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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.
Happy Monday Team! Wow! What a weekend! We had a great time at the WKA National Tournament in Delaware (well, outside of the 47 hours of waiting and all that.. IYKYK). Coach Tre went 1-1 in a stacked division and Gianna had a few dropouts in her division, but finished the finals match with a […]
Happy Monday Team! I greatly appreciate everyone’s understanding this past Wednesday — we had to cancel classes due to a plumbing emergency. Luckily, we got everything under control before any damage could occur and the emergency repair team managed to fix everything up in its entirety. Crisis averted! I want to also highlight one of […]
Happy Monday Team! It’s going to be pretty smooth sailing these next two weeks until we return to action at the end of the month for the WKA National Kickboxing Championships in Harrington, Delaware. The distance and tournament format of this event doesn’t make it very spectator friendly, but we’ll keep you posted […]
Happy Monday Team! It’s HOT outside so this is my annual reminder to stay hydrated. If you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated! Make sure to drink a ton of water throughout the day, and especially before (and during) training. If you are doubling up on sessions at the gym, take a hydration break in […]
Happy Monday Team! Big thank you to everyone who made it out for our 6 Year Anniversary Party! I promised everyone I’d go for an Irish Goodbye at some point, but when I attempted to escape it still took me 45 minutes I guess that’s how you know it was a good […]
It’s a tale as old as time — the new student wants to work on the advanced skills, but the coach stresses the basics. In two decades of training and teaching, I’ve come to just accept that this is the way things usually are. And that’s ok. But consider this: you can’t […]
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 […]
Happy Monday Team! Rolled the dice on Saturday’s weather not being up to par and lost that one — after a torrential downpour it actually turned out really nice! Oh well, that’s how it goes.. there is probably a good “Monday Mindset” topic in there somewhere 🙂 We’re rescheduling our 6 Year […]
Happy Monday Team! Next weekend is our big Six Year Anniversary Party at Attic Brewing Company! Make sure to join us from 2-5pm (or later, you party animals) in the beer garden. Friends, family, strangers, interstellar aliens — everyone’s invited! All attendees will receive a free raffle ticket as well (winners will […]
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 […]
Happy Monday Team! We are fresh off a great week of training and competition, with six of our athletes participating in a sparring meetup at one of our sister schools. Joe, Nicole, Chris, Makhi, Dom, and Sam all performed excellently and demonstrated solid technique, good composure, and great sportsmanship! We have Trevon […]
Happy Monday Tuesday Team! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I spent the past few days in the nation’s capital celebrating a family wedding. No complaints, but I’m ready to get back to the mats tonight and keep things moving forward. On deck, a number of our students will be participating in the […]
Happy Monday Team! We’re only one week away from the unofficial start of Summer and it’s crazy how fast this year has been going by! But looking back on it, we’ve accomplished so much and really improved the overall level on the mats. I’m excited about what the next half of the year […]
In our dreams and aspirations, we tend to focus on achieving something close to perfection — an unblemished record, a perfect physique, a rigorous diet free of cheat meals and hiccups. But perfection cannot be achieved in the real world. Our ideals are like cardinal directions in that we can orient ourselves by […]
Happy Monday Team! We are fresh off an exciting weekend of competition, with Timmy Green executing a near flawless performance en route to a big win in the cage on Saturday. We are right back at it again this coming weekend with Ade Solebo making his competitive debut at Striker’s Cup in […]
Happy Monday Team! Apologies about the lateness of last week’s newsletter. The mass e-mail kept failing to send. Hopefully you’ll receive this one on time 🙂 It’s FIGHT WEEK for Timmy Green! Timmy hasn’t been in the cage in over a year, and we are super stoked to see his evolution on […]
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 […]
Happy Monday Team! We are on the other side of an incredible weekend here at the academy. Over 60 competitive athletes from 10+ schools converged onto our mats for a full day of 20+ sparring rounds at our PRO/AM Sparring event. It’s absolutely important to get good at martial arts. Being an […]
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 […]
Happy Monday Team! We have a ton of cool stuff coming up in the next few weeks! I’ll detail them below, but before we get into all that, I wanted to take a moment today to introduce an idea that’s been in the works for awhile. Words have power. They can (and […]
Happy Monday Team! April is shaping to be a competitive and busy month! Make sure to mark the following dates on your calendar: 4/7 – 4/9: Adjusted Class Schedule due to the Movement Archery Workshop hosted at North Star MMA (details TBA) 4/21: Warrior’s Cup Full Rules Muay Thai in Queens, NY 4/22: Grappling Industries […]
