Jonathan Stamey: MMA instructor and video boxer

**JonathanStamey** · Posted On: 7/27/2011 8:39am

There's been a lot written so I'll do my best to address everything as I make my way through it.

Atlantic MMA is my company and website's name and yes we used to run classes out of The Spa Athletic club for I believe almost 2 years up until about March of 2010. So if anyone has had trouble finding me since then it's because we haven't been in operation (other than having a group of guys that met every week to train at a friends) for quite some time.

I started the company because boxing and mixed martial arts had always been an interest of mine and what better way to try and make a living than doing something that you enjoy.

At the time of the company's inception I didn't feel I had the experience to be teaching on any level, although I had been boxing for roughly 2 years. So I hired a local guy named Morgan Blanton who I'd seen teaching classes at the ymca to run the classes for me. My decision to have him instruct was based on how he presented himself, his proficiency as a fighter (based off what I knew of the sport at that time), and also my lack of not knowing anyone else to choose from.

I did speak with Anthony Huss about teaching the classes, whom I'd had somewhat of a friendship with, and who has all the qualifications that you could ever want as an instructor...and he tentatively agreed to partner up with me but turned out to be unreliable in returning phone calls and getting together to organize classes. Whether that was his way of turning me down or a legitimate character trait I have no idea, but I decided to go with Morgan because of my aforementioned reasons and the fact that Anthony Huss had a pending sexual assault charge against him (which he has since been convicted of...and no i don't know if he did it or not thats just what happened) which I thought wouldn't be such a good idea if we were going to work with kids. Morgan was well versed in muay thai and grappling, but his background was mainly in judo and krav maga (which is why I used the krav name in my promo video perhaps mistakenly because we weren’t teaching straight krav nor was he a certified krav instructor—I don’t think)

So from there we proceeded to run several classes out of the spa which all kind of just morphed into one MMA/jiu-jitsu/self defense class. We didn't have many students, and yes the mats were terrible, and yes it wasnt the optimal situation to be in, and no the instruction wasn't top top notch, but i think it was a good experience and many of those that attended had something good to say about their time there, and im sure many had negative reviews as well...but I imagine that's all part of the process.

We ended our time there because the spa decided they wanted rent paid per hour instead of the revenue share model we had in place...so it no longer made sense to be there because we simply didn't make enough money to pay. Classes ended, we moved to training in a friends garage for a time, and have since not been in operation for almost a year.

**JonathanStamey** · Posted On: 7/27/2011 8:40am

I'm reopening the Atlantic MMA Gym on August 1st, 2011 in a 1700 sq foot space at 1012 3rd Ave NW Hickory, NC 28601, but more on that in a minute.

Now to me, since the gentleman who started this thread has made sure this would pop up on google under my name...I feel as though I should address his concerns and at least while certainly unhappy reading this thread can understand how one would have the objections he has and appreciate the manner in which he wrote it, because it's really not as bad as most forum bashing you see a majority of the time.

So no, if you are looking for certifications and a gaudy fight record to prove I can teach you something about fighting, god knows I am certainly the wrong person to come to. I have been boxing for almost 6 years now, and no gi grappling for almost 4. I only have one amateur boxing match (which i lost 11 to 7--amateur boxing is judged by clean blows landed) in October of 2010 and I am not belted by any bjj black belt nor am I a certified USA Boxing Coach.

So why should anyone listen to anything I have to say?

This isn't the sales copy for one of my dvds or ebooks so I can honestly say I'm not sure...that would depend on what you think.

There are plenty of instructional videos to look at on youtube, and now that the gym is opening again you can come by and take a class to see for yourself. No, I'm not the best fighter in the world, but I'm not bad, and I'm not the best instructor in the world either, but I think I've found a way to express the knowledge that I do know to people in an easily digestible way.

Yes, I am most certainly trying to make a living from my business. The gentlemen who started this thread seems to frown upon that...and maybe he's right, maybe I don't have the qualifications to be doing what I'm doing, but I've found that MOST people...not everyone, but most people know less than me about boxing. So that makes the information I can provide valuable to them. Many people have had lots of positive things to say about my instruction, and there are a few that disapprove. But that's ok, I realize that everyone isn't going to like me, or find my instruction valuable.

I think I would even urge those of you who want to train more seriously to go to the other gyms in the area...I always told anyone who wanted to fight to go see Anthony. I don't know much about Guerilla Tactics, but I hear their instructor is a fantastic grappler and I don't personally know the Carrolls, but know they are fighters and have done well for themselves. Good for all of them.

**JonathanStamey** · Posted On: 7/27/2011 8:41am

I started this business to do something I enjoy, impart what I do know to others, and to attempt to make a living at it. Up until now, I've only enjoyed a part time income from it, and yes I currently still lifeguard part time at the hickory foundation ymca.

