Hybrid Gym & Training Center

Most people who join Hybrid Gym in Bremerton arrive with little or no experience, and they learn Brazilian jiu-jitsu in the Carlson Gracie line: head instructor and owner George Hissung is a black belt under Marcelo Alonso, himself a Carlson Gracie black belt, and most of the gym's assistant instructors earned their black belts under George. Training runs in the gi and as no-gi submission grappling. Students come for conditioning, recreation or self-defense, and competing is up to them; those who want it get mock tournaments and special competitor sessions. Kids have gi and no-gi classes of their own.

Newcomers can watch a class, meet the instructor and ask questions before stepping on the mats. The free two-week trial is open to children and adults and covers every class type, and the gym doesn't do contracts. New students also get a one-on-one session with an upper rank to help with fundamentals, and the Foundations / Self Defense class teaches basic positions, submissions and self-defense techniques. Every student signs a waiver before the first class.

Classes open with what the gym calls a fairly heavy-duty conditioning session: a group warm-up such as laps and push-ups, then solo drills like breakfalls and shrimping, with newcomers doing only what they're comfortable with. Partner technique follows, then resistance drills and live sparring, and after the last class of the evening sparring usually runs as open mat. A beginner's early lessons might cover the upa mount escape, a guard pass to side control and the Americana armlock or cross collar choke. Hybrid describes itself as “pretty informal,” with a couple of traditions: students line up by rank to bow in and out and shake hands with the instructor, and nobody is addressed as Sensei.

After three to four months or more of training, the Intermediate / Advanced classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday bring more complex techniques and sparring, with two sessions each of those evenings. No-gi submission grappling on Tuesday and Thursday is open to all levels, and the training week runs Monday to Friday. A T-shirt, rash guard, board shorts or sweatpants are fine for a first class, and a gi from another martial art works for the first few. Anyone who keeps training needs a Brazilian jiu-jitsu gi, which the gym sells. Students wear a mouth guard, and any other protective gear they own is allowed except wrestling shoes.