Today we’d like to introduce you to John Le.
John, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
The 3 of us (Nick, Nick and John -aka Nick) have been doing martial arts since we were kids. We are consumed by it and love to push ourselves and see others progress. As a native who grew up in the Edgewater neighborhood, Chicago means a lot to me. It welcomed my family as refugees from Vietnam and it made us who we are.
As we traveled around different gyms, we took note of what we liked and what we would have changed. When the opportunity finally came, we opened up the Chicago School of Grappling with some key notes in mind:
1) We wanted to create a very welcoming culture where everyone would be eager to learn and check their egos at the door.
2) We did not want annual “unbreakable” contracts that would not let you get out of them regardless of health, job situation and life.
3) We wanted to honor “Chicago” as it is in our name.
We opened in October of 2015 and we’ve grown to more than 50 students. Additionally, we have a fair mix of male and female students both as children and adults. Additionally, we do not push for competition, but will train you for one if you want to compete (in jiu-jitsu, boxing, kickboxing or fitness competitions). With that, we cater to the martial arts hobbyist that needs late classes and a new environment. To serve them, we offer kids’ classes, adult classes and our unique martial arts/high intensity interval training class called JitFit.
We’re constantly dreaming and every student we get helps us dream bigger
Has it been a smooth road?
Not smooth, but planned.
I also am the president of Entrepreneurship & Venture capital club at Northwestern Business School so I have been exposed to embracing failure. However, failure still needs to be planned. We reinvest into the gym to make it better and to pay our instructors overly competitive wages because we want our members to have great teachers.
To be honest, this journey can be scary. When we started, there were months where rent and other operating expenses were due and we were making $0 in revenue. In those moments, you consider if shutting down is a possibility. However, you have to plan and anticipate those moments. We listened to students to see what they wanted and thus changed our class offerings based on their input. This allowed us to align our class times and structure with what people wanted: win-win.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Chicago School of Grappling – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We are a martial arts school with a focus on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu/Grappling. While we primarily focus on jiu-jitsu we also teach boxing and kickboxing.
Even though that’s what we do, we are best known for our atmosphere. We work hard to ensure that everyone feels welcomed and not judged when they walk through the door. In fact, we’ve turned away some that would have been disruptive to our environment as their money was not worth the risk of ruining what we have at Chicago School of Grappling.
As a gym, we are constantly looking for innovation. Innovation in how we teach, innovation in what we do with the gym and innovation in our class offerings. For instance, we have a class called JitFit that brings martial arts movements to High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). It uses a computer program and timer to generate randomized workouts. As a result, we see great gains. For instance, one student is 38 and went from 23% body fat and 230 lbs. to 11% and 180 lbs.
We also have several students that competed and won their first ever jiu-jitsu competitions! We can do this only by listening, acting and innovating.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Chicago is my home. I always tell people that if you really grew up in Chicago, you are loyal to a bus route or a train station. I grew up taking the 92 Foster bus to the 49 Western and going to Lane Tech. Chicago is my home because it is diverse and it welcomed my parents when they were refugees from the Vietnam war. It is a diverse city with a strong history and stronger people.
Love the fact that there are so many neighborhoods with very different personalities.
Hate the construction on all roads in an area at the same time…. doesn’t help with traffic.
Pricing:
- $110/month for all classes
- $80/month for just JitFit,boxing and Muay Thai Kickboxing
- $80 for 4 day passes for those that will show up periodically
Contact Info:
- Address:722 S. Racine, Chicago, IL 60607
- Website: http://www.chicagoschoolofgrappling.com/
- Phone:773-482-1255
- Email:chicagoschoolofgrappling@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chicago_csg/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Chicagoschoolofgrappling/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/chicago-school-of-grappling-chicago
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
