THE RED CORNER

NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS

WEEK OF JANUARY 13th, 2025

 

Happy Monday Team!

Writing you on the heels of a long and successful weekend of competition across both disciplines.  Make sure to hit the links at the bottom for our Junior Samurai Stripe Challenge as well as the Monday Mindset article where I talk about Preparation — both the concept and the word itself.

On Saturday, we fielded a team of seven athletes — Grant, Andy, Sam, Cody, Matt, Pat, and Jihad — at the WKA Scrimmage just outside of Reading, PA.  As a whole, the team did amazing!  There are always screws to tighten and throttles to adjust, but overall we showed a ton of skill, durability, heart, and cardio.  We were absolutely prepared and showcased a professional level of training which I am super proud of.

Coach Bill stepped into the role of head coach on Saturday as well, with Gianna assisting.  Both coaches did an incredible job and we are extremely lucky to have such committed teammates and coaches on board.  It’s not an easy job (speaking from experience here), but the really talented ones make it look easy.  Make sure to give them a pat on the back as well.

Many of the adjustments that our athletes need to make are actually found in the Striking 101 drills — this is my segue into the Level 2 Shorts Test coming up this Thursday 🙂  I’ve been beating you over the head with it so I’ll just put the link below and if you have any questions just ask.  There will be no Clinch Class on Thursday.  The shorts test starts at 7pm sharp and spots are still open.

–> If you would like to register for January’s Level 2 Shorts Test, please sign up here <–

 

On Sunday, two athletes competed at the Grappling Industries tournament in Broomall.  Both Johnny Janick and Grant Boyd had some impressive performances as they debuted into more advanced divisions; Johnny into an older age bracket and Grant into the blue belt level.  Neither athlete medaled (the divisions were massive) but each had some success with Grant finishing 4th out of 13 athletes in a ridiculously competitive group so we are stoked for that in his debut.

We return to grappling competition this Saturday at the United Arts in-house tournament!

 

Lastly, make sure to mark your calendars for our “Snow Ball” at Attic Brewing Company on Friday, January 24th at 8pm.  Formal attire is not required (nor encouraged), but hey it’s a free world so dust off your prom dress if you really want to, um, make a statement I guess 🙂  This is a KARAOKE night so be ready to rock out (or just enjoy your favorite tunes in “interesting” renditions).  We kick off at 8pm and go until ???, although I’ll probably hit my Irish Goodbye around 10pm.

 

The year is off to a great start.  Let’s keep the momentum going, I’ll see you on the mats!

 

–Coach Jackson

You can find this week’s Monday Mindset HERE

You can find this week’s Junior Samurai Stripe Challenge HERE