Absolute MMA (Collingwood) Review — Three Months with the Pros

In early 2024, I had the pleasure of training in BJJ (well, their flavour of it) and a bit of Muay Thai at Absolute MMA in Collingwood, Melbourne for three months (here are my thoughts on living in Melbourne). This is my review of my time there.

I had been looking forward to training at Absolute MMA for years. Literally. I’m Australian, but spend most of my time abroad. At every gym I go to abroad, once the locals learn that I’m Australian, they often ask “Do you train at Absolute?” I’d sheepishly reply that no, I don’t, and no, I don’t know Lachlan Giles.

Well, I’ve now trained at Absolute (though, inexcusably, I haven’t met Lachlan Giles! More on why below) and have a good impression of it. I really loved my time there — learned a lot, re-learned foundations, and got stronger.

But Absolute MMA is actually not perfect as a gym for mid-ranking non-contenders like me — it doesn’t meet all my criteria for what I think an outstanding gym (for me) would be.

So below I’ll share more on

• The culture at Absolute MMA
• The facilities at Absolute MMA (in the two locations I visited)
• What it’s like training there
• Technology (a unique feature of this gym)
• And various other thoughts

Buckle up – my reviews are long!

A Bit About Me

This isn’t an article about me — but if you’re thinking “Who’s this jamoke writing about my sport or gym?” then you should know about me for context. If you’re an MMA contender, you’ll quickly discard this review and go ask one of the other competitors at Absolute (and you should; their opinion will be very different).

I had a bit over 2 years of training under my belt before arriving in Melbourne. It was at a bunch of other gyms. I train mostly in Brazilian jiu-jitsu (which includes with the gi, no-gi, the odd wrestling class, and sometimes an “MMA” class), but also enjoy boxing, Muay Thai, “MMA striking”, or whatever a coach or gym teaches.

To date I’ve done around 837 hours of training, the most recent 65.5 hours of which were at Absolute MMA. That might sound oddly specific, but it’s just straight out of my training log! (Which I initially started to track progress between belts, but I lost interest in belts a long time ago.)

I’m a middling blue belt in my forties. I haven’t competed. But every time I move gyms (every few months), I get destroyed by people I don’t know (wherever your ego is, nobody wants to lose to the new guy! And besides, as a new guy, it’s rude to go too hard right out the gate). So I never get the chance to be “complacent”.

Anyway, enough about me. On to the gym.

Overview of Absolute MMA

Absolute MMA was founded by Lachlan Giles, a well-known BJJ competitor and very well-known instructor.

Giles (who locals often know as “Lachie”) is the kind of person I’d naturally be friends with and enjoy working with or for. I don’t even know him, and I can tell this from his style in all his videos. He’s friendly, scientific, ambitious, open-minded, and curious. He oozes humility and learns something from a wide variety of people.

You can see this from the range of things going on at Absolute. Giles didn’t just put some mats down and start a gym, which is the minimum standard for a competitor wanting to diversify into coaching. He set up multiple locations, has a technology stack for managing memberships and bookings, and even has started a separate app, Submeta, which contains very high-quality instructional videos in most of which he features. (Here’s my review of Submeta.)

Absolute MMA has three locations in Melbourne and one in Thailand. The “main” location is in St Kilda – that’s where you go if you want to train with Lachie himself (he still teaches a few classes a week, including to newbies!).

The three locations have different flavours.

• St Kilda is where you go if you want to focus on grappling and jiu jitsu. I never went there, but people kept saying to go and check it out. There’s a lot of “gi” here, plus it’s the only location with kids’ classes. There’s still striking /boxing here mind you. However, unlike the other two locations, there’s no strength / HIIT training in St Kilda
• The CBD (Australian for “downtown” — means “Central Business District) has a mix of everything. It’s a bit of a weird location, split between basement and the top floor of an office building. But super convenient for all the cashed up professionals working in the city!
• Collingwood is where a lot of fight team stuff happens. They don’t even have “gi” jiu jitsu at Collingwood.

You can see more at the timetables here.

Thailand has a different focus. I haven’t trained there (yet!), but from what I see online, it’s like other fight camps — you go and you stay there for a while and get better at whatever you need.

