High Noon BJJ & Fitness LLC

“TL;DR: I trained here for a year before having to move away for school, and can say confidently that High Noon is the most fun I have ever had exercising. If you're in the DC area looking to get into grappling (wrestling, Judo, BJJ) or continue grappling, I cannot recommend this gym more highly. I still miss training here months after leaving. More detailed review: I think the two things made High Noon special; its ability to balance intensity and fun and its development of a true community. In my experience from training various sports, I have found gyms/coaches are either kind but too lax in their standards (so you get complacent) or intense but jackasses (so you lose motivation to train). The culture at High Noon finds the sweet-spot in between--you are pushed to improve yourself, but it is always in a supportive, friendly environment, from the coaches down to the other students. I found myself wanting to do my best every practice because I didn't want to let anyone down by being a bad training partner or not respecting the consistently excellent feedback you get from the coaches. I usually hate when businesses claim to be a community--usually it's just rhetorical BS to get away with chicanery--but High Noon genuinely has a culture and community, and it is wonderful. The other gym members are uniformly friendly, thoughtful people. Any time I asked, someone took time after training to work through something with me (or kindly said they had to get home). I never felt unsafe training with another member, and they looked out for my safety. I have realized later that several times a more experienced gym member proactively let go of a submission or grip because I reacted improperly to it when I was new to the sport. BJJ always involves risk with it, and so knowing your partners are looking out for you over their own ego made training here feel safe and more enjoyable. The coaches are fantastic. They clearly regard themselves as students of the sport still, and I often heard them discussing recent high-level matches and the techniques they learned about from studying them. They strike the aforementioned balance of being supportive and holding you to a high standard. I never found their feedback unhelpful, nor thought they were being unfair when they told me I was being unfocused or lax while training, which is not my experience in a lot of other athletic contexts. They also offer a lot of personalized feedback--I tried to correct mistakes I was making quickly and they would always be sure to both compliment the progress and help me see other areas I needed to improve on. Thanks to their help, I never felt like I was stagnating. The culture of the gym does a wonderful job treating you as a person, not a customer. I had an infection that took me off the mats for 6-7 weeks, and the only concern they had was that I was safe and properly reimbursed for the missed time. They even retroactively refunded me a week because I had not yet suspended the membership the first week I was off the mats because I hadn't realized the extent I would be out.”

“It’s quite a place. Parking is a little difficult to navigate if you’ve never been there but once you figure it out it’s all down hill from there. They have a pretty good group of women that train consistently as well as female instructors. I went here a couple of times for Jiu Jitsu Jam, seiminars out on by local high achieving black belts. They were very kind and offered quite a bit of insight to my game, body style, and technique. I haven’t been able to attend a normal class but I’m pretty sure it’s just as great as the women’s events.”

“Can't help but love this place... The coaches are enthusiastic and professional and give the kids a dynamic hour of full on exercise, skills, and sparring. There are plenty of classes for our three kids to choose from and my husband is hooked as well. We go almost 3-4x a week and I never have to nag the kids to get ready because they are ready to go each day. They are starving for dinner afterwards and sleep really well from the exercise.”

“I had the pleasure to compete along side Tim Dawson at an event last year, hence how we met. From the moment you meet him, he is an outgoing, professional yet personable individual. You can see he truly cares about this sport and bettering others Last Tuesday I reached out to Tim to ask if I could come cross train. My home gym is Enlisted Nine Fight Company, but without hesitation Tim said “not a problem man, come on by”. I was greeted by their front desk personnel with very warm and welcoming energy. The staff were very professional and the facility was immaculate! The staff ensured you felt comfortable and explained where everything was at. At no time did I feel like an outsider from another gym. I participated in both their No-GI classes. Tim is wealth of knowledge and a phenomenal instructor. Took the time to go in great detail with techniques he was showing and answer any questions students had. Tim had partnered me up with a gentlemen named Nate (High Noons wrestling coach). He took the time to help me understand how classes worked and gave me really good looks when we rolled. I sincerely appreciate that warm hospitality this facility and Tim gave me and look forward to cross training here in the future!”

“Cliffnotes - Top tier gym in the DMV - Knowledgeable and skilled coaches who take the time to help you develop - Great environment where you're welcomed if you're willing to work hard - classes at all hours - HAS SHOWERS/Gym Equipment I've been at High Noon since it first started (going onto 6 years now) and only left briefly when I had to move to a different city. I'm back here again since I'm in Nova and it feels the same even though the gym has grown immensely (in terms of members and size). It even has showers now!!! This is an insane perk for a gym. In addition, there is a power rack, barbell, air bike, and some other equipment I can't think of. So not only can you train bjj, but you can also become a unit like the head coach (Tim). Ample mat space too- 2 levels. Open mat is on the first ground level and since there are 2 levels, there are concurrent classes running often at times. Regarding the coaches at High Noon, they are knowledgeable and take their time to help anyone that is willing to put in the work- before class, during, and after class. After open mat you'll probably see me and other people working through some stuff with either Tim (owner and head coach) and any of the other coaches like Tyler or Nate. When I say they care about your development, I mean it as long as you're willing to put in the work. A good environment is predicated on the leadership at the top, and this is absolutely true at High Noon and exemplified in the students. There are a range of classes from nogi, wrestling, gi, and etc. The training is based on intelligent programming and predicated on latest science on skill acquisition. You won't see people wasting their time going through step by step methods of teaching/learning like you did in the past. I.E. "So you do this when he does this. Now I want you guys to drill that 5 times and switch." However About the people, everyone is super welcoming and Friedly here. I can't say I've had a bad training partner here. If I did, they probably didn't stay long and left since the gym naturally weeds out people that are toxic. Training partners at High Noon are receptive to feedback and you'll always get good training in whenever you come in for a class or open mat. All affiliations are welcome at the open mat by the way which gives you a chance to roll with other people (most gyms from what I'm aware aren't this inviting- some are afraid of their members getting outclassed for example). I'm an average guy in his early 30s, but I honestly believe most of grappling development (Based on comments wherever I go to train- i.e. Japan, Portugal, around the US) has been because of Tim, Tyler, Nate, and Matt. From a legend in the sport of mma (known for his grappling) and also bjj- comment about me (Pic included) "Brian very technical and fun to practice thank you Thanks for the roll oss."”