“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 […]
Happy Monday Team! Springtime is almost here! And with it some exciting events at the academy lined up for you. But first, just a reminder that we are operating on an adjusted schedule for Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. All other days will be scheduled as normal. Changes in the daily lineup will be italicized […]
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 […]
Happy Monday Team! Big congrats to our Jr. Samurai alumni and also assistant instructor, Madison, on her clean sweep this weekend at NAGA. Madison has been significantly maturing as a grappler over the last few months especially, and showcased an intelligent and aggressive style en route to winning both her divisions. She is, […]
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 […]
Happy Monday Team! Full disclosure: it’s currently Sunday @ 3pm as I’m writing this (I write these in advance, because “early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable ). So maybe it’s a super happy Monday, or maybe it’s a super sad Monday. Either way, I hope you all enjoyed […]
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 […]
Happy Monday Team! Today starts the debut of our new Striking 101 Curriculum! While the coaches and I are definitely excited to move forward with our new approach, the reality is that on the mats it won’t be too different 🙂 Before we get into the details of what’s changed, I want […]
“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 […]
Happy Monday Team! And, yes, we are open as normal today. What else would we be doing on a wonderful Monday evening 🙂 ? Tonight is also the start of a small change in our Striking 101 program. From here on out, shin guards are required for all Striking 101 classes. […]
Happy Monday Team! We are in the process of organizing some competitive events this Winter, so stay posted for some cool announcements! In the meantime, we’ve made some small changes to the schedule. Please make sure to familiarize yourself with the class lineup and keep NorthStarMembers.com bookmarked for reference! We are also […]
Happy Monday Team! I hope everyone was able to spend some time with their families this week, or at least get a little bit of R&R in. I definitely needed the downtime after an intense open mat on Xmas eve 🙂 We are running an adjusted schedule this week. Please make sure to […]
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 […]
Happy Monday Team! We had a great seminar on Saturday with Jon Blank. Â For those who attended, I hope you picked up some neat little tricks. Â I do have a bullet point list of all the techniques and skills we went over — if you want a copy, just let me know! Regarding […]
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 […]
Happy Halloween! Just a reminder that we are running an adjusted schedule tonight. The lineup is as follows: 6pm All Levels Striking 7pm Touch Sparring (201+) 7:30pm BJJ (gi) Our 5pm youth class is cancelled today. We had a great turnout Saturday night for our Kick or Treat 2 Happy Hour!  Although […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Happy Monday Team! Heads up that we will be running a modified class schedule the week prior to Labor Day (8/29 – 9/3). Often, during a week leading up to a holiday, we compress our 101 and 201 classes and loosen our ties a bit. However, the class times may change a bit […]
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 […]
Happy Monday Team! Just want to send you a quick (and final) reminder that our format for the Striking 201 program has changed a bit. These changes include: Classes are now 75 minutes long (excluding Thursday boxing). Free sparring/clinching will continue after the “official” end. Gloves, shinguards, mouthguard, and kneepads are required* Additional […]
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. […]
Happy Monday Team! We have a rare break in the action this month with not much confirmed on our calendar. So let’s double down in training and really focus on the basics! I have some fun and important news for everyone as well: we have made some changes to our Jiu Jitsu […]
Happy Monday Team! Back to work after a packed weekend! Our Path to Blue Belt workshop was packed — I hope you all got something out of it. When we go over a comprehensive and exhaustive set of ideas and concepts, it’s unrealistic to absorb everything. Many of these concepts require multiple […]
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 […]
Happy Monday Team! Got a scorcher of a week on deck, so make sure you are setting yourselves up for success by hydrating like crazy throughout the day! We have a busy Saturday coming up as well, so we’ve made some small adjustments to our weekend schedule to accommodate it all. Â Please […]
Happy Monday team! Have a little more for you to chew on today.. we are covering three topics in this newsletter so sit down with a cup of warm joe and make sure to get yourself up to speed! We are hitting the mats fresh off another successful weekend in competition. On […]
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 […]
Happy Monday Team! Looking forward to another great week on the mats with you all. Don’t forget, Trevon Scales is competing this Saturday for Gut Check Championships in Hockessin, Delaware (about an hour from the gym). We have tickets available at the front desk! On Saturday, June 25th at 1pm, we will […]
