Ground n' Pound for Kids

The vision of Little Johnny straddling Little Jimmy and beating the Cheerios out of him is certainly an image that conjures bullies from the 70's - but is this where MMA Kids Classes are heading?

No. Emphatically NO! MMA at the professional level has transformed itself from the no holds barred brawls of the early 90's into a submission fighting challenge that has weight classes, safety equipment, plenty of rules and good referees to enforce them. The participants have transformed from uncouth street scrappers to sophisticated combatants with a healthy respect for conditioning, diet, safety - and their fellow fighters.

And that's what MMA for kids is all about: Safely and effectively learning the skills of standup kickboxing as well as the takedowns and submission holds of grappling.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of one-on-one contests from Boxing to Pro-wrestling, there is always the "testosterone factor", the name calling and baiting that television producers have latched onto as an integral part of the sport. Grudge Matches are played up, nasty language abounds and the audience is convinced that the fighters are full of hatred and vengeance. It's part of the excitement of the contest - but the reality is often far from the hype. All fighters have a lot of respect for their opponents despite what they may say. Fighting professionally is a career, a potentially lucrative career that can be cut short by injury. Every fighter is concerned with safety - no matter what the rhetoric.

This concern for safety has to start with kids. Good MMA classes are based on safety - the best make it a part of every class. If nothing else, a school unconcerned with safety will shortly lose all of it's students through needless injury - and the reputation for carelessness that follows.

The Pro-Star Mixed Martial Arts system addresses safety concerns by it's very design. The 3 year program starts students with kickboxing and Muay Thai skills with contact between students strictly controlled with Limited Sparring Drills. In Year 2, grappling and ground fighting skills are introduced and again, Limited Grappling Drills are at the core of the curriculum. In Year 3, students are allowed more opportunities for sparring. Both standup skills and grappling skills are employed, but the majority of this sparring utilizes sophisticated combinations that are drilled with students learning both offensive and appropriate defensive techniques.

Padded equipment protects against unwanted contact for both sutdents - a fighter's knuckles need protection as much as his partner's ribs. Proper gloves are required - both MMA style grappling gloves and the more padded Kickboxing style gloves should be utilized depending on the situation. Shin guards and foot protection are also a must as are mouth guards and helmets. Good schools offer rib guards as well, particularly with knee drills.

Mixed Martial Arts is a potentially devastating blend of fighting styles from around the world and has quickly become the top draw for Pay-Per-View audiences, cable viewers and even network television sports fans. And, despite the pre-fight posturing, it's a rare fight that doesn't end in a handshake or hug, with an amazing outpouring of respect for fellow fighters.

Should kids be a part of all of this? With the right school, the right teachers and a healthy dose of safety and respect, my answer is YES!

WMMA wins at NAGA!

The Woodstock Mixed Martial Arts High Intensity Team grappled with schools from across the nation at the North American Grappling Association's Midwest Grappling Championship on Saturday. This Nationally Ranked event saw the 8 member Team WMMA bring home two First Place wins, seven Second Place medals, and three Third Place medals for a total of 12 awards, besting their May outing by eight more medals!
















Pro-Star Director Joe Brignoli made the trip from Tampa, florida to lead a special training session and to help cheer our students to victory. The Pro-Star program has sparked the team's successes at NAGA and Pro-Star schools, led by Grappling Director Jerry Jones' Ultimate Fighting School, are currently ranked #3 in the nation at NAGA contests.

Mr. Brignoli will be in town through Thursday. All students are encouraged to attend as many classes as possible this week in order to take advantage of his incredible MMA knowledge and experience as well as his high energy teaching style, guaranteed to renew each student's excitement about the Mixed Martial Arts!




Reminder: The school will be closed next week (Nov 24 -29) for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Classes will be back to the normal schedule on Monday, Dec 1.

Testing Week Schedules and our Christmas Holiday Schedule will be available at the school soon. We're going to have some special review sessions and lots of free sparring and grappling both the week before Christmas and the week after. Plan on spending some of those Christmas vacation days working off some of those Holiday cookies!

Busy Times!

The election is over... and the real work of righting our country has begun. Just be aware, when politicians say that "we" need to work, they're talking about YOU! And, seeing as how most of us don't work for the government directly, they're usually talking about collecting more MONEY from you - in lieu of you grabbing a shovel or a calculator!

Many of us are already tightening our belts a bit (and more than a few of us could use it!), but I fear that the worst is yet to come. The last world wide depression was more than a decade long and I suspect that this one will not be measured in months.

Trust in your abilities, trust your family and friends and take as long a view as you possibly can. It's just as important for all of us to keep our eyes on the future as it is to live day to day. Set a well-reasoned goal and keep on track. Adapt as you must to make the goal a reality, but keep your head up!

