I spent last weekend training at Ross’ school. I signed up for his "instructor's intensive seminar" which is designed to introduce people to his basic curriculum and help them develop and expand their own programs.
I don’t want to give too many of his secrets away, but the curriculum was something like this:
- 5 hours of Jiu-Jitsu training with BJJ black belt Carmine Zocchi.
- 5 hours of kickboxing with Ross, Ian Morgan, and Tim O’Conner
- 3 hours of conditioning training with Tim O’Conner
- 2 hours of neck and body clinching with Ross.
And when I say 5 hours of BJJ or kickboxing, it wasn’t like we just did a few jabs and then discussed theory for 2 hours…we were working, and working hard, the whole time. Hell, the seminar started off with a 12-minute interval warm-up.
The instructor would spend a couple of minutes demonstrating and then start the timer so we could work the technique. After the round, the instructor would add to the previous technique and then start the timer….repeat for 3 hours…Everything was structured to build on the previous technique to help reinforce what we learned.
There were six of us taking the seminar, and Ross had two or three of his fighters there most of the time, which meant we got A LOT of personal attention. They answered all of our questions and helped correct our technique and bad habits as we went.
I was wiped out after the first night, but then the next morning we jumped right into Tim O’Conner’s conditioning routine. He ran us through a “light” bodyweight routine (light for him, that is), then showed us how to use kettlebells and sandbags, then made us finish with an 8-round interval on the heavy bags where we used kettlebells during the intervals. That killed me, and we were only ½ way through the whole seminar.
I know I suck and my conditioning wasn’t anywhere near Ross’ guys, but there were other guys there who also had their own programs and were in good shape and they were hurting just as bad, so you can’t just put the onus on me.
This was an awesome experience and I learned a tremendous amount about fighting, proper conditioning, and how to run a program. Ross not only provides you with a workbook covering the curriculum from the weekend, but he also gives you a lot of information about how to structure and develop your own program based on his experiences in the business.
Ross and his students were friendly and very helpful, but there is no doubt in my mind how SKILLED, CONDITIONED, and WELL-TRAINED his guys are. Ian and Tim were awesome, and Carmine Zocchi had us laughing the whole time he was choking us out. I got a lot of help from Frank, Dave, and one Ross' female fighters as well (forgot her name, but she was tough and wrestled me to a draw).
The class was $300, which sounds like a lot. But private BJJ lessons are $100/hour around here, and we basically got 15 hours of private lessons because of all the personal attention his crew provided. That breaks down to about $20/hour if you think about it, which is cheap by any standards.
ANYONE who wants to develop their fighting would benefit from this class, but if you have your own program or are trying to get one off the ground and haven’t trained in a pro gym your whole life, I think this seminar would be invaluable to you.
The only disadvantages to this weekend were
- Ross knows how much I suck and
- I was the only white boy riding the D train after the Dominican parade and almost didn’t live to tell you guys about the class.
Thanks to Ross, Carmine, Tim, Ian, and everyone else that helped make the seminar a great experience.
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Originally Posted by taai gihk yahn