“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 […]
Happy Monday Team! June is going to be a busy month here at the academy — we have something cool happening almost every weekend! 6/18 Gut Check Championships featuring Trevon Scales Hockessin, DE. See Trevon or a coach for tickets. 6/26 FLOWwork movement workshop with Coach Alex Brazinski Info and Registration can […]
Feliz Lunes, equipe! I am writing to you from sunny (very, very sunny) Catalonia, Spain! Aside from some great BJJ training, it’s basically been hiking, history, beach, and wine. Can’t complain! I’ll be back on the mats Friday, June 3rd, ready to go — hopefully I can avoid sunburn over the next […]
Happy Monday Team! We have a beautiful week of training ahead of us, let’s get after it! Please remember we have an adjusted schedule for Memorial Day Weekend (see below). This will affect class times throughout the week starting this Wednesday. Please make sure to check, and double check, the schedule before […]
Every year as the weather starts to warm up I give my annual “hygiene chat,” which is basically just a quick guide for you — yes, you — to follow so that we can all get down and dirty on the mats without getting, well, actually dirty 🙂 Before we get to that, big congrats […]
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 […]
Happy Monday Team! Let’s give a big congrats to The Wall himself, Paul Sims, on a stellar performance yesterday at Finishers Sub Only! Paul swept his division en route to Gold and continues to cement his place in the region as one of the top grapplers. Reminder — for those interest in […]
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? […]
Happy Monday Team! Fresh off another competitive weekend in which we saw a number of our grapplers make some noise at Grappling Industries this Saturday. Big congrats to the veteran competitors Paul, Madison, Isis, and Gianna for their predictably strong performances. Jason and Joe both competed for the second time, which […]
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, […]
WOW! What a weekend! I want to thank the students and coaching staff here for being integral ingredients in the recipe for Gianna, Tre, and Isis’ success this weekend. While our competition team is filled with highly motivated and gritty athletes, it’s the environment here that keeps them sharp and moving forward. Is […]
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 […]
Happy Monday Team! Before I get into the run-down of our upcoming event schedule, I want to remind everyone that Friday night’s schedule this week (3.25) has changed: We’ll be running an open mat from 6-8pm.  NoGi open mat starts at 6:30pm as normal. We are officially out of Winter! Every transition is a […]
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 […]
Happy Monday Team! Spring is in the air! And with it, the return of combat sports events! We have a ton of upcoming events on our calendar — make sure to plan accordingly, as tickets/available spots can go quickly. Just a quick reminder: next Monday (3/14), Professor Phil Migliarese will be […]
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 […]
Happy Monday Team! Man, this is gonna be a busy week.. in addition to keeping the flame going on the mats, we have our Five Year Anniversary + UFC Viewing Party this weekend! Essentially, here’s how it will go: In the main room, we’ll have a projection screen displaying the UFC Fight Night event. […]
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 […]
Happy Monday Team! I want to first apologize for whatever happened last week that sent the newsletter out like four times. Technical error? Or was I just really excited about what was in that e-mail? Perhaps we will never know.. (It was a technical error! But I was also excited about that e-mail) I’m […]
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 […]
You know how good it feels to set your sights on a goal and then achieve it. It’s empowering and invigorating – and it’s not just a matter of chance. Goal-setting is an important life skill. The good news is that studying the martial arts can help your child learn: The importance of setting goals How to […]
There are a lot of emotional benefits available to kids who study the martial arts. We’ve talked about some of them already, but today I’m going to talk about one that sometimes gets overlooked: Martial arts classes are a great place to make friends! Think about how most of us make friends. Friendships often start with commonalities, […]
As adults, we think a lot about stress. Modern life is difficult. We worry about paying the bills, doing our jobs well – and we worry about our kids. That’s part of our jobs as parents, but we don’t want our kids to be affected by stress. It’s not good for them physically or emotionally. Still, […]
It’s time to talk about the emotional benefits of studying martial arts. Let’s face it – kids have a hard time managing their emotions. You’d be hard-pressed to find a parent who hasn’t had to deal with their share of temper tantrums. It’s exhausting. Also, consider the other side of the coin: it’s exhausting for […]
In the last couple of blog articles, we’ve been talking about the core tenets of martial arts instruction, and today’s tenet is one that a lot of kids need to learn. I’m talking about self-control. Control is something that’s hard for kids. Their brains and bodies aren’t fully developed, and from the time they’re babies, […]