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This place is awesome ! I trained with Jackson for years, he's the best trainer around. Extremely knowledgable about the sport, super encouraging! Jackson makes training fun, while pushing me to do my best. I highly recommend !
Coach Jackson is a great instructor who takes on friendly students who are eager to learn. At no point did I feel uncomfortable with the speed or the level of difficulty and the group of people who I am getting to know all seem to enjoy the workouts due to the positive atmosphere that Coach Jackson has created.
Starting with no martial arts experience at all, I've been training at North Star MMA for about 2 months now. It's become something i look forward to every week. Coach Jackson has a great way of describing the intricacies of muay thai in exceptionally easy to understand ways. Lots of personal instruction and the other people in the gym really help with training. I really like the skills I've picked up so far all while getting a good workout in.
North Star MMA is by far the best training I have received as well as the best MMA facility. Fantastic atmosphere to learn, try, fail and ultimately succeed.
Jackson Galka's expertise and technical instruction easily qualifies him as a "fight nerd." However Jackson's passion and wit will have you kicking, striking and probably laughing too.
Jackson does a great job of integrating all levels of training with all levels of fighters.
Doesn't matter what level you are, you will learn each and every training session.
Top notch instruction, astounding technical expertise, challenging sweat soaked training sessions and a wicked sense of humor make for an unbeatable training academy.
I moved to Philadelphia in October and did a lot of shopping around for a new gym. After checking out NorthStar MMA, I quickly knew it was a perfect fit! I didn’t have much Muay Thai or BJJ experience at the time, but I felt both programs were very welcoming for beginners. Coach Jackson and the rest of the coaching staff have been super helpful in helping me to develop my skills and reach my fitness goals. Coach Jackson has created a great sense of community within the gym and does a great job of keeping the classes interesting, fun and effective! I look forward to each class and I couldn’t be happier to call NorthStar MMA my gym home!
Me and my brother came to train at North Star MMA, and we love it. Very good exercise, really good for getting in shape. Classes are very personal and with very good instructions. I would recommend this place to anyone who is interested in learning Muy Thai, BJJ and looking to get in shape in one of the best ways. It is also a very fun environment with great people.
Jackson is a huge asset to the combat sports community with years of experience as a fighter and trainer under his belt.
WIN OR LEARN WEEK OF 9/14/2026 “You either win, or you learn.” This expression is so ubiquitous, it may as well end up on a piece of wall art you can buy from Target on the shelf next to “Live, Laugh, Love” or something. And there are plenty like it: “if you’re going through […]
ACCELERATION, SPEED, MOMENTUM WEEK OF 9/7/2026 Acceleration: a change in speed (increase or decrease) Speed: rate in which an object covers distance. Momentum: the force of a moving object. Training, like physical objects, has acceleration, speed, and momentum. Of those three, acceleration is the least important, but the easiest to feel. Both momentum and […]
PERSPECTIVE WEEK OF 8/31/2026 Short one for this week, partially because I’m personally dealing with a week’s backlog to catch up on, and partially because I spent a week completely removed from the day-to-day of the gym. Here’s the thing: training will never be easy. If it is, you’re doing it wrong. Because of […]
HANG LOOSE WEEK OF 8/24/2026 Inspired by my trip to California this week, today’s Monday Mindset is about “Hanging Loose.” Because, you know, California, surfing, etc, right? But “hanging loose” is actually a really important physical cue in the Soviet Boxing system as well. Soviet Boxing is a comprehensive martial art — it encompasses […]
THE BEST ADVICE YOU CAN TAKE WEEK OF 8/17/2026 The best advice you can take is your own. As a coach, I’m in a position where people come to me for advice. Whether this is smart on their part is up for debate (insert smiley face here) but the fact remains that I’m often […]
HYDROSTATIC PRESSURE WEEK OF 8/10/2026 Catastrophic failures don’t happen in incremental phases. One moment, everything is fine.. and the next, a retaining wall collapses and floods the area below it. When it comes to technical growth in combat sports, a similar dynamic is often in place. It really can feel like we are just […]