So, why did I train just at Collingwood? Mainly, I was staying at an Airbnb 10 minutes walk from the Collingwood location. Melbourne is super expensive to stay in. Even this one-bedroom Airbnb cost me A$3,750 (about US$2,500) a month — and that’s booking a year ahead. The city was 30 minutes walk away, but why go that far? And St Kilda would require paying for public transport or driving through Melbourne traffic.

I could have made the effort to get down to St Kilda on a Friday night or a weekend. But that time is precious to me. In fact, I needed most Saturdays for house hunting. Life is hectic, Melbourne is hectic, and house hunting is an unapologetic nightmare.

But if you’re a young person with lots of time and enthusiasm, I can see why you’d make the effort to go to multiple locations. It’d be worth it.

Side note — Lachlan Giles is also known as being the trainer for Craig Jones, another well-known competitor. Absolute has a strong association with Jones as a result.

In early videos on YouTube, you can see Giles demonstrating things with Jones. But Jones lives in the US now (training at his own gym, B Team, in Austin, Texas) and so you probably won’t ever see him at Absolute unless it’s for some seminar.

Absolute MMA Facilities

The facilities at Absolute MMA varies by location.

Absolute MMA Collingwood is huge. It has two areas for grappling training — a huge upstairs one and a downstairs one. There’s a huge striking / MMA training area (on which grappling is also done), too, plus a boxing ring, plus an octagon. Collingwood also has two weightlifting areas, again, split between floors.

The Collingwood downstairs weight training gym even has several squat racks. Absolute MMA Collingwood even has a pool table (though I don’t know the story behind it… maybe the previous tenants just left it because they’re very expensive to move).

Even though the Collingwood location is huge, it’s also a little basic. It’s an old warehouse building of sorts. So the upstairs room is super hot in summer, and freezing in winter. There’s no air conditioning (is there? Well, not that I noticed…). The lockers and showers are a little bare — I’ve seen far fancier gyms that were obviously built to be fancy.

But it’s the quality of the facilities that stands out. There are always a few indicators for a quality gym that I pick up on right away. Firstly, it’s always clean. I never noticed a weird smell. There’s not stuff lying around on the ground — no gear (it’s put in the lost and found promptly) and no detritus. The mats are in good condition. In fact, while I was there, the building was repainted, and I wasn’t even sure why — it looked fine to me!

Secondly, the gear is always neatly arranged. I never saw a boxing mitt without its pair! The weights in the weight room were always neatly in the correct places — every plate, every dumbbell. When you have that, everything else is typically in place, too.

The cleanliness and orderliness of the gym shows that the members, coaches, and staff all respect Absolute MMA. They treat it with care. They’re happy to be there. And that makes it a good place to be for everyone.

While I made most of those observations at Collingwood, I noticed them at the CBD location too, the dozen or so times I went there. I am sure that St Kilda, being the main home of the owners, would be exemplary in this regard.

The city (“CBD”) Absolute location is in an office building. The first time I went, I got a bit lost… I felt like I was on my way to a job interview! I didn’t find the door to the downstairs grappling and weight training area, and definitely couldn’t find my way up to the 10th floor for the boxing /striking area.

The CBD location has more gi jiu jitsu, and less weight facilities. But it generally has a bit of everything, giving city folk a chance to train before or after work (or during).

Because the city location is in an office building, it has a few quirks associated with such places. The top floor has loads of light — it’s like a penthouse boxing training area! But the basement has none. However, the whole area is very well ventilated through the building’s systems… this might make the city location the best one to train when it’s either too cold or too hot.

Absolute MMA St Kilda is mostly about grappling. It’s mostly a big grappling area, though there are some bags and pads, and very limited weight training stuff. It does have most of the classes the other areas have, with the addition of kids classes, and minus weight training classes.

All the locations have showers and locker rooms (though no lockable lockers — this is Australia and I suppose membership is quite controlled). I was surprised that most people don’t shower after training unless they’re going straight to work. To me this is mandatory! But then I suppose everyone else is yet to experience their first skin infection…

Which is the best location? Well, I have to say, I most liked Collingwood. The weight area opens directly to the outdoors, so there’s always tons of air and light. I felt a bit claustrophobic in the CBD’s basement. And while I didn’t train at St Kilda, I know there’s no strength training there. I got significantly stronger training with Chaz (Charlton) at Collingwood.