Our S.T.O.R.M. class is starting to get a food drive organized. Check with a leadership team member to see how you can help.

When we train as athletes, we are always aware that no matter how good we get, there's always somebody a little faster, a little stronger - a little luckier. As we come into hard times, remember that no matter how bad things get, there's always somebody in a worse position.

Testing and New Term!

We finished our testing for Term 5 on Saturday - and both Year 1 and Year 2 students looked excellent! There's no doubt that the Pro-Star material is being learned at both physical and mental levels - and we've got some excellent fighters who really know how to show their stuff!

Term 6 starts today... and the minute our Web Server gets back in action, we'll update the schedule for those of you who forgot to take one last week.

For Year 1 students, we're working on our Thai Kicks - for Year 2 students, we're getting another look at the Guard Position and learning several more submissions, takedowns and escapes from this BJJ favorite. Term 6 will be pretty intense - but the challenge is what makes us better at what we do.

Demo Team and Leadership Team (STORM) will be meeting again this Saturday - and if the weather cooperates we just might get a chance to get outside!

What is Important?

I don't know if I'm allowed to quote from this site, so I figure it's better to just put up a link:

http://www.weboflove.org:80/060309cabride

This is an important story, one we should all read and take to heart.

Go.

Leadership at WMMA

Our Leadership Team at WMMA is getting some good lessons of late. This last Saturday we had guest speaker Jim Zei, fund raiser extraordinaire, talk about getting involved in community projects as a way of developing leadership skills. Mr. Zei focused on some of the attributes of a leader, talking about integrity, honesty and commitment - and giving both book definitions and real world examples of how these skills are essential to leadership.
Integrity, Mr. Zei told us, is when the values on the inside of a person match the actions on the outside. It's not enough to talk the talk... walking the walk is what a true leader does.
We've got several more community leaders lined up to speak to our group in the coming weeks. I am really enjoying listening and learning from our guest speakers because the different perspectives that are presented appeal to different students. Something that one speaker says might just light up a student's eyes - and getting that light to go on - and stay on - is really our job in creating the next generation of leaders.

Great Article on CNN

I don't know how long CNN.com keeps their stories up, but there's currently a great article about the state of MMA in the U.S. today. Check it out here:
MMA in the News

If you've ever watched Ultimate Fighter, you've seen crazy young fighters living in a house together in the weeks of final training (and matches!) before the awarding of the Ultimate Fighter trophy. In my opinion, many of these fighters could use a lesson or two in self-control, but I realize that a lot of that behavior is encouraged in order to make for a more - ah -interesting "reality" show.

I believe that the future of MMA is predicated on it becoming a "real" sport, moving more on the lines of football and baseball than Pro-Wrestling. Sure, it can be argued that football is more entertainment than pure athletics - but the quality of the athletics is always far more important than the parades, the halftime shows - and the trash talking interviews.

MMA needs to continue to clean up it's act at the Pro level - because there are suddenly lots of interested amateurs coming up in the ranks, amateurs that have learned the value of respect and self-discipline.

That's our vision for the future of MMA - and it's what we teach.

Guest Lecture Series!

Our leadership team started a guest lecture series on Sept 6 with Officer Chip Amati (Jake's dad!) visiting our studio. Sergeant Amati spoke for about 40 minutes, entertaining one and all with stories and information about being a police officer in Woodstock. Beyond the smiles and laughter was a larger message about leadership, about putting yourself on the front lines as an example to your followers, to not be afraid to do what you'd ask others to do for you.
There are plenty of different leadership styles - some involve working from the planning headquarters, some demanding that you be in the front lines. Officer Amati made a good argument for the latter, explaining how it works for him and the men under him. Thank you once again, Officer Amati, for a great talk!

This last Saturday, we had another guest lecturer although this one was via DVD. The late Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" is one of the most inspirational speeches of all time and our S.T.O.R.M. watched the first hour of it - and we've got about 15 minutes more to watch this coming Saturday. Mr. Pausch is worth a Google - and there are several YouTube videos of this lecture (some more edited than others). Sadly, he passed away from cancer this last July - certainly not unexpectedly as the "Last Lecture" explains - but the world is certainly a better place for his short 47 year visit. He talks about the reasons for "brick walls" that seemingly keep us from our goals, he talks about the importance of childhood dreams, he explains how, sometimes, when concentrating on one lesson we find we've learned an entirely different one as well - something he calls a "head fake". An amazing man - and we're lucky to be able to learn from him.

And there will be more lectures - both live and DVD - coming up in the next several weeks! (As well as more projects - that involve more DOING than sitting!)

Back to School...TODAY!

And I'm still finishing up the summer months with pictures from our pool party (here), pictures from the Boot Camp (also here) and the Wonder Lake Parade (here as well!)