TECHNIQUE, LIKE MATURITY, IS OPTIONAL WEEK OF 8/3/2026 Aging is mandatory, maturing is optional. Similarly in training, physical development will occur, but technical development is never guaranteed. It’s a mistake to conflate hard, physically overwhelming training with the optimization of skill. If anything, high intensity work will force you to fall back on what […]
YES, SOMETIMES IT’S THAT HARD WEEK OF 7/27/2026 Prior to starting in MMA in 2004, I had wrestled in high school and a little bit of college. So I wasn’t a stranger to the demanding, all-encompassing demands of these sports. But my first years of wrestling? A totally different story. Very few things in […]
SHOW, DON’T TELL WEEK OF 7/20/2026 Prior to my career as a full time punching bag, janitor, and amateur therapist, I enrolled in an English Education degree from Ithaca College. I maintained excellent grades to keep my scholarship alive and graduated with honors (inducted into the national honors fraternity Sigma Tau Delta along with […]
A NEW NORMAL WEEK OF 7/13/2026 Originally posted 12/9/2024 That’s kind of what we’re all looking to create with our work, right? To create a new normal state of improved health, wealth, and happiness? But what happens when we start to achieve a new normal in our lives? Do we recognize and appreciate it, […]
REVOLUTION WEEK OF 7/06/2026 A revolution is part of a cycle — it revolves. In combat sports training, therefore, the most revolutionary action you can take is to stick to a routine: analyze, audit, and adjust. And through diligence ad discipline, often revolutionary breakthroughs occur. Not by chasing the novel, but by cycling through the […]
FOCAL LENGTH WEEK OF 6/29/26 Sometimes, things can be right in front of your face, yet be completely invisible. Perhaps they’re obscured by something else. Perhaps they’re just out of focus. That’s why, as you grow in combat sports, you regularly say to yourself “I can’t believe I didn’t see that — it was […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF NOVEMBER 24th, 2025 Monday Mindset, Junior Samurai Stripe Challenge, Membership Updates, and Facility FAQ Links all available at the bottom! Happy Monday Team! We’re entering into a holiday week so this edition of The Red Corner will […]
BALANCE WEEK OF 11/24/25 Quick one for you this week. When we talk about “finding balance,” the conversation typically revolves around the idea that we have to find “good” stuff to weigh against the “bad.” A recovery day after a hard week of training. A cheat meal for being so disciplined in our diet. […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF NOVEMBER 17th, 2025 Monday Mindset, Junior Samurai Stripe Challenge, Membership Updates, and Facility FAQ Links all available at the bottom! Happy Monday Team! We are fresh off a big weekend for the striking team, who competed at the […]
INSPIRATION WEEK OF 11/17/25 “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” — Stephen King There you have it. Inspiration, like Motivation (capital M), is one of those things people feel are necessary in order to move forward. But reality for most of us is […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF NOVEMBER 10th, 2025 Monday Mindset, Junior Samurai Stripe Challenge, Membership Updates, and Facility FAQ Links all available at the bottom! Happy Monday Team! We are slowly approaching the “dead zone” — that time between Thanksgiving and New Years […]
LOTTERY WEEK OF 11/10/25 We tend to think of training as a linear process. We train for an hour, we get an hour better. We train for a week, we get a week better. We train a year, we get a year better. And so on.While this might actually be true, on average, for […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF NOVEMBER 3rd, 2025 Monday Mindset, Junior Samurai Stripe Challenge, Membership Updates, and Facility FAQ Links all available at the bottom! Happy Monday Team! Big congrats to Xavier, Dashaun, Jihad, Brandon, and Jason on their performances yesterday at the […]
ROUTINES WEEK OF 11/5/25 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 […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF OCTOBER 27th, 2025 Monday Mindset, Junior Samurai Stripe Challenge, Membership Updates, and Facility FAQ Links all available at the bottom! Happy Monday Team! We are fresh off a busy weekend both on the mats and off! The BJJ […]
DON’T FORGET TO HAVE FUN WEEK OF 10/27/25 Quick one for you this week. So much of combat sports culture exists adjacent to stoic philosophy, warrior ethos, bushido principles, and on and on and on. We are hammered every day with messages of chasing kaizen — that is, never ending improvement across all facets of […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF OCTOBER 20th, 2025 Monday Mindset, Junior Samurai Stripe Challenge, Membership Updates, and Facility FAQ Links all available at the bottom! Happy Monday Team! Fresh off a successful “Rave at the Grave” kids Halloween party this weekend. Coach […]
