Category: Students

THE RED CORNER 5.20.24 NEWS AND EVENTS AT NORTH STAR MMA   Happy Monday Team! We are heading into the unofficial start of Summer on the tail end of an incredibly busy Spring.  The coming Holiday Weekend will be a welcome rest for the staff and students here as we regroup for what’s shaping up […]

NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF 4.29.24   Happy Monday Team! We are fresh on the heels of a successful run at Grappling Industries and the 8 Limbs Competition last week, and we are now heading into the ISKA National Kickboxing Tournament in Delaware in just a few days! Both Tim Green […]

THE RED CORNER: NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF 4.22.24   Happy Monday Team! Wow.. what a weekend.  Three events over two back-to-back days and over a dozen competitors! On Saturday, Isis Toledo competed in the Place of Peace invitational BJJ event.  She dropped a competitive decision […]

Happy Monday Team! We have some big events coming up in the next couple weeks! This weekend a crew of grapplers head to the Grappling Industries tournament in Broomall, PA in search of some new hardware as well as some of our up-and-coming strikers taking their initial steps into the competition ring in West Philadelphia.  […]

THE RED CORNER WEEK OF 4.01.24   Happy Monday Team! This week we see Joe Angelo and coach Bill Kirner make their Muay Thai debut at the USA Muay Thai Grand Nationals in Hockessin, Delaware. This 4-day tournament draws talent from all over the East Coast and beyond to compete for the title of National […]

THE RED CORNER: NEWS AND UPDATES AT THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY March 25th, 2024   Happy Monday Team! We are in the last week of March which means we’re wrapping up a bunch of our curriculum, as well as hosting our monthly Slamboree on Tuesday. For our Striking 101 students, Slamboree is an opportunity to […]

  Happy Monday Team! Last week was a great teaser to the beautiful weather (and therefore amazing training conditions) that are right around the corner.  As the world and we move into Spring, let’s take a moment to consider the ideas of cycles and rebirth.  As a coach I truly believe that progress looks like […]

MONDAY MINDSET: TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK   Joining and participating in a martial arts program is kind of a weird thing, right?  I mean on one hand you are a paying customer — you have a right to take whatever you want, within reason, and define your own boundaries and level of participation.  For […]

JUNIOR SAMURAI STRIPE CHALLENGE 02.12.24   THE STRIPE CHALLENGE THIS WEEK IS greeN FOR technique Students: teach your parent the guard position (remember, “small is STRONG and big is WEAK”).  Then, drill 20 guard passes on your parent’s guard. A guard pass is when we clear the legs and secure the side mount, knee on […]

JUNIOR SAMURAI STRIPE CHALLENGE 02.05.24   THE STRIPE CHALLENGE THIS WEEK IS RED FOR FITNESS   Students can earn their red stripe this week by successfully completing 50 pushups a day for three days in a row.  Must be consecutive!

JUNIOR SAMURAI STRIPE CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK OF 01.22.24 Students can earn a green stripe for Technique this week by teaching a parent one technique from the following list, and drilling it 10 times each. For the Junior Samurai students: Mata Leon rear choke defense Block a punch into the body lock and take the back […]

JUNIOR SAMURAI STRIPE CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK OF 01.15.24 Students can earn a red stripe for Physical Fitness this week by successfully completing the following workout: 25 pushups 25 monkey crawls 25 squats Repeat 4 times in a row. This workout must be completed from start to finish in one session and cannot be broken down […]

Z   THE RED CORNER RETURNS ON MONDAY! CLASS REGISTRATION AND ATTENDANCE TO BEGIN ON FEBRUARY 1ST   Hey Team! Coach Jackson here — Wanted to give you all a few quick updates on what we’ve been cooking up in the back room (or, more appropriately, how we’ve been putting out the kitchen fires for […]

JIU JITSU 201 || 11.28.23 || PHILADELPHIA JIU JITSU   Congrats to Chris Mattson on his promotion to brown, and Angus Perfect on his promotion to purple belt!   Tell me about North Star MMA’s Jiu Jitsu Program! North Star MMA is a well-respected gym with a strong reputation for its jiu-jitsu program. The instructors […]

