SMA 2019 Schedule Update | Lion Squad, Morning Classes, Kids No Gi, and More!

Dear parents and students,

We are happy to announce our newest additions to our academy's class schedule! These changes will go into effect on March 4th. Here is a full rundown of these changes:

Lion Squad:

Sparks and Bolts have joined forces to create Lion Squad! This new class is for 4-6 year olds and will take place on Mondays and Wednesdays at 5:00. Four and five year olds will still train once a week and six year olds will be able to attend both class sections. Letters are going out to all current Sparks and Bolts informing them of these changes. Some students will be in the same class and time, some will be moving up to this new 5:00 time slot, and other students will be graduating into our youth program (7yo+ or coaches discretion).

The purpose of this change is to create a single more sensible age bracket. Additionally, this new class will allow the coaches to better regulate class sizes and implement a class cap when necessary.

BJJ Fundamentals and Morning Program:

Our BJJ beginners program has now been renamed to BJJ Fundamentals. It will still be the same quality program with instruction from Professor Nate but it will now be 30 minutes longer! This will allow for more time in class for drilling and rolling.

Additionally, a new morning program has been added to our schedule! We will now run another section of BJJ Fundamentals on Monday and Wednesday mornings at 9am! This will be another opportunity for students to come in and train or a chance for brand new students to jump into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu!

Kids Comp Class, Kids No Gi, and Elite BJJ:

Our kids comp class will now be 1.5 hours long and include nogi! Comp class will now start at 4:30. Students will train in the gi until 5:15 when our nogi class starts, at which point they will change into their nogi attire.

This nogi class is a brand new program at SMA! It is replacing the Elite BJJ class which took place on Saturdays at 10:15. This means all students who used to come in on Saturdays no longer have to and will be able to come in on Fridays at 5:15. This class will still be for particularly driven students and include more advanced details and techniques.

The purpose of these changes is to increase the presence of nogi in our academy. We have never had a dedicated nogi program for kids and we are excited to get one started! In case you're unsure, nogi simply means students do not wear the gi. This speeds up the game tremendously as wrestling becomes a much more important skill set. Nogi is an important addition for all students, especially competitors! This new program will enable us to run nogi divisions at our in-school tournaments!

Athletes will wear grappling shorts and rashguards (long sleeve or short sleeve) and grappling tights (spats) if desired. Students will be required to have these items if they wish to train in nogi. T-shirts and non-grappling shorts will not be allowed. We will be running a package sale on our academy rashguards and shorts. As with the gi, students on our competition team will be required to have some form of SMA branding on their nogi attire if they wish to compete in out of school tournaments.

S.T.O.R.M. Team:

STORM Team will now meet once a month for one hour on Saturdays at 12pm. This meeting will take place on the first Saturday of the month. The first meeting will be on Saturday the 9th.

The purpose of this change is to create an easier schedule for our STORM team members. Instead of having to remember which Friday meetings occur on, they can simply remember the first of the month. Additionally, this longer time slot will allow the coaches to provide more detailed STORM team instruction and help keep our STORM Team members improving and becoming an asset to the academy!

Weekend Classes Miscellaneous Changes:

Our Friday Ladies BJJ class with Coach Crystal has now been moved to 6:00. Our Friday Adult No Gi class with Professor Nate will be right afterwards at 7:00. Our BJJ Fundamentals class on Saturday has now been moved to 10am and follows yoga. This will give students a chance to train and warm up with Kathryn before their class! Our Adult competition class has now been moved to 11am.

TL;DR

-Lion Squad combines Sparks and Bolts at 5pm on Mondays and Wednesdays

-BJJ Fundamentals is now 1.5 hours long and there is a new morning section

-Kids comp class is now 1.5 hours long and includes our new nogi class which replaces the Elite BJJ class on Saturdays

-STORM Team meetings are now 1 hour on the first Saturday of the month

-Ladies BJJ now starts at 6pm on Fridays

-Adult Nogi now starts at 7pm on Fridays

-Saturday Morning BJJ now starts at 10am

-Adult Competition Class now starts at 11am

We hope you are just as excited about these changes as we are! As always, please let us know if you have any questions. Again, this schedule will on Monday, March 4th!

Thank you for your support as our academy continues to grow!

Ray and Seth Miller