MPWA

[Gosai]

http://mympwa.com/

Well, I've got a little time before I have to head off to train, and while walking around the local mall with my grandmother she pointed out a new business coming in (which isn't surprising, a lot of new businesses are coming in as they're renovating the mall and trying to make it relevant again, but that's another story entirely)

Anyway, amongst the businesses coming in is a gym offering 'Wrestling, Boxing, Jiu-Jitsu and MMA Style Kickboxing'

First off, I have no idea what 'MMA Style Kickboxing' means. Is that just kickboxing with some throws and wrestling added in?

Please note, I'm NOT accusing them of anything, however, I AM curious and thought I'd run the place by the rest of you, eh?

I picked up the pamphlets and whatnot they had around so I'll give excerpts from them.

"This is a new gym concentratin on the arts of physical fitness through physical combat.

Including:
-Boxing
-MMA Style Kickboxing
-Jujitsu
-Collegiate Wrestling
-Professional Wrestling
-Youth Wrestling (Silver Fox Club)
-Kids Karate"

They also state they have traditional fitness equipment including "Free weights, elliptical, treadmills, exercise bikes, and weight machines"

In addition they offer Open Mat and Open Ring.

Another advert was a flyer stating "Teach Your Kids to be Bully Proof.
FUN!!
Self Defense Classes."

A second similar advert proclaims

"Tired of being afraid?
Learn the art of self defense
Be the person bullies FEAR!!!"

It states they have specialized women's self defense classes, cardio kickboxing. Those sortsa things.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, on to the 'Silverfox Wrestling's Philosophy' bit.

Silverfox Wrestling provides a very unique approach to youth wrestling. We believe that position is paramount. All scoring comes from forcing your opponent into bad position, and capitalizing on his mistakes. While we will provide a foundation from which all scoring comes from, each wrestler will be treated as an individual and will be aided in developing their own style. Wrestlers will be exposed to a library of high level technique in all three phases. Our approach is very technical, with less emphasis being placed on just wearing your opponent down. All wrestlers will be exposed to freestyle and greco-roman wrestling as we are committed to USA Wrestling at a grassroots level.

This interests me as I didn't wrestle in high school, so I have no basis to judge this statement on. Still, I wouldn't mind learning some Freestyle or Greco (What's the difference exactly?)
My only question beyond that is isn't positional dominance the point in most wrestling styles?

I do like THIS statement from 'What makes us different'

We are committed to the big picture. It is not about youth titles, junior high titles, state titles, or even NCAA titles. We want our athletes to aspire to be WORLD AND OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS !!!!!
If you train to be a world champ, all those other things will fall into place!

* We will incorporate gymnastics instruction with our wrestling. Gymnastics is key component to any wrestler’s success.
* We will have state champs, college wrestlers and coaches in the room at various times. This is aside from any clinics we will have.
* We will be able to offer cross-training to those interested and an opportunity to work with some of our MMA fighters and coaches.
* We will provide tutoring at a very minimal cost to those who need help
* The ability to earn “credits” toward tuition costs by earning good grades.

Antony Sharples- Coach Sharples was a 4 year starter at Oak Harbor High School, twice narrowly missing out on state qualification. He spent time training on the freestyle senior level and last competed in 2009 at the prestigious Dave Schultz International in Colorado Springs. A severe knee injury has forced him to focus all of his attention to coaching.
Coach Sharples spent three years as an assistant at Eastwood High School, which
included two state runner-up trophies. He is a USA Wrestling Bronze Certified
coach, and is certified in both CPR and sports injury prevention. He began Silverfox Wrestling Club in 2009 and is currently training senior level athletes and fighters. Antony is currently a full time student at the University of Toledo majoring in Religious Studies. He resides in Genoa with his wife Tausha, and children; Braeden 9, and Hallie 4. Having devoted over 20 years to the great sport of wrestling, Coach Sharples is excited to bring his passion to young athletes.

Rudy Lopez-Coach Lopez is a former OHSAA state placer. He spent one year
on staff at Eastwood High School and Four as an assistant for Erie Mason High
School. He is currently training for the U.S. Open. Coach Lopez also brings 20 years of wrestling experience to Silverfox Wrestling. In addition to wrestling, Coach Lopez is training as an amateur fighter.

Jake Grigson-Coach Grigson is a former OHSAA state placer. He has spent time assisting Northwood High School and Genoa Junior High. Coach Grigson currently holds an undefeated professional MMA record.

I made only a cursory attempt at Google-fu and found a Jake Grigson currently with a 3-0 record. So, that's a pretty good indicator, yeah?

Anyway, I don't have time to do much more than a cursory glance at the information and even then I don't know what I'd be looking for without actually attending there.

