Tuesday, March 26, 2013

United MMA Kids Classes Going Strong

United MMA kids have some fun after tournament training!

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Why Quality Instruction is Crucial When Choosing a MMA School


Patrick Head March 2013
People choose to train mixed martial arts for a variety of reasons.  Some take the sport very seriously and want to participate in competitions and perhaps even become professional fighters someday, whereas others see the sport simply as a fun way to stay in shape.  If you are in the latter category and are not very serious about participating in the sport on a competitive level, you might mistakenly assume that receiving quality instruction is not important in your case and that all you really need is a teacher who knows just enough about the techniques to make the sport fun and physically challenging.   


The truth is, however, that picking a gym with high quality instruction is crucial no matter what reason you have for wanting to train, and this is mainly because lower quality instruction often carries with it a much higher risk of injury.  If you have ever seen mixed martial arts matches on television, you know that the sport can be very violent and even dangerous if it is not properly controlled. Although training mixed martial arts at a gym may not be nearly as dangerous as participating in professional fighting, students at MMA gyms still run a high risk of getting injured if their instructors do not properly inform them on how to stay safe.  Quality MMA instructors can almost completely eliminate this risk of injury by making sure that students understand how to perform moves slowly, carefully, and with minimal force so that no one gets hurt, but less qualified teachers may be comparatively negligent in this area.

Mixed martial arts is the most extreme combat sport a person can train in, and it requires knowledge of a multitude of different martial art disciplines.  Students who practice this sport are required to learn how to fight effectively both from standing and on the ground through utilizing striking, grappling, and takedown techniques.  Low quality gyms will often have one person teaching in all of these different disciplines even though they are only experts in one of them, and this is definitely not an ideal situation from a risk management perspective.  For example, if an instructor is an expert boxer but is teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in spite of the fact that he is not very well-versed in grappling techniques, he will be slower to notice when a student is performing a move that is going to injure her partner, and he may also neglect to teach students the important safety techniques that are associated with this sport such as the proper way a person should land when an opponent throws them to the ground. 

Another reason that training at a low quality gym is not as safe as training at a gym that prides itself in having high-quality instruction is that lower quality gyms tend to attract a less dedicated crowd.  When this happens, the gym obtains a number of members who saw violent UFC fights on television and have decided that they want to try to inflict that kind of damage to others themselves.  These individuals are not really interested in learning techniques, and their aggression and lack of respect for the sport will likely result in injury to their training partners.  A gym with quality instruction will quickly teach these individuals that practicing mixed martial arts requires discipline and respect and is not about just beating people up.  Any dojo that is worth training at will not allow people who refuse to respect their partners on the mat so that the safety of their students will not be compromised.  To find high quality MMA instruction in the Nederland, Texas area, please check out our website at www.unitedmmafight.com.

How Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu can Save a Police Officer's Life



March 22 - Patrick Head  

There are a number of martial arts that can effectively teach civilians how to protect themselves from attackers, but if you are involved in law enforcement, your aim in a hand-to-hand combat situation is not just to protect yourself from harm, but to protect others from getting hurt as well.  The job of our police officers, many who are students at United MMA in Nederland Texas, is to take control of a hostile situation while doing as little physical harm to the aggressors as possible, and this is exactly what Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is designed to accomplish.  Almost any martial art can teach you how to hurt an opponent badly enough to escape, but if your goal is to protect others as well as yourself, there is absolutely no better combat sport for you to be trained in than Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Most popular combat sports such as Karate, Boxing, Kickboxing, and Taekwondo involve punching and kicking assailants, which can cause great physical harm for which a police officer could potentially face legal repercussions.  On the other hand, at United MMA, we teach our practitioners how to control their opponents through joint locks and superior positioning without hurting them or exerting any more force than is absolutely necessary.  This minimal application of force makes the moves appropriate and effective to implement on everyone from a violent teenage girl to a two hundred twenty pound adult male.  Because Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu does not require a great deal of physical strength, it is also relatively easy for a police officer who has trained in this martial art to effectively restrain an aggressor who is much larger than he is, as Royce Gracie proved to the world when he used Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to defeat much larger opponents in the early days of the Ultimate Fighting Championships before the sport had established weight divisions. 

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a very versatile sport that includes a variety of moves that can be preformed from almost any position, including both standing and on the ground.  It is much like wrestling in that both sports emphasize superior positioning and control of an opponent’s body, but one major difference between the two is that wrestling puts a much stronger emphasis on takedowns, whereas Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu concentrates more on getting an opponent to surrender from any position.  This makes Jiu-Jitsu much more flexible than wrestling, and it also makes it more practical to implement on the asphalt streets where violent wrestling takedowns could do serious damage. No other martial art can claim this kind of versatility and gentleness in handling violent situations, which is why training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at United MMA in Nederland, Texas is so perfect for law enforcement officers. Being able to effectively and yet gently restrain a violent but unarmed attacker without using tasers or weapons is very important for these heroic civil servants who are often put in the difficult position of needing to negotiate between protecting themselves from injury and avoiding being accused of using excessive or inappropriate force.  