One cute thing I noticed is the personal saunas in the locker rooms I presume this is something to do with losing water weight. I haven’t tried one, but I know my brother would like it…

Culture at Absolute MMA

The culture of a gym is everything to me. Without good culture, I just don’t show up. I’ve learned to spot bad culture from a mile away — it just takes a single demo class to know if an instructor is terrible.

Absolute’s culture is excellent, though not perfect. Let’s start with the good.

The best thing I can say about Absolute MMA is that the people — coaches and participants — are great, welcoming, and eager to learn and teach. There’s an atmosphere of improving, with minimal ego (other than from the beginners, which is common). Everybody is trying to improve, and nobody is trying to hurt me.

I made a lot of casual friends, though I don’t remember all their names. All this is a minimum baseline — which many gyms don’t meet! — for me to train at a gym. And so I have nothing specific to fault about culture at Absolute.

Absolute MMA also stands out in that it’s a safe combat sports gym. Not once at Absolute was I hurt (in a way that was someone’s fault). A beginner once kneed me in the eye; no big deal (I forgot about it quickly).

At other gyms, I’ve had my teeth chipped from a kick by a panicking newbie, I’ve had a calf slicer so hard that I had to walk home (from a guy with whom I was rolling for the first time!), and I’ve had a crank so hard during a “hazing” that my neck still hurts, years later (screw that guy). None of this kind of thing happens at Absolute. This sounds like a lame compliment (as it’s the absence of a bad thing), but in combat sports, managing to remain injury and infection-free for three months is really a very positive sign.

I also mentioned some things above in talking about the facilities of Absolute MMA. The fact that it’s clean, neat, and tidy reflect that the members and staff are happy to be there and have respect for the gym, which makes it a great place to be.

But at the same time, training at Absolute MMA wasn’t perfect, and below are some interesting things I noted which I wouldn’t have from the outside.

Downsides of Absolute MMA

There are some things about training at Absolute MMA that I didn’t really like, and it’s worth noting them. I’m mostly writing this as I didn’t know beforehand, and people don’t mention them. But the good news is that if you’re an owner of Absolute, these are really easy things to improve upon! (I’d be happy to talk more, if you want to contact me.)

I want to emphasise that these are from the point of view of a non-competitor, non-MMA athlete. I do MMA sports (grappling and striking, plus some strength training) but do it casually. If you’re a pro fighter, your experience will be different.

Firstly, Absolute MMA feels like a huge organisation, almost like a corporation. There are policies and procedures. Every time I emailed in, I’d get a professional-sounding response from a different person, without personal little touches like “Thank you, it was great meeting you!”

If I asked for something complex — like waiving my penalty for leaving early (I flagged ahead that I was only staying three months), it had to be done through their CRM and some complex stuff. I get it — you have to stay organised — but the feeling was sometimes like I was negotiating an error on my bill with my cellphone service provider.

It’s almost like Absolute is laying the foundation for becoming Absolute Corporation Pty Ltd, a global training phenomenon. Great, sign me up as a shareholder, but it does leave me feeling cold at times.

At other gyms, on the first day I typically meet the owner and roll and/or spar with the coaches. I know them as friends by the end. Sometimes, I’d think of them as friends on the first day. Again, I never met the owner (or owners) of Absolute MMA.

On that note, secondly, I never rolled or sparred with the coaches at Absolute MMA. Not once, in any class. This, to me, is super weird.

In every other gym, I’ve rolled / sparred with the coaches. Of course, they go gentle on me. But the point is that they did this not just out of a way of welcoming a new guy, but to be able to give me specific pointers based on what they observed. In some gyms (like one of my favourites, Francisco Vera’s “Vera’s Fight Club” in Argentina), the coach became a friend of mine and rolled with me for fun.