If I'm fighting for some type of legitimacy because of my position in google, it's not because I'm the best fighter or trainer or gym owner, the only reason Im found more online than others in Hickory is just because I'm a decent Online Marketer and I've had some success with Search Engine Optimization.

The fact that I'm found more than others helps my business, but doesnt mean that I'm any better of an instructor or fighter or gym so you shouldn't think that.

And any type of "hype" or "bold language" you see online is meant to get the information read to sell my products all over the world. It's not meant to trick and persuade people in the small town of Hickory, NC to buy my products. I'll give anyone in Hickory my products for free, that's not what I'm trying to do. All that is is sales copy...no I don't talk like that, and I much more modest in person or in conversation, but modesty doesn't sell products and I won't apologize for trying to make a living based on knowledge I have. There's a guarantee anyways, so if people don't like what Im teaching they get their money back.
As for being a "legit boxer"...I trained for a couple years without much sparring, teaching myself a majority of what I know from every instructional book and dvd I could find, but I found that I wasnt as good as I thought I was when I started sparring hard.

The only people ive sparred in the area are people who have come to class, and I did spar once at ultimate athletics in granite falls with a couple guys, but other than that the reason why i havent been here is because i had been driving to train in Charlotte with Krishna Wainright and Tony Douglas...Krishna is searchable, and didn't enjoy a very successful pro boxing career but was a bronze medalist at the world championships in the 80's as an amateur. Anyways, they took me to spar mostly at the Charlotte Boxing Academy.

Which was a rude awakening at first but I earned my respect and began to hold my own. If you asked those at the academy like the head of USA Boxing for NC Al Simpson, or my own coaches (feel free to facebook them and ask) they'd probably tell you the same thing I'd tell you...I've got some talent, but I'm still pretty green in terms of ring experience. The goal is to make a living with my business SO I can train full time to attempt a fight career.

I've been beat up, and knocked down by experienced amateurs to light heavyweight pro's...so if you want to come by and spar to see if I'm any good, I welcome it, because I need the practice anyways.

**JonathanStamey** · Posted On: 7/27/2011 8:42am

If we're talking about my experience with grappling then sure I'd love to roll with you too, but i'm not black belt nor do I pretend to be. Which is why I teamed up with Jeff Carter for the filming of a bjj basics dvd, because I wouldnt feel comfortable selling a bjj dvd taught by me...i don't call that leeching onto people, it was just a conscious business decision.

Ill teach white belt level grappling as a satellite school of jeff's, but I would certainly direct anyone with more experience to jeff or another school. I'm not belted, having not trained under anyone specific that has the authority to hand out belts for any significant time frame, but with the almost 4 years of experience I could comfortably say I'm a good blue belt grappler.

I hope I've cleared up as much of his concerns as I can. The new gym is located at 1012 3rd Ave NW Hickory, NC...It'll have an Atlantic MMA logo up in the window. Classes begin August 1st. There will be kids boxing and grappling, adult boxing and grappling, an MMA class, a women's self defense, and a strength training class in the mornings monday through thursday.

And yes, initially I will be teaching all of them. So if you're reading this then I don't know how thrilled you will be about that, but it couldn't hurt to try me out. Even if you find my instruction less than stellar, perhaps the drilling, training partners, and nice zebra mats will be enough. Plus it'll be cheap, $35/a mo for one class and $75/mo for every class, so perhaps like the gentleman suggests you'll be getting what you pay for :)

(hopefully that's a joke).

And if you absolutely think I suck there's a $20/mo open gym/mat that you can do and just take advantage of the mat time, you don't even have to listen to me at all. Look I'm not a bad guy, I don't pretend to be anything I'm not, and I hope the gentleman who wrote this post can see that by the way I've expressed myself in this forum. I really do think most people will get something from my boxing instruction, my strength training and diet regiment, and beginner jiu jitsu instruction...you know other than that you can completely dismiss anything i have to say because there's not much else i have to offer, but maybe that's enough for some people.

If anyone has any questions please feel free to call the gym 828 855 9151, my mobile 252 412 3847, or email me at jstamey@atlanticmma.com

and to 30andCrappling...i understand you're looking out for people in the area so i can appreciate that, i'm not entirely happy with the way you went about it, but i guess i was difficult to find (although there is a contact form on the site). I hope this appeases you but if not go **** yourself (just kidding--that's for your pulp fiction gimp joke, which was actually pretty funny)

**JonathanStamey** · Posted On: 7/27/2011 8:44am

If we're talking about my experience with grappling then sure I'd love to roll with you too, but i'm not black belt nor do I pretend to be. Which is why I teamed up with Jeff Carter for the filming of a bjj basics dvd, because I wouldnt feel comfortable selling a bjj dvd taught by me...i don't call that leeching onto people, it was just a conscious business decision.