STRIKING 201 || 11.27.23 || PHILADELPHIA MUAY THAI   HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR STRIKING 201 MUAY THAI KICKBOXING CLASS ON 11.27.23 Photos are free and available for use to students!   Muay Thai kickboxing at North Star MMA in Philadelphia Here are some of the benefits of taking Muay Thai kickboxing classes at North Star MMA: […]

STRIKING 301 || 11.15.23 || MUAY THAI SPARRING CLASS   HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR STRIKING 301 MUAY THAI SPARRING CLASS ON 11.15.23 Photos are free to use by students. Striking 301 is a Muay Thai Sparring class at the North Star Academy in Philadelphia. Muay Thai sparring is an essential part of any Muay Thai fighter’s […]

  There are a number of tough questions in combat sports.   How do I optimize my training?  What’s the best solution to a given problem?  How do I balance training and life?   As a coach I’m constantly asked questions like these (and if you know me, I often give long winded but ultimately […]

  Ok, full stop.  Definitely believe in yourself!   With that said, when preparing to engage in something challenging, we can often start to doubt ourselves.  Am I mentally strong enough?  Durable enough?  Do I “have what it takes” to get this job done?   These questions can be hard to answer because, well, there […]

  At the Olympic level, athletes have a massive team working behind the scenes to ensure that their training, time management, and recovery are fully optimized.  These athletes also train and compete full time and often have difficult decisions about where to invest their limited resources of availability and energy.   At that level, by […]

  I often get asked — Why “North Star?”  Guesses range from The Fist of the North Star (an awesome 90’s anime) to something related to my middle name (Baer, for those wondering — the North Star is on the tail of Ursa Minor, the little dipper).   But, nope.  Those are good guesses and would fit […]

  We are often way harder on ourselves than we are on others, don’t you think?  Our inner voice can speak to us in ways we’d never tolerate from someone else.   So this week I have a little tip for you — the next time you have a problem, write it down on paper (or, ya […]

  Because eventually, every round will be become a hard round.   If you walk head first into a challenge, you have already won.  Whether you “win” or “lose” the exchange is secondary.   There are going to be hundreds, if not thousands, of hard rounds between you and whatever your goals are.  You might […]

Quick one for you today!   The word “passion” has taken on a lot of romantic, intimate, and otherwise lovey-dovey connotations.  But originally, passion comes from the Latin root of pati and means, literally, suffering.   When we are passionate about something, we suffer for it (and anyone who’s been training Muay Thai or Jiu Jitsu will tell you […]

“Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?  — George Carlin   Man, that is one of my favorite quotes!  We’ve all been there on the road before, trying to get from Point A to Point B and dealing with the nonsense from everyone else alongside […]

  Before I got into MMA (and for a very long time throughout my MMA career as both a competitor and coach), I worked in the landscaping and gardening industry.   I’ve always been fascinated by the similarities between seemingly extremely disparate things.  On the surface, martial arts and gardening are in totally different categories. […]

  The word routine comes from the same origins as route, suggesting a circuit of behavior that leads you back to the beginning so you can start anew.   I think a successful routine does have that element to it: you will always circle back to the beginning to review the fundamentals from a position of greater wisdom and […]

  We often think of ourselves as static, unchanging individuals.  We can internalize failures and believe that certain achievements, feelings, or lifestyles are completely out of our reach.  In short, we see ourselves and much of the world around us set into a state of unchanging permanence.   Obviously, there are some limitations on what […]

  Muay Thai is known as the “Art of 8 Limbs,” referring to the pairs of hands, elbows, knees, and feet that we can use to systematically break down our opponents.   As a competitive fighter, I jokingly referred to Muay Thai as the “Art of 7 Limbs,” as on any given day I’d have […]

  We all have a why — the reason and driving force that motivates us to work hard, be consistent, and work towards our goals.  For some, it might just be to improve our self-confidence and feel safer in our own skin.  For others, to be a competitive athlete.   Whatever your why is, it’s a powerful motivator that […]

  We had two massive competitive events in a 24 hour span this past weekend.  While the team overall did a great job, we ran into some issues dealing with pressure on the whole.   Sure, becoming so strong and powerful that you can basically crash through every obstacle is a great way to win […]

