Beau L.'s Profile

I've been attending Krav Maga at this gym for about 8 months now, and go usually 2 - 4 times a week. I've done a few other styles of more "traditional" martial arts before, but was looking for something a little more direct, more street-oriented and more immediately effective.

That's exactly what I found at Krav, and that's exactly why I go so often. There are some reviews on here from people complaining about the facility being small/cramped/dirty/dangerous etc. Sometimes this is true, but that's part of the whole point in my opinion. I've trained in nice clean facilities where there are only 6 people in the class and it's a completely different environment -- it's a completely artificial environment.

The whole benefit of Krav is preparation for realistic situations. There will be people around you. You will bump into people. You won't have an entire room to line up and execute a reversed spinning back kick, you'll have 2 feet of direct space to land a single knee and then get the hell out of there. If you're lucky.

That being said, there are pretty major renovations that are almost complete, and they change the floorplan and space available significantly. Some of the Level 1 classes are cramped because it's getting so popular. Once you move up the levels things thin out a bit (I regularly attend classes with around 10 people which is perfect).

I guess the point here is that the entire gym is oriented to honing your skills for realistic street fighting and MMA-style fighting. Neither of these things are clean, particularly safe or "pretty". If you don't like that style of fighting, then Krav's probably not for you, but that's OK, there are plenty of other options.

There are actually heaps of other classes also offered throughout the week, so you don't even necessarily need to go to the Krav classes themselves, but that probably defeats the purpose a bit. Strike and Fight, Crossfit, TRX, KM Conditioning, KO Bag, Yoga, Jiu Jitsu and Chinese Boxing are all offered. When you consider all of these things, I think it's very fairly priced indeed.

For someone claiming to be San Francisco's favorite pizza, this place is a miserable excuse for lousy.

I went here once when it was on the corner of Larkin and California, and now once in it's new location. I made the mistake of taking my brother there, who's from out of town, so I didn't want to take him somewhere bad to give him a bad impression of the city. After a bit of a warning that it was pretty bad last time, we went in there to grab a "quick slice of pizza".

Well... big mistake.

Upon arrival, we looked around a bit and spotted someone asleep down the back on one of the benches. We assumed it was someone partying a bit hard, so we said hi to the server, then sat down near the bar at a table. About 5 minutes later (the place was completely empty mind you), she finally came over and asked what we wanted. "We didn't have menus yet" I explained, so she went and got us some, then asks if we want a drink. They were out of almost all beers, and what was left was being served through some dodgy, home-rigged contraption going through a cooler to a tap. We got a pitcher and then picked some pizzas and placed our order.

Time passes.

More time passes.

We watch an entire episode of Jackass on their TV and then half a show of Cribs. Seriously.

I don't remember how long it really was, but it felt like it must have been something in the order of 45 minutes before we saw that pizza and when it finally did come, who should bring it? Lo and behold, our slumbering friend from the back corner, who apparently works there. She called me "darling" about 6 times (which I hate from strangers), and kept hanging around all creepy-like and asking questions.

We scoffed the pizza down (which was mediocre at best), paid and left.

I'll never waste my time at this hole again with so many decent alternatives nearby.