I'm currently training elsewhere but wouldn't mind getting some extra training where I can. Anyway, the monthly costs are listed as

Basic Membership- $20
(Includes full access to gym equipment)

Pro Membership- $30
(Includes Basic with access to wrestling mats and ring)

MMA Training Package- $70
Though under it in almost fine print is 'Introductory rate...Month of March only. After March $80 per month

and the MMA Classes are starting April 5th at that.

Apparently though you can try individual classes for the $20 a month "Non-members can try us out for a ring fee of $7 for 30 minutes or $10 per hour" Not quite sure what that means.
And apparently a $25 annual fee will apply with all memberships.

Anyway, I gotta split for my other training.
Just posting this up because it's of interest to me, being cheap, close, and hopefully good training.

Whaddya guys think?

[Gosai]

Well, I suppose I'll chime back in a tad here.
I went and checked out the place a bit more. First, let me say that once I'd gotten inside it was pretty well set up. The ring, I believe, is stated at 20 feet and on my first arrival they were actually just finishing setting it up.

The other main training area seems composed of older wrestling mats purchased from nearby school districts (I actually recognized the remnants of one from my school on the ground, having been cut up to be better positioned)

They'd asked me some questions about my previous training which, amusingly, were the same sorts of questions one might be asked here on Bullshido, regarding my current teacher, who he trained with, what the end goal for my training is, etc.

I took that as a good sign.

Eventually I was able to attend their boxing class (This was a few days after my initial stop in). First, I should point out that I have very little knowledge on this subject but it seemed good to me.
He focused largely on our form, obviously, trying to get a feel for where the various people in the class were at skill-wise. A bit of correcting on stance or punching technique (keep elbows in, pull back quickly, etc. etc.) and he had us work on some focus mitt drills and punches.

Quite a bit of ab work, or so it seemed to me, which put in perspective how out of shape I remain after trying to get back into shape (if ever I was in it).

So, from my perspective, it seemed pretty good and may well be added to my overall training. Or, at least the boxing class, hahaha.

[money]

That sounds promising. I'd ask about their BJJ coach's teacher and rank, though. The website seemed to skip around it.

Donovan has studied Okinawa Karate, Olympic Tae-Kwon-Do and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and has amassed two black belts amongst many other awards and accolades.

[Gosai]

This is true, but I think with a bit of detective work even from that blurb we can figure it out.

I imagine the two black belts are for the Karate and Tae Kwon Do personally. I forgot to ask his exact rank, but I did ask Donovan's lineage while we were rolling, specifically where his BJJ comes from.

He told me his particular lineage was Ribeiro (I believe Saulo specifically). I don't believe I have any terribly great reason to doubt him as he also participated in the wrestling class immediately preceding his own BJJ class and was able to both submit me in good time while pointing out the mistakes I was making that allowed him to submit me when we rolled towards the end of class.

We mostly covered an armbar and the scissor sweep, with a couple variants of each, that, from what I recall of my last experience with Jujutsu looked good to me too.

He did mention learning/doing something while he was a blue belt, so at minimum his rank in BJJ is blue it seems. Since there's no inflation to his resume up there (unless you consider the vague 'awards and accolades' to be inflation due to it's vagueness) I see no reason to doubt he's not somewhere in the usual experience level for most BJJ teachers. I'll try to remember to inquire more thoroughly about his rank later.

[100xobm]

Round these parts Silver-Fox means an attractive older person.

It sounds pretty cheap and you don't have to do a contract which is nice.

[Colin]

From everything you have said so far, the only question mark is his specific rank in BJJ.
5-10 years ago, blue belt instructors were very common. (my very first experiences with BJJ back in 2004 were with a blue belt instructor)

Even these days, Purple belt instructors are quite common, too.
At the HTC, we have one black belt, three or so brown belts and about 8 or so purple belts. All three of the weekly MMA Fundamentals sessions at the HTC are taught by purple belts, with the BJJ gi and no gi classes taken predominantly by the Black belt and the brown belts.

Everything else about the guy seems pretty legit so far, if your own experiences are anything to go by.

[Gosai]

Yeah, so far I haven't seen anything that raised any red flags and everyone seems on the up and up. I'll try to remember to ask his actual rank the next time I see him up there.

[100xobm]

Yeah, so far I haven't seen anything that raised any red flags and everyone seems on the up and up. I'll try to remember to ask his actual rank the next time I see him up there.

Just askin, why don't you go to the BJJ thing and have a look at the colour of his belt? Or is gi grappling a dying art in the states theseadays?

[Gosai]

The second one, sadly. He conducted the class dressed fairly casually and in a t-shirt and shorts for it. The school admits to having an MMA focus and thus a lot of their training is geared in that direction.

Perhaps I'll ask him about doing some pure Jujutsu a couple times a week... Fridays they do have Open Mats the whole day.

[Gosai]

Well, took a bit longer'n I'd planned but yeah. Talked to the Jujutsu instructor after class today.

He's currently ranked as a blue under the Ribeiro brothers and is, in fact, training for his purple at the moment.

Sooo... yeah. Everything seems legit to me.