  Your first round is never your best round, is it?  It takes awhile to get your body loose, limber, and attuned to the demands of combat sports.  Most athletes find their “flow” a little deeper into a training session, when everything starts to sync up.   This is especially true on days where you […]

  That’s it.  There are no secrets to success.  All the information you could ever need in order to be successful in combat sports is available, mostly for free, at a moment’s notice.   It’s the implementation of this information that creates success.   Small, daily habits turn into large, life changing results over time. […]

  Words are a source of power.   The right words can empower us and set us up for success.  The wrong words can strip us of our agency, or put us on a path that only leads to failure.  They shape the world we live in — the very way we see and interact […]

  Procrastination is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but doesn’t get you anywhere.   And, unfortunately, it is anemic to development — especially in the martial arts.   There really is no “tomorrow.”  In many ways, the future is an illusion.  Yes, the future will come, but no, conditions will […]

  It’s super easy not to really go for anything.  No risk, no reward, but also no failure.  And there’s something nice about that.   Because what if we fail spectacularly?  What if everyone sees us fail?   Often, it’s not so much the failure itself that causes stress.  It’s failing publicly.   My next door neighbors growing up […]

  “Protect yourself at all times.”   That’s what you hear from the referee before you touch gloves and get after it.  So, what does it mean?   Well, you are responsible for protecting yourself.  You, and you alone.   Despite all the rules, rounds, and presence of the third man, things can (and do) […]

  Quick one for you today!   We often think of mastery as being a destination at the end of a long path.  And, in some ways, it is.   But mastery is more a process of calibration than it is a journey towards a spot marked off on a map.  As such, we will […]

  I want to preface this entry by saying that, yes, it is absolutely important and OK to have your own specific, selfish goals in training.  In fact, we all do, and it’s both healthy and normal!   With that said, the Tragedy of the Commons is a situation in which individuals take from a […]

  Quick one for you today.   Often times I have students reach out to me concerned that they are not making progress because they are always exhausted after training.   Conflating exhaustion with a lack of skill, progress, and/or conditioning is a common fallacy, though.   Consider this thought experiment: you are a runner […]

  Ha, I know some of you have seen me juggling like a clown here and there in the gym.  So, why juggling?   Aside from the surprisingly deep metaphorical similarities that juggling has to life, jiu jitsu, fighting, or whatever, it’s also a pretty simple yet difficult task.   As a coach, I often […]

  One thing’s for certain, if you attempt something beyond your current level of comfort, there is a good chance you will fail (or, as the kids say, “Take the L”).   You absolutely have to get used to the feeling of losing.  Losing out on other opportunities.  Losing out on junk food.  Losing rounds […]

  Avoid the “all or nothing” trap when it comes to fitness, health, training, or whatever.   We can all be particularly manipulative to ourselves when we set our standards too high, knowing we can’t achieve them.   It’s almost like we engineer our own failure just to avoid the hard work of actually sticking […]

  “I’ll see if I can make some time to ABC..”, “I’ll see if I can find the time to XYZ…   Look, time cannot be created or destroyed.  And it’s everyone around us — we don’t have to find it, either.   Pay close attention to how we structure our excuses!   Time cannot […]

  What better day to discuss service than today, where we celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr?   So often in martial arts we only see things through our own self-centered lens.  We come to class to make ourselves better.  We do what we think is best for us.  We prioritize our well […]

There is just so much information to learn in martial arts.  Angles, posture, footwork, strikes, positions, you name it.  And especially in the grappling arts!   Developing some literacy in your art will give you a massive boost in your learning speed.  However, literacy isn’t just some emergent ability that comes with time.  You have to work […]

Let’s keep it real today fam. Resolutions are for quitters. The goal is not to commit to a resolution, but rather to reshape your lifestyle. The end of one year, and the beginning of another, create a great symbolic opportunity to address areas of your life that are unfulfilling.  We are inspired to seek out […]

Regardless of your religious or spiritual beliefs, the Christmas holiday is important in the sense that it also marks the Winter Solstice: the turning point between the shortening and lengthening of daylight hours.   As a martial artist, especially one who pursues competitive success or exceptional advancement, you will have cycles of both dark and […]