Choke the One You Love - A Southeast Texas MMA Gym Brings Families Together

Nederland, TX, Feb 04, 2013 — In today’s fast-paced world, achieving family unity can be difficult. With so many distractions working to prevent parents and children from connecting with each other on a meaningful level, it is very important that families make a conscious effort to spend time together by participating in activities that everyone can enjoy.

At a new MMA gym in Nederland, TX there is no better activity for bringing a family together than Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. In most sport activities such as soccer or football, a parent can only coach or cheer for their children from the sidelines, but in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu they can actually get on the mat with them and learn and train techniques together.

Participating in a physical activity with your children is a great way to bring your family together while promoting healthy lifestyle choices, a benefit that cannot be overemphasized here Southeast Texas, where obesity rates are well above the national average. While a Dad may look to lose weight, his son is excited to learn a submission he saw in the last UFC. Meanwhile, a Mom is learning real life, self-defense.

Family members and training partners learn to be very reliant on one another to improve their skills. The kicks and punches that are taught in other martial arts can be practiced on bags or even in the air, but a majority of the grappling techniques taught in Jiu-Jitsu cannot be performed without another person.

As participants move up in skill level, they begin to teach test one another, and they are constantly pushing each other to perfect their techniques. Working directly with one another to advance their skills creates a unique bond between family members as they advance through the sport.

Anyone who trains Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu will tell you that this amazing martial art is more than just a sport; it is a way of life. The philosophy of respect, self-control, and perseverance that you learn on the mat extends naturally into all other aspects of your life making you a more considerate and cooperative human being. By participating in this sport, children and their parents learn how to depend on one another and help each other grow. This mutual reliance is what being a family is all about, and this is why Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is such an effective activity for promoting family togetherness.

Patrick Head opened United MMA in August 2013 in Nederland, Texas. United MMA offers classes for MMA, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and Boxing. Patrick Head is a Gracie Barra Black belt, 2008 Pan American Champion, 2009 Bronze Medalist in NOGI World Championship, and has 18 Years of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Finding The Right MMA School - Expert Advice From BJJ Black BeltPatrick Head


How to Choose an MMA School

Learning the sport of mixed martial arts can be a rewarding,life-long pursuit, but finding the right gym can be both tricky andintimidating.  The sport’s recentexplosion in popularity has given rise to many gyms that advertise their styleas mixed martial arts but have no expertise in the sport.  In this climate, how does one spot the fakesand find a legitimate gym to learn MMA?

To begin, an easy indicator of a legitimate gym is theselection of martial arts being taught.  Generallyspeaking, MMA is a blend of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing, Kickboxing andWrestling.  Other martial arts such asJudo, Sambo, and Karate, while not as common, have also given rise tosuccessful fighters at the highest levels of the sport.

Traditional martial arts such as Aikido, Taekwondo, JeetKune Do and anything advertised as Ninjutsu, however, have not provedsuccessful inside the cage.  Schoolsteaching these martial arts and advertising themselves as MMA schools areplaces to avoid.  It’s also a good ideato avoid gyms that bill their instructors as “street fighters” that can teach“secret moves.”    

If you’re hoping to learn the MMA game, there are noshortcuts or secret moves.  Successfulfighters know that to win in MMA, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing, Kickboxing andWrestling are all essential. 

The selection of martial arts offered at a gym can be a goodindicator of legitimacy, but there are gyms out there that advertise themartial arts that form the cornerstone of the MMA game with no qualifiedinstructors to teach them. 

A good way to sort the real deal from the fakes is toresearch results in competition. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, for example, has a largeand flourishing competition scene.  Manygyms will have competition results or footage that can easily be found online.  It might be easy to hang a sign for BrazilianJiu-Jitsu in a gym’s window, but it’s impossible to fake winning a bigtournament like the Pan Ams or the Mundials. Credible MMA gyms will usually have an active competition record forboth grappling and MMA.

Once you’ve done your research, call and ask about freetrials.  Most legitimate gyms offer someform of trial period where a new student can take some classes and see thelevel of instruction first hand.  Don’tbe intimidated! Take advantage of this trial period and attend all of theclasses that you can.  In addition togetting a feel for the different martial arts that make up MMA, trial periodslet you experience the gym’s facilities and amenities first hand.  There’s no better way to get a feeling for aschool, than by making use of this trial period, and since it’s free, there’sabsolutely no risk!

While in class, don’t be afraid to ask questions if you getconfused or overwhelmed.  All of theinstructors and more advanced students started exactly where you are, and theyremember what it was like to be new to the sport.  Asking questions and being eager to learnwill show you how the instructors respond to students and how they teach. 

Being active during your trial period will also show you oneof the most important and unsung aspects of MMA:  the team atmosphere and camaraderie that growbetween teammates.  Take advantage of thetrial period and you’ll see how you can fit into this atmosphere.  Chances are, if you stick with MMA, you’llmeet some of your best friends at the gym.

Whether you’re looking to step in the cage, trying to get inshape, or learn a practical system of self-defense, mixed martial arts is afulfilling pursuit.  Once you’vethoroughly researched the classes and level of competition that a gym has tooffer, take advantage of trial periods and experience the classes firsthand.  The knowledge, self-confidence,and physical fitness that are direct results of learning MMA are well worth it.

See you on the mat!