Ill teach white belt level grappling as a satellite school of jeff's, but I would certainly direct anyone with more experience to jeff or another school. I'm not belted, having not trained under anyone specific that has the authority to hand out belts for any significant time frame, but with the almost 4 years of experience I could comfortably say I'm a good blue belt grappler.

I hope I've cleared up as much of his concerns as I can. The new gym is located at 1012 3rd Ave NW Hickory, NC...It'll have an Atlantic MMA logo up in the window. Classes begin August 1st. There will be kids boxing and grappling, adult boxing and grappling, an MMA class, a women's self defense, and a strength training class in the mornings monday through thursday.

And yes, initially I will be teaching all of them. So if you're reading this then I don't know how thrilled you will be about that, but it couldn't hurt to try me out. Even if you find my instruction less than stellar, perhaps the drilling, training partners, and nice zebra mats will be enough. Plus it'll be cheap, 35/a mo for one class and 75/mo for every class, so perhaps like the gentleman suggests you'll be getting what you pay for :)

(hopefully that's a joke).

And if you absolutely think I suck there's a 20/mo open gym/mat that you can do and just take advantage of the mat time, you don't even have to listen to me at all. Look I'm not a bad guy, I don't pretend to be anything I'm not, and I hope the gentleman who wrote this post can see that by the way I've expressed myself in this forum. I really do think most people will get something from my boxing instruction, my strength training and diet regiment, and beginner jiu jitsu instruction...you know other than that you can completely dismiss anything i have to say because there's not much else i have to offer, but maybe that's enough for some people.

If anyone has any questions please feel free to call the gym 828 855 9151, my mobile 252 412 3847, or email me at jstamey at atlanticmma com

and to 30andCrappling...i understand you're looking out for people in the area so i can appreciate that, i'm not entirely happy with the way you went about it, but i guess i was difficult to find (although there is a contact form on the site). I hope this appeases you but if not go f yourself (just kidding--that's for your pulp fiction gimp joke, which was actually pretty funny)

**JonathanStamey** · Posted On: 7/27/2011 8:48am

If we're talking about my experience with grappling then sure I'd love to roll with you too, but i'm not black belt nor do I pretend to be. Which is why I teamed up with Jeff Carter for the filming of a bjj basics dvd, because I wouldnt feel comfortable selling a bjj dvd taught by me...i don't call that leeching onto people, it was just a conscious business decision.

Ill teach white belt level grappling as a satellite school of jeff's, but I would certainly direct anyone with more experience to jeff or another school. I'm not belted, having not trained under anyone specific that has the authority to hand out belts for any significant time frame, but with the almost 4 years of experience I could comfortably say I'm a good blue belt grappler.

I hope I've cleared up as much of his concerns as I can. The new gym is located at 1012 3rd Ave NW Hickory, NC...It'll have an Atlantic MMA logo up in the window. Classes begin August 1st. There will be kids boxing and grappling, adult boxing and grappling, an MMA class, a women's self defense, and a strength training class in the mornings monday through thursday.

And yes, initially I will be teaching all of them. So if you're reading this then I don't know how thrilled you will be about that, but it couldn't hurt to try me out. Even if you find my instruction less than stellar, perhaps the drilling, training partners, and nice zebra mats will be enough. Plus it'll be cheap so perhaps like the gentleman suggests you'll be getting what you pay for :)

(hopefully that's a joke).

And if you absolutely think I suck there's a open gym/mat that you can do and just take advantage of the mat time, you don't even have to listen to me at all. Look I'm not a bad guy, I don't pretend to be anything I'm not, and I hope the gentleman who wrote this post can see that by the way I've expressed myself in this forum. I really do think most people will get something from my boxing instruction, my strength training and diet regiment, and beginner jiu jitsu instruction...you know other than that you can completely dismiss anything i have to say because there's not much else i have to offer, but maybe that's enough for some people.

If anyone has any questions please feel free to contact me through the site.

and to 30andCrappling...i understand you're looking out for people in the area so i can appreciate that, i'm not entirely happy with the way you went about it, but i guess i was difficult to find (although there is a contact form on the site). I hope this appeases you but if not go eff yourself (just kidding--that's for your pulp fiction gimp joke, which was actually pretty funny)

**It is Fake** · Posted On: 7/27/2011 8:59am

Okay you really need to stop spamming the thread with multiple posts.

**Coach Josh** · Posted On: 7/27/2011 10:33am

Not to get in your business nor try to discredit you but guys like you make it hard for real MMA gyms. While an interest in the sport is great it's a typical American attitude that you can go to a class and learn something then regurgitate it back to others. I'm an American also before that gets out of hand.

