10th Planet – Barcelona, Spain

It was after returning home 10 years ago from a trip to Pamplona to attend the San Fermin festival’s run with the bulls that I decided to take a BJJ class with my son and hence initiate my love for the sport.  So after running with the bulls again this past year, but with my now adult kids, I thought it only fitting to visit and participate in some BJJ class upon my return to the city that fed my adrenaline 10 years prior.  There’s no Jiu Jitsu happening in Pamplona during the festival, so I researched a number of BJJ schools in Barcelona and like many cities, there were several schools to attend.  I settled on schools that were close to the beach, near my lodging and that hosted noon classes. After contacting schools via email, I received a response from few schools prior to leaving for Europe. 

I was a little beaten up from running with the bulls in Pamplona because just as ten years prior I was tripped in the melee of terrified souls running from the racing bovines on the slippery streets of the 1^st century town; however, I made my way to my first class in Barcelona at the 10^th Planet BJJ academy. I heard a number good things over my time in bjj about the 10^th Planet training format, but couldn’t imagine how much different my experience could be from other schools until I took a 10th planet class. After all, BJJ is BJJ everywhere, right?  After completing a class at Barcelona 10^th Planet I quickly found out that the answer to that question was yes and no. First, although it was summer time and many academies abandon the gi for No-Gi uniforms, 10^th planet is always No-Gi.  There’s the usual drills and attacks but there’s a slightly different approach to how those attacks are accomplished with 10^th Planet. There was a great deal of leg attacks and “ashi” positioning that took me some time to get used to as I had only seem it, but never attempted it before.  Again, I felt that it was my first day taking BJJ as the “ashi” positioning was completely foreign to me, but everyone with whom I partnered for drilling or rolling were extremely patient and helpful. 

The basic class structure was similar to most schools in that there was a small warmup session, lessons on techniques/moves of the day, drilling of those particular moves and then rolling. It was a lunch time class and a really good attendance, with both men and women of varying levels present and participating. The classes were in English with a little of the most confusing Spanish I had experienced. (Each area of Spain mixes their regional accent in with Spanish which was completely different than the central American Spanish to which I’m accustomed.)

The professor was really good and offered everyone personalized attention.  He had spent time in the US and seemingly a little bit of everywhere else before settling in Barcelona. I like that he over-emphasized that we should be careful in drilling and rolling to prevent injuries as well as allow for a focus on proper technique over trying to rush through a roll to tap an opponent. I visited other BJJ studios in Barcelona but of them all, I felt this 10^th Planet was well worth the 4 mile walk from the beach and the slightly confusing school entrance. 

There was a full-size locker room with hot showers and clean restrooms. Although I didn’t leave for the airport after rolling, I did check that an Uber ride from the academy to the airport was only 20 minutes away during the middle of the day.  Overall. Barcelona 10^th Planet BJJ was a hell of an experience and definitely a BJJ academy to visit while in Barcelona.