  In any combat sports competition, we can often say that the person who made the second to last mistake is the winner. This is especially true for submission grappling or no-holds-barred fighting, where victory is absolute. The key, then, isn’t to be flawless.  That’s impossible, and also unnecessary.  Rather, the key is to be […]

  Monday Mindset: The Progress Spiral   It’s all about perspective.   So much of our practice is routine — in a sense, we are running the same route over and over again.  Rope, shadowbox, pads, spar.  Warmup, drill, roll.  Day in, day out.   The scenery doesn’t really change too much and it can be easy […]

  If you are training long enough, at some point you will have to take some time off.  This is inevitable.  Work, family, friends, relationships, injuries — these can all demand significant amounts of your time (and, rightly so) and pull you out of a comfortable training routine.   Coming back from a long layoff […]

  Three years ago, almost to the day, I underwent a serious shoulder reconstruction to repair a torn labrum on my left arm.  So today’s Monday Mindset feels appropriate. When you have a chronic, debilitating injury, you rehabilitate it. To re-habilitate is to come back and build new habits, essentially.  To “re-habit.”  To create a […]

  The training room is a high pressure, high intensity environment.  And at some point, when we get through the initial on-boarding of how to actually train, we start engaging in live drills and even full, occasionally hard, sparring rounds.   It’s easy to think that we are then working against our fellow students, rather than working with them.  […]

  When we first start something difficult, it’s like we’re at the base of a giant mountain.  With very little experience or understanding in how to navigate the steep inclines, we start plodding our way upwards.   The journey in the beginning is full of confusion, doubt, discomfort, and occasionally even embarrassment.  But after a […]

  With Halloween all around us, it seems appropriate to talk a little bit about “faking it till you make it,” or the act of putting on a facade (the word comes from the same root as “face,” by the way).   Typically we apply a negative meaning to “putting on a facade,” as if the act […]

  This week’s entry is going to focus less on actual mindset and more on organizing your skills in a way that maximizes their effectiveness.   No skills exist in a vacuum.  A world class jab, for example, can’t simply be spammed non stop successfully.  The jab plays off footwork, feints, power shots, and so […]

  Unlike more traditional martial arts, which have highly regimented curricula and skills that must be learned and demonstrated for each successive rank advancement, Thaiboxing and Jiu Jitsu are more performance based. You either can, or cannot, execute the skill against your opponent. As such, it can be difficult to know where to invest your […]

  Kind of an appropriate one for today, as I’m traveling about 6,000 miles roundtrip at an altitude of 30,000+ ft — and enjoying the passing scenery below of the entire United States!   One of the biggest paradoxes of martial arts is that everything is both incredibly simple and also incredibly complex at the […]

  What are our routines? The word itself is related to “route,” meaning our routines are the routes we take through our habitual cycles. Humans are creatures of routine.  I remember in college, when we had no assigned seating, that my fellow students and I all generally sat in the same seat each day.  It […]

  We’ve all been here. First, we think about something we want to accomplish.  Let’s say, starting a martial art. Then, we furiously research the topic and start to plan it out. Finally, we get so overwhelmed by all the information that we get stuck in a cycle of trying to plan out the best […]

  If you really want to have success at what you’re doing, you gotta love it. In the fight game, there are basically two classes of competitors: Amateurs, and Professionals. Amateurs don’t get paid.  They are essentially volunteers. Professionals get paid. That’s the main difference, on paper. This dynamic is a great example of the […]

  My two favorite words in the English language. Yes, and No. Yes is usually my first favorite, because it means I’m going to get what I want, or that we are in agreement so we can move forward. No is also super useful.  Now, I may not get what I want, or maybe we […]

  I’m guilty of really rambling on and on about mindset, paradigm shifts, etc. — but one lesson I learned as a competitor is this:   The extra work is a choice.  Inaction is a choice.   Losing, too, is a choice.   Making the right choices isn’t always easy, though.  We are extremely good […]

  Often I give a brief, lighthearted anecdote in this column, and discuss a perspective that can give you an edge to your training.  But today I am going to be a little more direct, and address something I see way too often as a coach.   In fact, I see it a lot, and as […]

