Empower your teenager for life, with Mixed Martial Arts.

Students in our teenager program are expected to eventually master the 22 virtues of a martial artist. And they are tested on these virtues and key information surrounding them.

It is essential that if we’re going to teach teenagers the skill martial arts, that we’re also teaching them to be honorable.

To that effect, some examples of those virtues are:

Respect, discipline, malleability, persistence, & composure, to name a few.

All of our students learn the gold standard of martial arts for real world self-defense: Mixed Martial Arts.

No other style of martial arts comes close.

Mixed Martial Arts simply contends that the most optimal way to protect yourself is to become excellent in the most important skills of each style of martial art.

Imagine that your child took up Karate and could punch and kick really well, but they never learned how to fight on the ground?!

Karate is terrible in that scenario.

Or, imagine that your child took up Jiu Jitsu, and they could protect themselves when on the ground, but they’ve never learned how to throw a punch?

Or what if there were multiple people trying to hurt your child? Jiu Jitsu is terrible in this scenario.

Karate, Jiu Jitsu, Taekwondo, Muay Thai, Wrestling… These are all great arts that have some very important techniques and principles.

Mixed Martial Arts uses the best techniques from all of these arts, and discards all of the unrealistic techniques.

That’s why it’s the gold standard of martial arts.

Bullying is a huge problem in the world of teenagers.

Our teens are gradually exposed to a variety of self-defense scenarios each class, that gives them the confidence they need to stick up for themselves. Though, this does take time of course.

The proper path to confidence is not to seek it out.

The proper path is to seek out achievement and evidence of ability, and then the confidence comes all by itself.

We instill confidence the right way: through challenging students a bit more each class. And as they overcome those challenges, their confidence grows the right way.

When confidence is earned properly, it’s durable and can last for life.

But when it’s handed out through false accolades, it’s fleeting and shatters in the real world.

Our classes, rank system, and program remains consistent with these principles.

Earned, not given is our motto regarding belts.

Belts are earned via highly quantifiable exams that grow harder with each new rank. Such that the first belt tests aren’t so difficult.

This ensures that we don’t demoralize the students.

But, the higher they climb in rank, the harder each exam becomes. From white all the way to black.

There are many problems with training in Karate, especially training in it alone. It has some wonderful things about it, but its problems are real:

1. Students learn very little self-defense techniques on the ground.

2. As a result of competitions, many, many, many unrealistic techniques exist within Karate schools.

3. As a result of traditions, many unrealistic techniques and “forms” exist within Karate schools.

Mixed Martial Arts, on the other hand, absorbs what’s useful from Karate, and discards all of the unrealistic techniques.

Jiu Jitsu has some great qualities, to be sure. It has principles that are essential for self-defense. And yet, training in Jiu Jitsu alone is very problematic for optimal self-defense for the following reasons:

1. Jiu Jitsu is terrible for protecting yourself against more than one person.

2. Jiu Jitsu makes running away (a very important option to exercise in many self-defense scenarios) less of an option.

3. As a result of a competition/tournament focused culture, your children will spend countless hours learning hundreds of techniques that simply aren’t realistic for self-defense.

Mixed Martial Arts, on the other hand, absorbs what’s useful from Jiu Jitsu, and discards all of the unrealistic techniques.

• An average 6-1 student to teacher ratio for this age group.

• Safety briefings every class, to serve as reminders and prevent injuries.

• Instructors that watch all students like a hawk. They interrupt at any moment that looks ripe for injury.

• Zero head contact, which is obviously terrible for children of any age. Yes, that includes teenagers.

• Soft matting, soft surfaces.

Taekwondo is a solid martial art that has some useful techniques. But like other martial arts, it has a number of fundamental flaws:

1. A sport / tournament focus that leads to an obsession over unrealistic techniques.

2. It’s primarily kicking based, and kicking can only be optimally used when a martial artist has a good deal of space.

3. Taekwondo involves very, very little groundwork. Students who train only in Taekwondo oftentimes have no idea how to protect themselves on the ground.

We know how teens are, especially now a days. Our classes are extremely fast-paced. Very little lecturing. Very hands on. Kids are moving for the vast majority of the class. It’s thrilling, and teenagers absolutely love our classes.

Perhaps the most bothersome thing about activities nowadays is a lack of professional, timed, organized, and sensible structure.

We know full well that parents simply don’t want to waste their money on something that isn’t structured, disciplined, organized, and where kids aren’t getting value the whole time.

All of our classes are structured, timed, and mandated, down to the very second. Come see for yourself.

We find that when there is a consistent structure that students can depend upon, it allows them to push through hard moments, because they understand the temporary nature of them.

Our instructors are trained from the start for their feedback to adhere to the following principles:

• Specificity

• Honesty

• Clarity

• Individualism

• Frequency

Without these qualities, feedback is always going to be obsolete.

The students need to know EXACTLY what they did well or what they need to improve.

And feedback is distributed to individuals, BY-NAME, not to a group.

And feedback must be frequent.

When all of these principles are being adhered to, especially that of individualism, it allows for a much more motivational environment.

There are no mass punishments at Rise Martial Arts. Nor are there mass rewards.

• Instructors never engage in profanity in front of students.

• Instructors rely upon positive approaches before engaging in corrective punishments (although, we most certainly use corrective punishments as well, if need be).

• Females with females for any physical contact. Males with males for any physical contact. No girl or boy will be made to touch a student of the opposite sex.

• Instructors are taught how to essentially eliminate physical contact with students of the opposite sex. If physical contact must be made, it’s brief, necessary, and only on hard parts of the body (wrists, elbows, ankles).

For teenagers, the primary type of discipline that is imparted here is mostly that of self-discipline. Or self-control, if you will.

Rise Martial Arts is setting where student compliance is embedded deep within the culture.

That said, discipline is a skill. And skills need to be understood, taught, and properly incentivized. Our instructors are equipped with the proper knowledge, training, and skill to do so.

Tools such as proper feedback, leveraging team pressure, rank incentives, and simply educating the teenagers on why discipline is so essential in the first place. To name a few examples.