BE UNDENIABLE WEEK OF 10/20/25 Nothing worth having comes easy. And sometimes the difficulty is not in the actual work, but in achieving the recognition of that effort you’ve been putting in. There will often be gatekeepers who stand between you and the goals you are working to achieve – and whether these gatekeepers […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF OCTOBER 13th, 2025 Monday Mindset, Junior Samurai Stripe Challenge, Membership Updates, and Facility FAQ Links all available at the bottom! Happy Monday Team! Productive week of training behind us! We have a few upcoming events that deserve […]
WE HAVE WORK TO DO WEEK OF 10/13/25 Hey there lazybones, what are you doing? Time to move. We have work to do. Here’s the thing about fitness — you can’t really “get ahead” of your fitness so as to buy yourself a holiday. Fitness is a process, a lifestyle, it’s not a certain […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 29th, 2025 Monday Mindset, Junior Samurai Stripe Challenge, Membership Updates, and Facility FAQ Links all available at the bottom! Happy Monday Team! We’re fresh off a pretty incredible week of events and diving head first […]
NOBODY IS COMING TO FIX YOU WEEK OF 9/29/25 That’s it. That’s the big insight: nobody is coming to fix you. Your coach? They can give you cues and direction. Your teammates? They can give you encouragement. Your family? They can give you support. But nobody can “turn the wrench” and solve whatever problems […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 22nd, 2025 Monday Mindset, Junior Samurai Stripe Challenge, Membership Updates, and Facility FAQ Links all available at the bottom! Happy Monday Team! Excited to be moving forward with some cool projects, initiatives, and just overall […]
DECISIONS PRECEDE ACTION WEEK OF 9/22/25 Short one for you this week. This is more of a practical reminder than anything else. Decisions precede action. That is to say, before you move you must choose how to move — whether you are doing this consciously or not. Therefore, in training, it is important to spend […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 15th, 2025 Monday Mindset, Junior Samurai Stripe Challenge, Membership Updates, and Facility FAQ Links all available at the bottom! Happy Monday Team! Our new facility is full of surprises. After a month and a half […]
SKYSCRAPERS AND MAINTAINING YOUR BALANCE WEEK OF 9/15/25 A few weeks ago I took one of my every-few-years trips to Chicago for a long weekend of pizza, hot dogs, and architecture. No, seriously, the buildings in Chicago are amazing. From the tallest skyscraper to the smallest row home, Chicago’s aesthetic is just so perfect […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF FEBRUARY 3rd, 2025 Happy Monday Team! Ah yes, February. The coldest and shortest month of the year. Thematically appropriate as this week’s newsletter is both short and kind of boring 🙂 As we roll into a new […]
CASTING SPELLS WEEK OF 2/3/25 Wizards, dragons, magic spells. The stuff of Fantasy, right? And an appropriate topic now that the A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is set to debut this year on HBO (a fantastic companion piece to the A Song of Ice and Fire written by George R. R. Martin). Previously […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF JANUARY 27th, 2025 Happy Monday Team! Quick one for you today, as we don’t have much extra stuff in the pipeline over the next two weeks or so. Big thank you to everyone who came out this […]
NEVER LOSE YOUR TEMPER WEEK OF 1/27/25 Conversational phrases often pull from the martial arts’ vernacular. Things like “roll with the punches,” “take it on the chin,” and “don’t lose your temper.” As it pertains to the last phrase, tempering is a process used by bladesmiths to add some durability to the blade, so […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF JANUARY 20th, 2025 Happy Monday Team! First things first, we are open as normal today despite the holiday! If we encounter any weather-related issues we’ll send out a separate e-mail/notification to make sure everyone is on board. […]
INVITATION WEEK OF 1/20/25 You don’t need an invitation to sit at the table. You just need to walk through the door and take your seat. You don’t need an invitation to go to bed earlier. You don’t need an invitation to train more. You don’t need an invitation to practice better habits. So, […]
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 […]
PRE-PARATION WEEK OF 1/13/24 There are many lenses through which we can understand our human experience. Some of these are in the fossil record, others are in written history, and others are through the myths and legends that are passed down through the ages. But one that I particularly find useful is in the […]