  I completed my high school wrestling career as a senior in the 130lb weight class as a nearly 6′ tall bundle of knees and elbows.  I spent my entire high school athletic career being as tall and skinny as possible — I competed freshman year at 119lbs.   When I stopped wrestling halfway through […]

As a kid, I once heard that “watched pots never boil,” and I actually believed it.  I realized had never directly observed water coming to a boil, and in my little monkey mind I figured that the act of watching it somehow stalled or negated the boiling process.   Of course, I was a curious […]

Every new thing comes from the destruction of something old.   New, better habits must come at the expense of old bad ones.   So if you are having trouble visualizing yourself achieving a considerable goal, don’t stress about it.  Try a different perspective.   You, as you are, will not be the one achieving that goal.  […]

  One of the most important concepts in becoming a successful martial artist (regardless of how you define “success”) is that of ownership.   We could spend hours talking about all the different ways ownership is important: owning your excuses, owning your responsibilities, owning your emotional state, etc.   All of these could even be the […]

  Seeing Progress. Yes, I’m aware that a few weeks ago I wrote a similar e-mail. I’m also aware that I also recently wrote an e-mail about the importance of Redundancy 🙂 So bear with me.  This is important.  Hence the redundancy! I often field e-mails from students (at the academy, and abroad – we […]

  There comes a time in your training career where it feels like you are just not progressing at all. And if it hasn’t happened to you yet, it will. We have to remember that “progress” is a relative term.  Unlike in weightlifting, us martial artists don’t have a quantifiable metric to track (i.e. how […]

  Quick note: I originally wrote this a few years ago, after being a day late on my weekly newsletter (I often pull from the archives for the Monday Mindset section). Typically I have everything done by Sunday evening and scheduled for Monday morning, but yesterday I was out of state visiting family and didn’t […]

  “The path of the Warrior is lifelong, and mastery is often simply staying on the path.” Pop-culture often makes a big deal of “The Warrior Path,” making it seem that the apprentice fighter must walk over coals, survive in the wilderness with just their wits, defeat hordes of faceless enemies, and stand on poles […]

  I wrote a Monday Mindset article a in February of 2020 with the same title, basically, while overseas in Paris.  I really had no idea how different my life trajectory would go in only a month with the onset of the COVID pandemic and all associated shutdowns, restrictions, anxiety, and general instability of the next two […]

…Will always be brought into the light. If you could boil down the lessons I’ve learned from my competitive fight career into an easily digestible nugget, this would be it. Fighting not only shows you who you are, it shows the world who you are.  It brings the work you’ve done in the relative darkness of the gym into […]

  I originally wrote this in the early Spring of 2019, when we had just secured the large space we now call the “Thunderdome.”  Prepping 3400 square feet (including demo) while also teaching a full schedule of classes was not easy 🙂 Novelty, Plateau, Reward. These are the stages of every endeavor. It’s funny, 15 […]

Short and silly one for you all this week!   For any of you younger students who are yet to move out on your own for the first time, here’s a piece of advice: buy the toiler plunger before you need it    As martial artists, we too need to invest in ourselves so that […]

  Simple one for you this week.   Just show up.   Feeling tired?  Just show up.  Sore?  Just show up.  Hungry?  Just show up.   I’ve been training for nearly two decades, and I can tell you the hardest — and most important daily step in your training regimen — is just to show […]

The purpose of this exam is twofold: to test your knowledge, and also review the entire curriculum to fill in any blind spots you may experience.  Regular participation in group classes should be sufficient in preparing you for the exam, but additional work is always encouraged. The exam is roughly 80 minutes long.  Participants must […]

The martial arts exist in a state of duality: one side concerned with the fundamental rules of combat, physics, and body mechanics (the “martial”), and the other side being the human expression that operates behind these (the “art”).   Newer students often talk about “styles” or “games” — what game should I be focusing on?  […]

  Picture this — you’ve been running around all day, and at your last stop you go to pull out your wallet to pay for something and, whoops, realize it’s missing.  What do you do?   A reasonable person would retrace their steps — can you tease out any moments where you might have taken […]

