you can gradually improve your conditioning as you go. If you feel like you’re out-of-shape and are intimidated about the thought of exercising in front of others, don’t you worry; we’ve got you covered and aren’t trying to make you get sick during class.

Oh yes. Make no mistake, we are a legit martial arts gym and we produce legit martial artists. SBG Buford has a rich history of competing in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and you’ll have ample opportunities to do so if that interests you. Every year there are at least half-a-dozen BJJ events and tournaments in the metro-Atlanta area that our tribe participates in. Not only will we help you prepare for your competition, but we’ll walk you through the entire process of how to register, make weight, etc.

Every member of Straight Blast Gym is on an active membership agreement, but the length of your agreement is entirely up to you. We offer membership agreements that range from multiple-years, to month-to-month. As long as you’re excited about training with us and ready to make some awesome changes in your life, we can craft your membership agreement to suit your individual needs.

That would be a big NO. Roughly 5% of our BJJ students actively compete in martial arts competitions. You are much more likely to find a 35 year old father of three, who wants to lose 20 pounds and have fun while learning jiu jitsu, than you are an 18 year old who wants to be the next Ultimate Fighter. At SBG, you will never be expected or pressured to compete in martial arts.

If we had a nickel for every time we’ve heard this 😔. We get it; big box gyms make their money by signing you up to a long-term agreement and hoping that you never come back. It’s sad, and it makes people very skeptical of joining a new gym. Well, allow us to make this very clear….that is the exact opposite of how we operate our business!

Entering our Foundations program, the longest agreement you’ll even be allowed to start on is 6 months. This is done for your protection and peach of mind. SBG is more than just a gym, we’re a TEAM. Because of this, we ask that new students coming into our Brazilian Jiu Jitsu program can give us at least 6 months, but we also realize that this is a new sport and a new environment for you, so we’re not going to ask you to make some ridiculous 2 year commitment before you’ve even stepped on the mats.

Of course. Like any sport or physical activity there’s always a chance to get banged up or injured. At SBG, we have a saying that perfectly sums up our training methodology; Upgrade the software without damaging the hardware. In other words, training hard is great, but training rough is just stupid. We pride ourselves on having an extremely low injury rate. In fact, the majority of our students that miss time because of an injury get hurt playing sports OUTSIDE of the gym! Basketball, skateboarding, jumping into the pool after enjoying a few cocktails….that’s where most of our students get banged up. We take every precaution to make sure our students leave class feeling AWESOME, not hurt.

You want to know the biggest determinant in staying healthy and preventing injuries? That would be YOU. If you come into class with the mindset of training smooth and getting better, and not just winning every minute of every practice, you’ll do just fine.

The majority of our Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes, and all of our Foundations classes, are conducted in the gi (the two-piece uniform you typically see BJJ athletes wearing). Other classes will be conducted as “no-gi”, where you’ll want to wear a rash guard (very tight shirt) and a pair of board shorts that doesn’t have pockets. BJJ and BJJ: No Gi classes will be clearly marked so that you’ll know what attire to wear to class.