Who is NOT Welcome at our MMA Club

At many MMA Gyms, you will find the owners and staff are quite sales driven. You can tell this from the moment you walk in the door. Some guy hustles up to you at some point, shakes your hand, and starts the "buddy sale" with you. You know the buddy sale technique - he acts like you guys are real friends and it is all so obviously phony that it makes you feel dirty like you need a shower somehow. Then he digs for your phone number and email account, because he intends to call you a couple more times, you know, as your "buddy" just to see how you've been and when you are coming in to pay. Mostly the latter reason, right? And it is insulting.

These guys will sign up anyone, and I mean ANYONE, into their gyms, so long as the sign-up has a heart beat and a bank account. Again, the latter is more important in this case. What I mean is that I'm pretty sure that if you had a bank account, but no heartbeat, they'd sign you up anyway (if they could just figure out a way...)

We have nothing against a desire to earn a good living for your family. We have nothing against good sound business practice. That is all very fine.

The negative is that the gyms that are like this are typically full of people that were willing to sign, with few other qualifiers. As such, there are a lot of jerks in the gym. The gym owner is more interested in money and sign-ups than keeping a good, safe gym culture. And so your safety is constantly put at risk while you train with these people that should not be in the gym in the first place.

When you visit these gyms hopefully your gut instinct will tell you that regardless of how fancy their gym is, they are not genuine, and you would do better elsewhere. Hopefully you will listen to your gut instinct.

At our gym it is a little different. We are very picky about who trains here, and who doesn't. Tough guys, jerks and dickweeds are simply not welcome here. If you do not care about your partners safety, if you do not listen to good instruction, if you have a chip on your shoulder or have ANYTHING to prove at all you will be asked to leave. Well, actually, we are a lot more patient than that. Lots of people show up thinking they are on an episode of The Ultimate Fighter and want to "Go All Out" and insist on doing it. We first explain to them where they are (you are not in the movie Fight Club, bro) and what we expect. If they don't get it, and are still acting like a tough guy, taking chances with their partners safety, and ignoring good technical instruction then that person is quickly NOT WELCOME.

It's OK with us if you would rather leave than learn a good, solid technical fight game. If you are bent on the idea that you are somehow justified to punch new and learning members full in the face as hard as you can, if you think you can "just power out of" Jiu Jitsu holds (maybe you CAN but is that really what you show up at a Jiu Jitsu gym to do? or do you show up to learn Jiu Jitsu?) or you just walk around acting tough with your chest puffed up and a stiff tough guy face - don't even show up at all. We sincerely don't need you. We don't need your money, we don't need your ignorance, and we don't need your insecurities.

Please keep in mind all friendly people are welcome here. Friendly is the only requirement in the very end. We don't want to be exclusive. But we have a responsibility to teach people a tight, solid, technical fight game in a safe environment. Our members mostly have full time jobs, and definitely have to be able to go to work tomorrow. The boss does not understand when you are injured AGAIN, and frankly, even if he did, we don't want to be crippled up idiots by the time we are 50 (or 60, or 70 if possible.) Most of us are on the longevity plan - we intend to still be out there training and fighting at 50. How can we do that if you have no concern for our shoulder joints, elbow joints, spine or brain? That is simply inexcusable. We take this responsibility VERY seriously. So if you are a jerk - beat it - don't even show up. If you aren't a jerk - then you can rest assured - beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you are safe here, you have friends here and we watch out for you. We actively maintain this environment, it is not by accident, and you can count on that.

We hope you understand why this is very important. We hate to leave people out of the game, but safety is first and foremost, and GENUINE friendship is almost just as important around here. If that rings true with you, then come on in, you're very welcome.