Posts Tagged ‘gyms’

Elite Training Center in St. Petersburg Florida

Elite Training Center St. Petersburg Florida

A break from the cold, rainy weather sent me to Sunny Florida. It’s supposed to be warm there, event though I heard recent stories of it being so cold Iguanas were falling out of trees. But just because I am away it doesn’t mean I can stop training, especially if I want to enter the Tiger Balm Tournament in March 2010. So I asked Sensei Ali if he knew of any where to train in the Tampa Bay area and he found Elite Training Center. So I fired an email their way and the response back from Phil Beatty, the owner and chief instructor, was, “You are certainly welcome here… No attitudes here, just great training with friendly people.” That sounded just great. Elite Training Center is a fairly big martial arts school in the heart of St. Petersburg, being one of the largest and best schools in the whole Tampa Bay area. The school offers Karate for adults and kids; it’s also a Gracie Barra Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu School; they have a Muay Thai and Kickboxing program, and have plenty of room for crossfit training, a weight room, and Elite Training Center also offers seminars in Self-Defence on a regular basis.

So on Saturday morning I found my way across St. Pete with the TomTom and met up with Kathy at the front counter and joined the Muay Thai/Kickboxing class. Many students from that day are already in a MMA mindset, since they were in the BJJ class immediately before Muay Thai/Kickboxing. The class instructor was a very capable Roger Patrizzi, who has over 20 years experience in martial arts, a background in Close Combat training with the Marines, and a number of Muay Thai and Vale Tudo fights to his credit. The course plan when I attended class was punching and kicking combinations in the first half and light sparring during the second half. My impressions from the class were that the open and relaxed environment enabled the instructor to keep moving about the class and allowed the students to share some of their thoughts as well. The mat is open after class and I got some sparring in with Alex Cruz. I heard later that Alex is on the card for his first pro MMA fight on February 26, in RFC 20 (Real Fighting Championships) in Tampa (note last I checked the RFC website, they had not updated the info with his fight).

I came back the following Tuesday for another class. This time I managed to borrow some fancy sparring gear ahead of time so I could train with the group that had gear. I was in for a real surprise when I sparred with Jeff Bullock, who had some of the speediest punches I have come across in a while. Turns out he was so hot because he was training for a fight on the 23^rd of January! I had to compliment him afterwards for being such a good boxer. He was really amazing. I have since heard from Sensei Phil Beatty that both their fighters from that night, Jeff Bullock and Alyssa Bellini won their fights. Congratulations to both fighters. I understand also that Elite Training Center is set for further expansion to support its growing student base and future programs.

Here are a few photos from my time there.

Link to full set on Flickr.com

BJJ training

Kickboxing and Muay Thai Class

Jeff Bullock (blue)

Instructor Roger Patrizzi with student

students discussing the fine points of techinque together

Fancy Loaner Shin Pads!!!!

Alex Cruz and Jeff Bullock Sparring

Link to full set on Flickr.com

Sunday, January 31st, 2010 at 22:47 | Comments Off

Categories: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Travel - Martial Arts Around The World

Tags: dojo, gyms, schools

Photos from North Burnaby Boxing Open House

I managed after all to attend the Open house day at the new location for the North Burnaby Boxing Club. Operating since 2004, they have grown and have now expanded into new digs. The club’s new home is just beside Revs Bowling & Entertainment Center, at 5502 Lougheed Hwy., next to the Holdom Skytrain Station.

The club’s new location is due to its growth and maturation as a club. It was put together over several weeks by club members, who converted two raquetball courts over a period of several weeks, rebuilding the club, installing the heavy wood beam mezzanine by hand, and the club is complete with a large selection of heavy bags, speed bags, ring, spinner bikes, ropes, weight room adjacent, and years of boxing memorabilia transferred to the walls. The title club banner was cut out from the wall of their previous location. The coaching staff of Rob Bortolazzo, Alister Brodie, Rosalia Calla, Bill Kennedy, Andy Mavros, and Manny Sobral bring world class depth and experience in championship level professional and amateur boxing into the club.

The club coaches Manny Sobral and Alister Brodie are also operating West Coast Promotions, for promoting fights like the upcoming MMA fight night at River Rock Casino on January 23, 2010.

I also got to meet Robert Couzens, Canada’s top amateur fighter at 152 lbs and a likely member of Canada’s Olympic team at the Olympics in 2012. As well, Rosalia Calla was there training for an upcoming fight in Montreal. Gym fees are a super affordable 40 bucks a month. That is a totally affordable price to train somewhere. The club is totally accessible being only a 1 minute walk away from Holdom skytrain station.

Website: http://www.bcboxers.com/