For those of you who wonder what I do in my spare time... you can check out a video Mrs. Schulenburg took of me playing with the Sinful Saints Dixieland band here.

And... since I'm going link mad today, you might as well check out the NAGA site (here), to read about the next MidWest Tournament that they are holding on November 15 in Evanston! TeamWMMA will make an appearance - and will do their best to better last spring's record!

That's it for this time... I've got a newsletter to put together!

Pictures...

Back in the "good ol' days", I had an excuse to not have timely pictures for friends to view: I still had a few pictures on the roll, it was still in the camera, I haven't dropped it off yet, they're not back yet, I haven't had a chance to pick them up...

So... without further ado, here's a nice picture from our parade in Wonder Lake back on the Fourth of July. That's only a month and a half ago! (Yes, yes, I know it's the age of digital! Click the picture for a larger version!)



Anneliese breaks a board for the local police and fire crews!

Boot Camp Sunday!

We're getting the patio finished, the trails have been cut, we've got a tunnel for our obstacle course - things are coming together nicely!

Our sign up lists are in place at the studio - and it looks like better than 50 people have signed up thus far. I suspect we'll have over 100 when it's all over!

There's still time to get your name up there - and please bring a food or drink item to share as well.

And don't forget your fatigues and squirt guns!

Boot Camp

We're having a picnic - just for fun! But we're going to make you WORK for your supper... with a Boot Camp full of fun physical activity and exercises. We're going to climb ropes, do chin-ups, play on monkey bars, run through tires, crawl through tunnels... the list goes on!

After a good hour or so of working up our appetites, we'll dive into our pot luck picnic, featuring goodies from all our students, parents and friends.

And once we're done eating, we're going to have the World's Largest Squirt Gun Fight!

It looks like we'll be having it at our house - 7 acres of forest - on August 17. That's a Sunday, and we'll get started about 2 PM. There will be maps and more details on what to bring this week and next week in our classes!

Everyone is invited! Moms, Dads, Brothers, Sisters - bring a friend as well!

New on Our Contact Us Page!

I've been updating some of the web pages over at the WMMA site. I put a little slide show on the landing page (scroll down a bit!) and added some thoughts to the contact page. I thought I'd post them here as well as they really express our convictions about teaching the martial arts:

At Woodstock Mixed Martial Arts, we take pride in our love of family values. We truly believe that our students are the next generation of leaders, whether in our community or local businesses - or even on a national or international level. We show the students the tools they need to meet people, to shake hands, to make connections with strangers - and perhaps create a new friend. Our focus is on fitness and fun, not on fighting. Of course, true leaders always have great strengths and we make sure all of our students can more than take care of themselves if the need arises!

Our program is based around the Mixed Martial Arts, arguably the most exciting and effective fighting style in the world. Our students are not fly-by-night kids interested in learning how to beat some one up; rather, we teach that there is a time and place for these new skills, we stress that they are not to be taken lightly. Safety and control are the keystones of every class. Most of our students remain with us for years, learning step by step how to better not only their physical abilities but their social skills, their mental abilities and their emotional control as well.

Staying in shape, making a lifelong commitment to health and fitness is something that all children should choose. Today's lifestyle can be too sedentary with too much TV, too many video games - and it shows with the nationwide obesity epidemic. We teach our students at least two hours of solid exercise each week with pushups and situps joining our punches, kicks and takedowns as part of a fun and well rounded regimen. Make them EARN that video time!

Carolyn and Kurt Schulenburg
Owners and Instructors
Woodstock Mixed Martial Arts

Leadership Team

Today, if the weather permits, our Leadership Team members will be heading to the center of town with an assignment: Shake at least 10 hands. They will introduce themselves with a small, practiced speech (Hi! My name is _______. As part of our WMMA Leadership Team training, we're shaking hands with people on the Square, wishing them a "Good Morning".). They also will have some brochures and IF the situation warrants it, will be passing them out.

Also, they will get another assignment today: write an article about MMA for our website. (www.WoodstockMixedMartialArts.com) I understand that schools usually take about 8 years to teach essay skills, going through all sorts of hoops with outlines and topic sentences. We're going to bypass a lot of that and work on our copying skills. Good ol' fashioned rote learning has a lot more merit than tradtional school teachers know! I'm planning on allocating about 20 minutes or so...

Mr. Schulenburg

Now that Mixed Martial Arts has arrived...

...it's time to talk about it!

Welcome to the blog for the Schulenburg Family Mixed Martial Arts in Woodstock. Here I'm going to post some articles, plenty of news and current events... and maybe even get some links to pictures and videos of what we're doing.

It will take a while to get used to this new format, but check back often for important tips and tricks from the world of MMA.

Kurt Schulenburg
www.sfmma.com