West Chester, Ohio - Sacan Family Martial Arts

**Ronin.74** · Posted On: 10/29/2006 4:26pm

Don't let the name full you this gym is the real deal.

Sacan offers a vareity of programs to suit everyone so if you are unsure about what you want to take, no problem just go to any class that you want and see if it's a fit!

Sacan offers children's Kempo classes M-Th from 5:30-6:30. If you have several children in your family that you want to sign up I believe their may be a discount available. Discounts may also be available if parents sign up for the adult classes as well.

For the adults they have several options. Cardio Conditioning M-F 7:00-8:00 am, M-Th 6:30-7:30 pm and Saturday 7:00-8:00 am (check with instructor regarding frequency of Sat. class).

On M-Th from 7:30-8:30 pm (sometimes 9:00) and Friday at 6:30 pm is Muay Thai class. This class can sometimes run over and students are welcome to stay after and work on the heavy bags or spar with a partner as long as someone with a key is also staying (which is often). Tuesday nights from 8:30 on are designated sparring nights, students have to receive permission from the head coach before attending. Basically if your a noob he's not going to let you come in and spar because most likely your going to get your head knocked off, after a couple of months when the coach feels confident that you will keep your hands up and not get hurt he will let you come spar.

On Monday in the adjoining room from 7:30-8:30 are Brazilian Jiujitsu with a gi. 8:30-9:30 generally consists of MMA training and sparring. The instructor for BJJ is a purple belt (I believe under Carlson Jr.)

Wednesday in the adjoining room from 7:30-8:30 (and later) is No-gi grappling. The current instructor is a brown belt in BJJ (I believe under Carlson Jr.)

Thursday at 7:30 and Saturday mornings also offer an AikiJiujitsu class for those interested.

Private instruction is also available, but should be scheduled well in advance. A bulk of the privates that the school instructor teaches usually go to his top tier MMA and Muay Thai competitors. The school recently had a fighter fight for a North American S-1 Muay Thai title during the summer. The head coach at Sacan also gives a lot of private instruction time to his pro MMA guys (Rich Franklin, Jorge Gurgel, etc.) This does not mean that he doesn't have time for the new guys or guys that are not interested in competing, if you let him know you want a private he will try to fit you in as soon as he can.

Your first week of classes are free, after that you have the option to sign up for a 2 month contract at $100 total. When your 2 month special is up all new students are asked to sign a 1 year contract. I am not sure what the current monthly rate is, it used to be $75 but that was a while ago, it may have changed. After your 1 year contract is finished they generally allow students to go on a month to month payment deal with no contract.

Class size varies, some nights there will be 5-6 people other nights it will be around 20+. The general attitude of the students is friendly, experienced students will give advice if they see you doing something wrong and questions are welcomed. Anybody new that comes in with an ego generally leaves after the first week or loses the ego. It is important to follow directions in class for your own safety (we had two big muscly egomaniacs come in last year who didn't and they ended up putting each other through the plate glass window in front of the school, they didn't come back). The size of the gym is a little small but everyone seems to accomplish what they want without any problem.

If your serious about going pro this a great place to train in. You can go to as many classes as you like for the monthly rate. If you want to fight the coach will help you get fights as well as some of the pro MMA guys who promote local shows. It is not unusual for our competing pros to come in on sparring nights to help prep for their fights which offers the up and coming amateurs the opportunity to gauge their level.

If you want more information I would recommend stopping in or calling the school. Their website is really not up to date and their have been many changes in the school scheduling recently.

**Pandinha** · Posted On: 12/01/2006 1:15am

Best review I've read yet.

**Ronin.74** · Posted On: 12/03/2006 8:38pm

Thanks!

I actually wanted my review to useful to anybody who might be interested in the school.

**Wallsie** · Posted On: 6/02/2007 6:22pm

You have no idea how much I would love to go to this place. Just sucks that the classes are all night ones (I work nights), and it would be a 35-minute drive both ways for me.

**jimster933** · Posted On: 6/03/2007 12:43am

NOOBIE question alert: What is "aliveness"? and what does it have to do with a school?

**bigfatmax** · Posted On: 4/18/2008 8:36pm

astroturf

**Ronin.74** · Posted On: 3/12/2009 9:06am

Update.

The head instructor, Neal Rowe, is now officially recognized as an Instructor under Saeksan Janjira and Samart Payakaroon. The class schedule has also changed the class times listed above are no longer valid. As soon as I get the new schedule I will make the correction.