I have been involved with martial arts (karate, specifically) for decades, since I was about 9 or 10, I think, and I have loved it. One thing I’ve learned, though, is that there’s more to self defense than punches and kicks. This became breathtakingly clear to me at my most recent belt test where, once the ring judge yelled “FIGHT!”, all I could see was the dojo ceiling, spinning, and the next thing I knew I was being choked and desperately trying to find something to tap on. 🙂 To quote my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach (more on him later), “It’s not great.”

With that point perfectly made, I started looking for a way to fix my ground game, as we say, so I asked the guy who did the choking, and he suggested two schools to me, one of which was Redline, saying “Ty Gay is the real deal.” After some procrastination, last November I signed up for the two-week trial, and haven’t stopped since. What I’d like to do here is offer my take on the academy to someone else who might be looking.

tl;dr: It’s awesome and you should join.

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