Pedro Sauer BJJ Academy – One Spirit Martial Arts
First Glance – I visited Pedro Sauer BJJ Academy because he’s a BJJ legend (a coral belt) and he lives in my back yard….not chained to a tree but in my community. His school is in an office park in Herndon, VA, which is good because this school is all about business. It didn’t take much to realize that Pedro Sauer was not a “mom and pop” group and there was something much bigger happening there than just some guys walking around in gi’s as his facility is part of his worldwide association. He’s got schools all over the world and this school location also houses his headquarters.
There’s a small reception area at the front door and on the other side of that is a massive matted training area. The facility was still preparing for their grand opening so there was still work being done to finish redesigning the entire space to a full-service, family-friendly BJJ/martial arts facility.
There are separate changing rooms and large restrooms for both men and women but the locker-rooms were still being installed. So there was no area to lock your personal belongings. The Zebra brand mats are smooth-textured and extremely well padded. There is a ground level boxing area with a ring corner on one side of the room and a MMA cage wall on the other side of the room.
Water – There’s a water fountain and soft-drink vending machine right by the mat entrance.
Restrooms – The restrooms are large and very clean. The restrooms are separated by gender. There were showers being installed when I was there.
Lineage – Master Sauer is a former student of Helio & Rickson Gracie and received his black belt from them in 1985…yeah, he’s been in the game for a minute.
Class Structure – Class started on-time with some light BJJ warm-ups and stretches and then we went right into the the class’ instruction. Those coming in late were not ostracized. We used the majority of class time to work on the technique and drill it with our partners. There was time between classes to spar and open mats times.
There are classes at noon thrice a week and a host of classes in the evening. I even hear they will be offering early morning classes as soon as the showers are completed. Each class was well structured and to the point, not a lot of playing around but still fun and it made sense since evening classes were stacked and another class would be moving onto the mats soon as one finished. There were classes ranging in intensity to just learning the basics to advanced BJJ and a number of other martial arts.
Professors/Coaches – The evening classes we conducted mainly by Master Sauer. He’s an awesome instructor, technician and a super nice guy. He’s has been teaching BJJ forever and really knows how to delivery his material. He takes the time to explain the situation and uniqueness of the taught skill so you really understand when and how to use the technique. Its one thing to teach a submission technique attempted from side control but its another to teach the nuances that could totally change one’s approach to the fight based on the type of side control or size of the person. Master Sauer is a small guy (only in physical presence) and would demonstrate on different size people to illustrate the technique being taught.
The noon classes are taught by Professor David Porter. Talk about a technician…that’s David. He actually started class with stories and BJJ philosophy before getting down to business. I loved his approach because I always like to know, “why?” I’m good with following instructions and drilling but I really appreciated the philosophical approach and mind set that David provided in each class.
David is an fantastic instructor. I saw vigorously spar with a guy twice his size and then spar with a tiny teenage girl. He was able to use the same intensity but with a different approach that left both students smiling and challenged but not broken physically or in spirit.
Music – Music is movement and I can listen to anything but the music played at the noon classes were on point. The first day there was lounge music that was heavy on Thievery Corporation and Zero 7, but one day I heard The Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye, James Brown and Parliament/Funkadelics played and I found myself reminiscing about old episodes of “Soul Train.” Awesome music!! The evening classes had little music going because there were other classes being conducted.
Attendance/Women in BJJ – There’s a good attendance to all the classes. There was heavier attendance of women when Master Sauer was teaching classes, but there was never a sparsely attended class. The noon classes had a female presence but the evening classes had more women and a couple of the regular scheduled instructors are women in the evening classes.
Websites – virginiabjj.com OneSpiritMA.com pedrosauer.com
Location – 360 Herndon Parkway, #100, Herndon, Virginia 20170
Phone: 703-444-4468