When I started teaching MMA I had roughly 20 years of MA experience with BB in Judo and TKD some kickboxing and a degree in education. I was not sure if I was qualified. I was lucky to have so athletes and had success in the beginning. When I started training non athletic people I had more challenges and less success.

So how are guys like you hurting the sport? First y'all undercut the price to lure people into your place. This in turn forces the other gyms rates to increase from lost revenue. Now here comes the rebuttal of this is America and we have the freedom to do whatever we want. Again true. The fact of the matter that MA is an unregulated industry allows you to do such a thing. Bullshido does somewhat help in at least putting out some info on guys to allow people to make an educated decision.

The next thing that under qualified instructors do is discourage people. They cancel classes, have low attendance, move locations frequently, and injure students due to poor instruction and substandard equipment.

In the event that they actually compete and the students get beat repeatedly they will quit training and think that all MA are bullshit because of the poor experience that they had in that gym.

Now before the rebuttal of this person or that person did this in MA with less. Let me say that these instances of success do not reflect the amount of people who failed at trying to do the same thing.

My advice to anyone who wants to open any type of martial arts facility is to go study MA and become experienced. Swallow your pride and go learn under accomplished trainers in your area. Become a student then become a teacher. MA is not a profession that is so new that you can just make **** up and have people believe you.

One comment about your fast feet video. I usually skip to the videos and watch them before I read the posts. That video you made showed me instantly that you were just repeating something you learned in a basic boxing class. Your stance and movement were not indicative of someone with very little training.

**30andCrappling** · Posted On: 7/27/2011 11:35am

The following is my reply to his message to me on my facebook account. It will also serve as my reply to this post.

"You are correct, I indeed did write the post about your site. It actually took you a bit longer for you to pop up than I thought. As I stated I wanted it to show up when people googled you so they know what they may be getting into, and not to insult or hurt you personally. Yes you are a bit hard to find but I also waited to contact you to see if I could find out what was going on before this interaction.

I only have a problem with the fact that you are charging people money for the incomplete knowledge that you posses about the use of boxing in an environment where take downs and kicks change the use of traditional boxing. The banner add at the top of the home page says it all, " If you want to fight like*insert popular names* then you CANT AFFORD NOT TO READ THIS" That is the problem I have with what you are doing. I am sure your training and knowledge base are much greater than most people but it it is not up to the degree that you market it to be. I can train newer folks as well but I would not think of doing so for money. I have no problems with your skill level or the fact that people can learn from you, but in my opinion i feel that you have overstated your position by implying that you can make them better in an mma environment.

My other problem was the fact that you seem to use other peoples mat time as a leg up to sell your wares. It comes across to me as that you cannot do this without relying on another veteran party who's greater depth of training you can fall back on. I am sure you have some skills but I am not sure how well the translate into what your marketing There is nothing wrong with this until you use it for gain, especially in such a small area like Hickory. I have no problem with the fact that you want to make money at this, I just want people to get what they deserve from training.There are not many people coming in to do any form of hard contact arts to begin with, and I think they could be better served finding a proper gym and instructor while you completed your own path and came out ahead that way. And I don't think your time on the mat gives them that. If as you say you will, still provide training, I hope that you can and do prove to be of value to paying clientele. I think we will both have to agree to disagree on your business model.

Also repost your reply onto Bullshido as it does not have to wait for approval and it is very good for the discourse. Just copy and paste it. As I said I wanted a discussion to pop up on the net and your reply will present both sides it. Although neither of us will agree on this issue, I think this is the proper outcome. In the end that is all I wanted, now people can make their own choice. I do appreciate the reply and will consider this settled. Also I will take you up and come to your gym to get a first hand view. Good luck with your training and again thank you for your reply to the post. I will also post this email after your post. Please feel free to post the top part as well."

I think I am done with this...

**SifuJason** · Posted On: 7/27/2011 1:41pm

I agree with Coach Josh's points. Additionally, it sounds to me what you are doing is downright irresponsible. MMA is a full-contact sport, and thus has a level of danger in it. Furthermore, many people seek out this type of training for self-defense. Thus, people will be relying on what you teach them to defend themselves on the street or in the cage, and improper education can literally result in someone getting wrecked.

From everything you have posted about yourself, you simply aren't qualified to teach martial arts, of any form. Thus, you are giving your students sub-par skills they will attempt to rely on, and they will get injured as a result. It is irresponsible and completely unethical for someone without the proper qualifications to teach other people combat skills.

This isn't personal, I hold everyone, myself included, to this standard. Stop teaching before someone gets hurt.