Northwest Fighting Arts

11/04/09

Great Place to Learn Tai Chi & Other Internal Arts

by lilyagnes

You will experience a balance between the sublime and the practical as an internal arts student at NW Internal and Fighting Arts. Careful, patient and you-appropriate teaching allows you to summon the elusive, powerful, healing Chi. The effort centers your mind, lightens your spirit and opens you up to greater possibilities. The atmosphere is purposeful but playful, noncompetitive and accepting. On the practical side, in a relatively short time, your muscles gain strength so that your joints are more stable, the hills you encounter seem smaller to climb and the challenge of balancing on one leg is no longer accompanied by windmilling arms. You feel better all over. The lead teacher, Jeff Patterson, and the other teachers are gentle, kind, humorous and yet exacting practioners of the "internal arts."

• Pros: Skill of Teachers is Superior

11/03/09

NWFA

by Rick Schultz

This school is not a joke! I checked out alot of schools prior to this one and all i found were a bunch of ego maniacs jumping around pretending they were Superman. The instructors at NWFA are very helpful and will always help you out when asked. I've been a student for about a year and a half and I've learned so much. I've learned how to relax and how to focus which are the most important things when learning a martial art. So come on down and check out a class, you will see that I'm right.

• Pros: Great workouts and cool people
• Cons: None

11/01/09

muay thai

by chriswnw

I sometimes take NWFA's submission grappling and Kali/Escrima classes, but considering that I focus upon Muay Thai/boxing, I'm going to review the Muay Thai classes specifically.

For a guy in his early 30s, I initially considered myself to be in decent shape. About a week before starting out at NWFA, I could easily bike 50-60 miles in a single stretch. However, my first Muay Thai class -- while not lasting nearly as long as a 60 mile ride -- was far more physically grueling. A lot of new students stop attending class within a month after starting, as it isn't something that anybody MUST do -- given a choice between a night on the couch and a night in class, most will chose the former. However, after a year of doing this, I have to wonder why I didn't start during my twenties. There are few activities in life that are as fun and that will make you feel as good about yourself as Muay Thai.

The classes themselves are about 40 percent western boxing focused and 60 percent Muay Thai oriented, and you will generally not know which will be taught on any given night. Class begins with a short warm-up consisting of calisthenics or shadow boxing -- again, the warm-up is short, so I recommend coming early to stretch or do extended warm-ups. You will then pair up with another student and practice combination drills where you will take turns initiating and responding to the sequence of strikes (or sometimes clinching exercises) being instructed. (If you are brand new, the instructor will pair you up with an experienced student.) These drills are done at light to medium contact, depending upon your comfort level and the nature of the drill. After the class is roughly half over, one partner will put on Thai pads or focus mitts to hold for the other -- this is an opportunity to strike at full contact, provided that you are comfortable with the drill. Partners will switch off holding and striking, and the instructor will often impose calisthenics (e.g., burpees, jump squats, jumping pushups, etc) upon the entire class between rounds. The final round is usually a "burn-out" round, involving exhausting exercises like double-kicks, pyramids and "stacking bricks". Depending upon the instructors level of sympathy for everybody at the end of class, he may or may not have everybody close out with a set of "8-count bodybuilders" -- a burpee-like exercise that's great for you, but absolutely no fun at the end of an already tiring class.

The day and morning classes can be a little bit different from what I describe above -- I usually attend the night classes.

You have the option to spar before or after class, depending upon the fay, but it isn't woven into the class itself. Many students prefer not to subject themselves to the injury risk or discomfort that comes with sparring, and that is perfectly fine. However, I do recommend trying it after training for 3-6 months, as there is no better way to apply what you've learned than by exposing yourself to the unpredictability and randomness of simulated combat.

NWFA is very friendly to beginners, and you will find plenty of other students that haven't started long before you. This is a good thing, as I got my start here. However, I believe the lack of intermediate classes might be responsible for the fact that a number of experienced students have left since I started. I sometimes worry about this, as I don't want to ever be in the position where I am anywhere close to being the best student at the gym. I always want to be able to train and spar with people who are better than I (although that won't be an problem for me for at least another couple of years). That said, I would like to see at least one class a week devoted specifically to intermediate and advanced students.