Anyway, the fact that I didn’t get to train directly with the coaches (in three months there!) left me feeling a bit cold. I can see the logic for it, e.g. they have to be available to supervise other participants, or maybe they want to avoid injury because of an upcoming comp. But still, I know they roll with some people sometimes.

The atmosphere of coaching is also a little weird. Most of the coaches are competitors. Some of them are really into coaching and have that parental coach-like vibe that I really like, of course (shout out to Ollie, who didn’t bat an eyelid when I said “Ollie, I need some life advice,” for which he gave a brilliant response). But a few of the coaches give the impression they’re just coaching to pay the bills, or maybe they pay more attention to other competitors.

The classes would randomly have coaches sub in and out, sometimes when a coach was on leave, or sometimes with no explanation. There generally was consistency, but I had the feeling I was signing up for a class at a time — not necessarily a class with a specific person.

I actually think the less intimate coaching atmosphere is a bit related to the “huge corporate organisation” aspect of Absolute MMA. Students sign up to random classes, show up sometimes and then disappear for weeks. And coaches do too. So the effect is one of a lack of continuity. I’m sure that if a coach gets to know a student over a period of many months, they’ll develop a relationship and it’ll feel more like a small gym does — it just would take more time at Absolute.

Thirdly, there’s a lot of segregation of levels at Absolute MMA.

In jiu jitsu, for example, there’s

• Beginner/Intro
• Level 1+
• Level 2+
• Level 3+
• Jiu jitsu Competitors only
• MMA Fighters only (some overlap with “Competitors only)

There’s a similar breakdown in Boxing / Muay Thai. I forget the exact definitions. But it was clearest between beginner (which was very beginner, though a good chance to revisit fundamentals or practise things I’m working on), and competitor/fighter classes, which I couldn’t even attend.

I mostly went to “Level 1+” classes. This would include people who I’d definitely call beginners (they have 50+ hours of experience but they were fairly easy to control) all the way to the occasional person with 5+ years experience and some kind of coloured belt in grappling (though nobody wore belts of course, so I had no idea). Over time, I figured out who the more advanced people were.

But it’s notable that in the classes I went to, I almost never rolled or trained with competitors or fighters. I don’t think I even met a single other black belt other than the coaches — who never rolled with us.

Spending time with people at one’s own level has pros and cons. On the one hand, I had more space to work on my techniques. Actually, at other gyms (like Inferno in Istanbul), I got demolished so often that I rarely had room to work, and just built a defensive game. So I welcomed this.

But also, at Absolute, I never experienced the total domination that comes from training with pros. I don’t say that I want this from pure masochism. When people throw you around like a ragdoll in a controlled manner, it’s inspiring. It’s super cool for someone to do an awesome judo throw on you (or is it just me?).

I got to see, at other gyms, what a good drop seoi nage, a versatile lockdown guard, or a calf slicer feel like. Those are things that specialists do. At Absolute, with the motley crew of rag-tag grapplers I trained with, I rarely experienced that level of total domination.

I did occasionally train with the pros. But they just took it easy on me and showed me stuff. It’s not necessary! At other gyms, they just practised their A games.

Technology at Absolute

Most gyms I’ve been to would be lucky to have a web page, let alone one that’s up to date. They survive on an Instagram or Facebook account and a lot of informal communication.

Absolute MMA has great — though not perfect — technology. There’s an up-to-date calendar for all locations on the app. It’s so well-maintained that when a class is cancelled, it’s removed from the calendar. And the trainer listed is always the correct one — I suspect this is also how they manage their internal payroll.

There’s an app through which you can book classes, though you never need to book (they have an absurd number of spaces and are never even half full) so nobody does. You technically do have to scan your bar code (in the app as well as on a key chain card they give you at sign-up) when you go in, but I rarely did for morning classes.

However, when a class is cancelled or amended — e.g. a trainer goes on leave — the students aren’t notified in any way. One day, one of my coaches told us he wouldn’t be coming the next day, so the class was cancelled. If he hadn’t told me this, I would have shown up. There’s a Facebook group but it’s used mostly for major announcements.

Other gyms use things like WhatsApp groups or their socials to notify of changes to the calendar. But I think it would be within Absolute MMA’s means to modify the app to allow for notifications regarding schedule changes. I wonder if it’s in their development pipeline.

