Fundamentals of Striking

This is the beginner or entry level class here at Progressive, offered on Mondays & Wednesdays at 5:30, then again Saturday mornings at 9:30 AM. These classes are coached by several coaches, including Coach Ben, Coach Mark, & Coach Jordan.

New to martial arts? Never punched or kicked anything in your life? These are the classes for you. Trained for years? Feel like you are ready for the fancy stuff?- You STILL need the fundamentals as they (more than anything else) will be what you will most likely be able to apply under stressful conditions.

This class is for your basics! Stance & footwork (your “base”) are usually how we warm up, then the focus is on learning, then drilling proper form and technique on all of your long range striking. This means learning all the basic strikes thrown from far away on our opponent such as jab, cross, & hook as well as beginner kicks like the round kick & foot jab.

We want you to think 2-3 moves ahead in order to build your offense by “a progressive application of solid fundamentals“.

What does that look like? It could look like a martial artist scoring with their jab, then building their offense off that jab. Using that jab to set up attacks on the legs, or to bring the hands high for a takedown.

Many of don’t reach our goals in life simply because our focus is on the wrong place. Growth Mindset allows us to focus our thinking and our goalsetting on a slower, gradual process instead of looking at a finished product. It lets us learn from (inevitable) failures and not let them define us. As you train at the beginner level, you will experience many failures!

In this class you will develop “grit” or mental toughness that will allow you to push thru uncomfortable experiences (like these failures). Oftentimes we get caught up in these small moments like seeing a champion KO an opponent, or get beat w a slick submission. We think that THIS is the life of a martial artist!

In reality these times take up a VERY small part of your day. Moments only, compared to the HOURS, DAYS WEEKS, and YEARS of your real life where skills like overcoming failure, organizing your time, communicating well, or being a person who “does what she said she would do” is a HUGE skill. These are the real skills of a martial artist! Learning to be a GREAT training partner IS learning to be a better person. How?- my training partner stays in touch w/ me all week. They let me know if they are coming to train or not. They catch my mistakes, remind me of the injuries they may be dealing with, or ask for help on things that they may be having trouble learning. They are a good COMMUNICATOR.

This is the true path of martial arts! 10 years from now no one may remember how hard you could hit, or how much fighting skill you may or may not have had. But many will recall how you treated them, or if you were a GREAT training partner (or not). Service over self is our way.

Fundamentals of Wrestling

Wrestling determines where the fight takes place. If you can grab another person and get them to the ground, you have chosen to be there. If you can defend a takedown, you can choose to remain on the feet. This class is designed to round out your martial arts. This class meets every Thursday at 5:30 PM, the focus is on partner drills and learning good technique.

That means we wrestle to make our striking better, and we strike to improve our wrestling! We pull tools and drills from Freestyle, Folk, Greco, then as we get more intermediate & advanced-we use Thai Boxing (for the neck wrestling) and a little Dumog (Filipino wrestling).

MMA Fundamentals

This class meets on Mondays & Wednesday at 6:30. Once the fundamentals of your stand up have been introduced, it’s time to use our martial arts in a Modern Martial Arts format. Your stand up as well as your ground work changes when you are allowed to punch, elbow, & knee as you must defend takedowns while striking on the feet, as well as learn to defend/throw strikes and submissions while on the ground. Striking happens A. on the feet as well as B. in the clinch and even C. on the ground so you must be able to use your Arts in any situation.

We will begin your education on the ground by exploring the basic positions of: guard, mount, cross mount, then move into positions like half guard and back mount. We will train them first w no strikes to get you comfortable, then slowly add more options.

What are some differences between traditional Boxing or Kickboxing and MMA Striking? A stand up fighter can throw punches w/o worrying about being taken down or pinned to the fence. In order to be a more complete martial artist, we teach you to use your hands to control the distance as well as how to counter takedowns or clinches. As your grow and progress in your striking game, we begin to understand that it is the “Progressive application of strong fundamentals” that really moves your practice of the martial arts to the next level!

Filipino Martial Arts

Filipino Martial Arts is taught every Sunday morning at 9:30. This class will enhance your coordination and line familiarization as you explore the world of Filipino Martial Arts beginning w Lameco Escrima. The ability to work w weapons or empty hand is what separates the FMA from most styles as the concepts are the same with or without. Learn to swing the stick, as well as defend against one. Get exposed to edged weapons training and increase your knowledge of realistic self defense.