Classes
Carlson Gracie Amsterdam runs Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes for complete beginners through black belts, in the same room, most of them in the same week. Every adult class is taught in English. Classes are in gi, except Friday's No-Gi and any Saturday session announced as No-Gi.
The classes below are the regular programme. The full timetable shows the current week and takes bookings.
Beginners & Intermediates
Monday to Thursday, 18:00–19:00 · Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 08:00–09:00
This is the entry point, and it is also where most people stay for their first year or two. You learn fundamental positions, escapes and basic submissions — and you learn them next to people at every stage, because higher belts train in these classes too and slow down to show you the detail you are missing.
Beginners classes are frequently a full hour of technique with no hard sparring. You control the intensity from day one, and you build up as your body adapts rather than on anyone else's timeline.
A session: warm-up · one technique, demonstrated and broken down · practice with a partner · light rolling when you are ready for it.
Up to forty people. It is a big room and a big group. You will always find a partner near your size and level, and you will never be the only new person.
How to come: Monday's two classes are a free first class, once per person — that is the free trial. Tuesday and Thursday evenings, Wednesday morning and evening, and Friday morning take a €25 single class. Members: any session.
Advanced
Monday 19:15–20:30 · Tuesday and Thursday, 19:00–20:30
Monday starts a quarter of an hour later than the other two, on purpose. The free trial runs before it, and the fifteen minutes after that class belong to whoever came for the first time — to ask everything they want to ask, without the next class waiting on them. Everyone on the mat on a Monday night gives those fifteen minutes, and that is the arrangement.
For people who have been training long enough that the fundamentals are no longer the work. Faster, more refined, higher rolling intensity, and partners matched to level.
A session: warm-up · technique review · live rolling · competition preparation for anyone who wants it.
The class ends at 20:30.
How to come: members any evening. Visitors: a €25 single class on Tuesday or Thursday, at blue belt or above — Monday's Advanced class takes no drop-in. That bar is about safety rather than exclusivity — ninety minutes of advanced training is not the room to learn how to fall, and a mismatched partner is a risk to both people. Not sure how your grade travels? Send a WhatsApp — belt, academy, how long you have trained — and you will get an honest answer.
Morning classes
Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 08:00–09:00
The same Beginners & Intermediates class, in a quieter room. Calmer, more technical, less crowded — and finished before the working day starts. Beginners and intermediates mix, and the pace is methodical.
How to come: Monday morning is a free first class, on the Mondays the schedule shows. Wednesday and Friday mornings take a €25 single class. Members: any morning.
Women's Only Class
Friday, 18:00–19:15 · taught by Professor Olga Lyashevska, 3rd degree black belt
A class for women to train together, whether it is your first time on a mat or your hundredth. Technique-focused, patient, and taught in English like everything else. Some women train only here; some train here and in the mixed classes. Both are normal.
A session: warm-up · technique · rolling with other women at all levels.
How to come: a woman's first class in this group is free. After that, the Women's Starter Package is the way in — ten classes for €100, valid four months. This class does not take single paid visits.
No-Gi
Friday, 19:30–20:30 · taught by Professor Olga Lyashevska
Submission wrestling without the gi. Faster, different grips, different strategy — the same principles underneath.
Members only. It runs straight after the Women's Only Class and it is where the team trains together at the end of the week.
Saturday
Adult classes from 16:00 · a second class at 17:15 on the Saturdays it runs
Saturday is the day that changes. It may be gi, it may be no-gi, it may be self-defence, it may be something built for that particular week. The instructor changes too — Saturday is taught across the coaching team rather than by one person.
That is deliberate. The weekday timetable is deliberately repetitive, because that is how technique accumulates. Saturday is where the room does the things that do not fit a syllabus, and pinning it to one format would remove the only reason it exists.
Before 16:00 the mat belongs to the Kids Program, so adult classes do not start earlier.
How to come: members. What is on is on the schedule — check it before you plan a Saturday, because this is the one day the timetable can give you the time but not the class.
Open Mat
Wednesday, 19:00–20:00 · Sunday, 09:00–11:00
No instruction and no structure. The mat, and whoever came to use it. You work on what you want, roll with who you want, and help whoever asks.
Members only. No drop-ins, and not a trial class — not at €25, not by arrangement, and the Sunday session especially. It is where the team trains together, and it is one of the things membership buys that a visit does not.
Visiting Amsterdam and want to train? Drop-in training explains which classes are open to you.
The keys to the academy
Long-term students at blue belt and above can ask the instructor for an access code. It is given at his discretion — it is not part of a membership — and training outside scheduled class hours needs at least two eligible members present.
It is a small thing that says something specific: the people who have trained here for years are trusted with the room.
Kids classes
Wednesday afternoons — 15:30–16:30 (ages 5–10) and 16:30–17:30 (ages 10+)
The Kids Program at this academy is run independently by Professor Laszlo. Times, ages, prices and enrolment are all on his site: bjjkidsamsterdam.nl.
We list the times here because they are on our mat and parents ask — but everything else is his to answer, and his site is the place to ask it.
What every class has in common
- Technique first, intensity second. You learn how before you learn how hard.
- Individual pacing. First month or tenth year, the instructor knows where you are and teaches accordingly. There is no fixed promotion timeline here.
- Respect on the mat. Training partners are partners. Tapping is respected, always, and tapping early is taught as the habit that lets you train for years.
- Everyone trains together. Beginners and black belts in the same room. Sixteen black belts have been developed here, and every one of them spent years being the person who did not know what was happening.
Which class should you start with?
Never trained? A Monday at 08:00 or 18:00 — free, gi lent, once per person. The schedule shows which Mondays. Book the free trial.
A woman starting from zero? Monday works, and so does Friday at 18:00 — a woman's first class in the Women's Only Class is free.
Training already, visiting Amsterdam? Drop in for €25 — and at blue belt or above, the Advanced class too.
Morning person? Monday, Wednesday or Friday at 08:00. Same class, quieter room.
Ready to train properly? Every membership and pack is public, with no "contact us for pricing" anywhere.