Finally, one incidental part of training at Absolute MMA is Submeta (this is my review). Submeta is a high-end online curriculum/instructional series on a broad range of jiu jitsu stuff, including gi and no gi. It’s great.

But you don’t get Submeta free or even discounted with membership (which I find really surprising!), so here’s an extra ~10-15% (depending on exchange rates, as Submeta is priced in USD) on top of your training costs. Of course, you don’t need Submeta. But many people at Absolute use Submeta and reference it often, so I think that would be a nice bonus for members.

There are application frameworks built on CRMs that would be ideal for Absolute (and that are quite cheap), but I don’t know if this is a priority for them.

Training Costs and Timetable at Absolute MMA

There are a few things to know about training costs at Absolute MMA.

1. There are two tiers of pricing. At 2024, these are A$60 per week (~$260 per month) for training at one location, or A$65 per week (~$280 per month) for multiple. These are for unlimited classes.
2. There’s a minimum commitment of 6-months and a $100 break fee.
3. Sign-up gets you $100 in credits to buy fight gear from the Absolute-owned brand, MA1 Combat (which Lachlan Giles and Craig Jones promote a lot).
4. The training fee doesn’t include Submeta, which is another US$25 per month.

Wow, all of that is quite expensive! It’s roughly on par with other high-end gyms in Australia, like an inner-city F45 gym or Crossfit box. But it’s more than I’ve paid for training at most gyms in the world, even in Europe or the US. For example, in recent history, I paid US$160 (about A$240) per month to train at 10th Planet in LA — and this is one of the pricier gyms I’ve been to, with an even more solid reputation than Absolute’s. Of course, the facilities were simpler, and they just do grappling… but man. Do they grapple!

As for the timetable — see it online. But the two most important things I want to mention are

• There are tons of classes, including lots of morning and midday options, which I love. This is one of those benefits of huge gyms! You can train in strength, jiu jitsu, and/or boxing every morning (though not every class is on every morning). There are even more options if you’re a competitor.
• Most classes are 1 hour, and some are only 45 minutes. If you’re like me and prefer to train for longer (1h30 is my sweet spot) you may find this slightly annoying. I’m not sure why it is, probably a mixture of the preferences of other students as well as staff costs (because Australia).

Wrap up

I really enjoyed my time at Absolute MMA.

I think the most important thing, which I should say first, is that if I were staying in the area — or even nearby — I’d still train at Absolute MMA. I’d put in the time and build relationships with the coaches and community. In fact, I really did try to get a place close enough to an Absolute location where I could still train there. But because I wanted a house with a garage, I had to buy a little further out — Melbourne is expensive.

But that said, my three months at Absolute didn’t grab me by the heartstrings in that time period like other gyms have.

There have been gyms I’ve been to where on day one I’ve built a friendly relationship with the coach. These are typically very small gyms with just one coach (who’s the owner). That coach has a pedagogical style and a passion for teaching that’s infectious.

Absolute MMA trains everyone from kids and total beginners through to MMA competitors — with one member competing in the UFC. That’s a huge range. I know that the contenders really enjoy their time at Absolute and know it to be one of the best gyms in the world.

But I’m a non-contender. I’m not even a competitor, as I mentioned above (I get enough competition by moving gyms a lot). I just want to learn new stuff, improve in an awesome sport, and meet new people, making friends as I go. For me, I would say that Absolute MMA is not the ideal gym. I prefer the atmosphere of small community gyms where I get to know everyone — including the owners — quite quickly.

For me, training in combat sports isn’t just about the skills and fitness, but also about the camaraderie. For example, after three months at Absolute Collingwood, I vaguely know about five people’s names and have contact details (the Instagram, anyway) for one of them. That’s not much! After a few months at other gyms, I have stayed in the WhatsApp groups forever (just for the bants!) and think of the members as good friends.

Unfortunately, regardless, I’m moving to the inner west. So, unless Lachlan Giles wants to open a gym there (I’ll manage it! Seriously! And I’ve managed a bunch of stuff!), I’m going to have to train somewhere different for a while. I’ll drop in again, though.