THE RED CORNER NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS WEEK OF JANUARY 6th, 2025 Happy Sunday Team! I am incredibly excited to put the holiday stuff behind and get back to work in an serious and consistent way. For those of you that took a little break — […]
CARDIO ISN’T “PROGRESS” WEEK OF 12/30/24 …And being out of shape doesn’t mean you “fell behind.” This is the time of year when many of us are steeling our minds for the challenge of getting back into the groove of things. A big part of that is anticipating some difficulty in “knocking off the […]
Happy Monday Team! We are fresh off another week of intense competition and right back into the fire again! Congratulations to Tim Green, the 2024 ISKA Kickboxing Champion! Tim Green put on a killer performance this weekend in the ring, blending heavy pressure with smart footwork and impeccable defense. Coach Trevon Scales came up short […]
Happy Monday Team! My day-to-day teaching schedule is such journey between extremes. On one end, I teach the littlest students (ages 5+) and on the other I’m working with seasoned fighters. And, obviously, everything in between. As adults we can often be looking too far ahead into the future. To some distant time when everything […]
THE RED CORNER 02.05.24 NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE NORTH STAR ACADEMY Happy Monday Team! We are back from a quick trip down South for Gianna’s MMA debut. We didn’t pick up that Hollywood ending but in these combat sports, you go out there and play your hand and sometimes come up short. […]
MONDAY MINDSET: YOU CAN ONLY FILL AN EMPTY CUP Quick one this week; I want to a little of my own, personal process with you. Bowing in and out of class can have many different meanings. In some ways, it’s to show deference to the instructor. In others, it’s to humble ourselves. Mostly, all of […]
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 […]
MONDAY MINDSET || 11.06.23 || PHILADELPHIA MMA Mental tips, tricks, and productive perspectives Monday Mindset: You’re Both The Driver — And The Mechanic Imagine this scenario: you’re behind the wheel of an F1 race car in the most important race of your life. You pull into the pit stop and the lead mechanic slaps a few things together then offers you a thumbs up. “Hey […]
THE RED CORNER || 11.06.23 || PHILADELPHIA MMA News and updates from North Star MMA in Philadelphia Happy Monday Team! We are going to be firing off on all cylinders until we reach the Thanksgiving Holiday, so buckle up and get ready to roll! Our full event lineup is as follows: 11.11 Tap Cancer […]
THE RED CORNER News and events here at north star mma Happy Monday Team! Lots coming up this second half of October. Yeesh. Rather than drawl on and on about it, I’m going to organize everything into neat little bullet points below for your reference: Gianna Vadino heads to Germany to represent the USA […]
FINDING THE RIGHT MMA GYM FOR YOU HOW YOU SHOULD PRIORITIZE THE QUALITIES OF EACH MMA SCHOOL NEAR YOU TO PICK THE PLACE THAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU As a gym owner, I’m forced to be somewhat capable in all areas — of course, being a black belt in BJJ and a retired professional […]
MONDAY MINDSET: SERVICE MARTIAL ARTS MINDSET FOR SUCCESS BOTH ON AND OFF THE MATS Too often we approach things we enjoy as if they exist to serve us. Truthfully (and to an extent, problematically), many of our pastimes and hobbies do. Video games, Netflix, snacking — these are indulgent behaviors and often serve their purpose well. For […]
Happy Monday Team! We had an amazing turnout this Saturday for our Fall PRO/AM Invitational Sparring Meetup. Over 55 athletes, with over 230 combined bouts, were in attendance from the region’s top competitive gyms. Getting together for some friendly but hard rounds is what it’s all about! We’re already halfway through September (and the beginning […]
Monday Mindset: The Power of Self-Belief Earlier last week, I remarked how spectacularly Sean Strickland would likely fail on Saturday against the incumbent UFC Middleweight Champion, Israel Adesanya. And I wasn’t alone — Vegas odds had Strickland over +400 and the MMA community largely regarded this as a “shoe-in” for The Stylebender. Well, wouldn’t you […]
Monday Mindset: Labor Day Today we’ll divert from the usual routine and instead take a moment to honor the members of our community here who are out there getting things done every day. The first responders, construction workers, truck drivers, and so on. The people who rarely get the spotlight but keep the wheels of […]
Happy Monday Team! We are CLOSED today for regular classes, but we’ll be hosting an open mat from 10am – 12pm (approximately). All students are welcome to attend and mess around on the mats! We’ll be running 5 minute rounds on the timer and the rest is up to you. Have any family or friends […]