Kensei Mixed Martial Arts

**Alchemyguy** · Posted On: 3/07/2008 2:54pm

Kensei Mixed Martial Arts and Fitness (KMMA) offers a variety of classes based around a core of Sensei Kent Brown's specialty: karate and Japanese jujutsu, with a healthy dose of Muay Thai for good measure. Kids classes are divided into beginner/advanced and age categories; I've sat in on a couple of kids classes and Senesi Kent demonstrates his good humor and teaching skill as easily with the kids as he does with the adults who participate in the evening MMA classes that run Mondays and Wednesdays. Classes for the young kids (4-6) are short at 30 minutes, no doubt because of the limited attention spans of the young.

My primary experience is with the adult classes, which run ~1.5 hours, but often run over to 2 hours due to the enthusiasm of the instructor; he usually seems that he wants to teach more material, but never has enough time. A typical class involves 20-30 minutes of conditioning work, and an hour of striking work or ground work. Most of the work involves a partner, whether to hold focus mitts or thai pads, or to work with on the ground. The end of the class time is usually reserved for open sparring, concentrating heavily on the standup portion of the game. The more senior students are supportive and ready to help the novices improve.

Also offered are striking/conditioning classes 3 times a week, and a "cardio MMA" class 4 times a week. The cardio class is individual; participants work with a heavy bag, working punching/kicking combos, interspersed with sprawling and a variety of conditioning exercises. I've found it to give a very good workout, driving me to near vomiting on at least two occasions.

Saturday yields open mat time to work whatever the students like. The kids karate often come in to work katas and bo staff along side the adults sparring and grappling. Again, the senior students are more than happy to work with the novices; I've spent a good number of Saturdays improving my skills with some great grapplers and strikers.

I've found the atmosphere at KMMA to be light and fun, but focused and intense when appropriate. The students are dedicated and the instructor loves to share his skills with us all. Some days there isn't much room on the mat and a larger space would be great. Similarly, there is really only one instructor for the karate and mma classes and when the class is full it's hard to get a whole lot of personal attention. Thankfully, the more advanced students are very knowledgeable and share the teaching burden. KMMA is a great place to train.