  Picture this.  You’re zooming down a stretch of flat road on your bike, when suddenly you encounter a hill.  It’s steep.  You quickly downshift into first gear, pedal like a madman, and struggle to the peak.   Up top, you shift back to your high gear, and coast down the other side.   Pretty […]

  Ultimately, what you put in, you’ll get out.  That’s the beauty of what we do in these combat sports.  The process is simple, but you have to look at it from a wide vantage point.  Week to week you may not see results.  Even month to month it’s not guaranteed.  Year over year?  Ok, […]

  Own your mistakes. After all, you made them, right? Here’s the thing–most people have it twisted.  In our hyper-connected world, we are privy to the “success” of other people.  At least, a cultivated image of success that they often present on social media and other myriad outlets. It can be challenging to not feel […]

  One of the most common excuses you’ll hear, in almost any circumstance, is that a person cannot “find the time” to do something.   What does that even mean?  Does time trickle inbetween the seat cushions of our couch?  Do we forget it inside the pocket of our winter jacket that’s been stored away […]

  We often confuse the idea of “toughness” with “dominance.”  We see the big, scary bully, with giant muscles and fists the size of cinder blocks, and we think to ourselves: “that guy looks tough.” What we really mean is, that guy looks dominant. Those big scary guys, well, sometimes they are tough.  Other times, they […]

  Seriously! Give yourself a pat on the back from time to time. We start our journeys as wide eyed beginners, wholly focused mostly on whether we can, or cannot, actually do something. That is the beginner’s burning question: “can I do this?” As we grow beyond that initial insecurity, we start focusing more on […]

  We’ve all heard the old expression, “practice makes perfect.” This really couldn’t be farther from the truth. We should really think of it more along the lines of “perfect practice, with perfect consistency and appropriate intensity, makes perfect.” There’s a lot to unpack there! When we step onto the mats to train, we must […]

  Be careful with your excuses. They expose your values. When an athlete or student tells me they want to take their training to the next levell, but then makes an excuse for skipping practice, or not focusing on the drill, or whatever really–there is always something written between the lines. Truly, I do not […]

We’ve all heard that expression, “so-and-so talks the talk, but does he walk the walk?” I’m sure we can all relate to this on some level: we know a few people who talk a big game, but when it comes to delivering on their word (or threats) they are (un)surprisingly a bit lackluster. In fight […]

MONDAY MINDSET: THE SWORD YOU SHARPEN IS THE ONE YOU CARRY INTO BATTLE   Although most of us will intuitively understand this, there is absolutely a major difference between understanding and application.   Too often we conflate the visualization of a task with the accomplishment of that task.  On a chemical level, visualizing the completion of a task–say, going to the […]

Hey Team!   Back atcha with some additional info on our transition during the citywide shutdown. Please note that ALL students (including those on hold, for any reason) are receiving this e-mail. If you are unsure about the status of your account, please write us back and we can help you out.   If you […]

Hey team!   If you haven’t heard, the city of Philadelphia is instituting new “Safer at Home” restrictions on businesses until January 1st (with an option to extend).   This includes a total shutdown of all indoor gym services, which we will partially observe.  This e-mail will lay out the various options our students will […]

Hey team! I want to first formally thank everyone who submitted a video — we had an overwhelming amount of submissions, and it took me the better part of the week to watch them all and pick out a few favorites. Once I got deep into the project, it was clear that the premise was […]

What’s up team! It’s been a crazy few months getting everything back up and running, but I couldn’t be more proud of everyone’s commitment to development, patience, and consistency with training.  This is, quite possibly, one of the trickiest times for training EVER but we are outworking the issues and making clear headway. On that […]

On behalf of myself (Coach Jackson), and the staff here at the North Star Academy, I just want to say that I am super excited about getting back to work on the mats with all of you! Of course, times are challenging right now, and our particular program and facility are still under some strict […]

Roll on for Victory! We are excited to launch our new campaign — FIGHT BONDS! >>Sign up for your FIGHT BONDS membership today at northstarmembers.com<< During World War II, the United States mobilized on a scale never before seen.  One of the ways it was able to produce so much for the war effort was […]