KICKBOXING

Say goodbye to ellipticals and treadmills.  The kickboxing program at Westside MMA is designed to be a full-body workout, teaching you real kickboxing while burning up to 800 calories an hour.

You'll learn valuable skills in footwork, proper punching and kicking, endurance, speed and last but not least flexibility. Special exercises and drills are designed for you to simultaneously get in shape, stay in shape and learn self defense.  Fighting Pros and Average Joes train side by side so you’re free to work at your own pace to get the results and workout that suits you best!

Wednesday’s boxing class is run by long-time boxing coach Boris Washington for those with over six months experience.  An intense workout reminiscent of old-school boxing gyms, Boris will make sure you won’t leave the gym wanting more. 

BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) is a martial art and combat sport that focuses on grappling, especially ground fighting with the goal of gaining a dominant position using joint-locks and chokeholds to force an opponent to submit.  BJJ promotes the principle that a smaller, weaker person using leverage and proper technique can successfully defend themselves against a bigger, stronger assaila

nt. BJJ can be trained for self defense, sport grappling tournaments (gi and no-gi) and mixed martial arts (MMA) competition. Our nogi  classes focus on the aspects of the sport without the uniform on. Sparring and live drilling play a major role in training, with a premium placed on performance, especially in competition.

Westside’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu coaches and students include Pan and World champions, Grappler’s Quest and NAGA gold medalists, and ADCC and World Pro medalists.  With the most successful international competition record in Arkansas, you can’t go wrong at Westside.

Mixed Martial Arts is the fastest growing sport in the world with no signs of slowing down.  Many gyms offer MMA classes without understanding the hard work, dedication, and professional training it takes to be successful.  Westside’s proven MMA program consistently produces top level amateur and professional MMA fighters.  Westside MMA has produced the only two UFC veterans fighting out of Arkansas, lightweight Roli Delgado and heavyweight Mike Wessel. 

Not everyone at Westside is training to become a professional fighter. In fact, a majority of Westside’s clients have no desire to step inside a ring.  Although fighters are expected to participate in extra fighter-only  training sessions, the average student does the same exact drills, classes, and techniques as the fighters. You can learn the same great techniques, learn how to properly defend yourself, and train with experienced MMA fighters and coaches without ever actually fighting in an official MMA bout.

MIXED MARTIAL ARTS

CHILDREN’S CLASSES

Westside’s children’s classes are split into two classes: ages 3-5 and 6-14. The classes are designed to help a child develop listening and motor skills, increase self confidence and build discipline and concentration.

Our classes feature techniques from Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (read above), focusing on self-defense techniques, and Kickboxing, where your child will drastically improve their hand-eye coordination while learning basic combinations.  Unlike traditional martial arts, there are no boring katas or mindless drills in the air--your child will be doing live rolling and hitting mitts with our team of instructors!

With childhood obesity becoming an epidemic in our country, finding a fun way to get your child to exercise is becoming more and more difficult.  The movements we develop are instinctive for children and just plain fun, so bring them out to Westside to try out a class!

Catch wrestling is a style of Folk wrestling that was developed in the late 19th century by the wrestlers of traveling carnivals who incorporated submission holds into their wrestling to increase their effectiveness against their opponents. Catch wrestling derives from a number different styles, including Catch-as-Catch-Can Wrestling, Irish Collar-and-Elbow, Greco Roman Wrestling,

the Indian style Pehlwani and Iranian styles such as Varzesh-e Pahlavani.

Catch wrestling forms the base of Japan's martial art of shoot wrestling.  Japanese professional wrestling and a majority of the Japanese MMA fighters bear links to catch wrestling. Randy Couture, Takanori Gomi, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kamal Shalorus and Josh Barnett, among other mixed martial artists, study catch wrestling as their primary submission style.  Westside has the pleasure of having Catch legend Billy Robinson assisting our nogi submission fighters and MMA team in his classes.

CATCH WRESTLING