Tactical Kung Fu and Mixed Martial Arts

The best parts about TKF is their practical knowledge of competition, the high skill level and professionality of the staff, but most of all the people. From the Sifu to the newest member, they are all really nice and good people. There are no jerks here.

Site:
I’ve been training with Sifu Jason for close on to a year now and want to post a review of this school. As of the time of this review, the new gym is roughly a month short of opening, but as I’ve put in many hours in helping the new place build up, I am confident of my statements regarding the facility and equipment.
Quick background on me: Did several years of Tae Kwon Do to achieve 1^st Dan rank back in high school, sparred in college for MIT TKD (one of the better ranked college sport TKD programs), and then got really interested in doing mixed martial arts (MMA) and reality-​based self defense (RBSD). I’m currently training with TKFMMA for a May 26^th cage fight.
There are four important points to note in schools that train MMA and RBSD — technique instruction/​applicability, sparring intensity, training culture, and facility/​equipment.
Technique instruction/​applicability — 5
— All of the techniques taught have been tested in sparring at various levels. If it doesn’t work, we throw it out. The techniques draw from western and Phillipino boxing, muay thai, judo, kempo, eskrima, collegiate wrestling, Brazillian jujitsu, and, of course, Kung Fu. It’s a wide range of techniques, but Jason and his instructor black/​brown belts know them cold, are great at teaching them, and have a focused curriculum that prioritizes the basic techniques and builds upon them to learn more advanced and esoteric moves. We also bring in specialists to supplement twice a week — our BJJ expert is a fantastic teacher, and our MMA coach is a seasoned professional fighter. We’ve got a great MMA competition record to prove our success as well.
Sparring intensity — 5
— There’s a wide range of sparring done here. Almost every class ends with 15 – 30 min of light contact sparring/​grappling/​weapon sparring. About 1 Sunday per month we engage in 1 hour of heavy contact MMA, completely at one’s choice. The light contact gives us a good sense of timing and technique applicability against a resisting opponent, and the heavy contact teaches students to use these techniques under high stress and full resistance. For reference — Light contact sparring = 4 oz MMA gloves + shinguard + cup + mouthpiece and just enough contact to acknowledge a hit, continuous 3 minute rounds. Heavy contact = 16 oz gloves and almost full power, continuous 3 minute rounds.
Training culture — 5
— No machismo, no chips on shoulders, no overly aggressive emotional and dangerous fighting. The group is mostly composed of mature 30+ y/​o gaming nerds in professional careers (Sifu Jason is an avid gamer about to finish his dissertation in his MD PhD program) and awesome family people (2 families, complete with middle school sons and daughters, training with us now daily) — we’re out to train and have fun, not to hurt.
Equipment — 4, soon to be 5
— At it’s current location, we often have trouble fitting everyone during our sparring sessions. We’re moving to a new location that will double the floor size to 4000+ sq ft. It will also have full Muay Thai kicking bags, a half-​cage, a full weight lifting set, equipment store, lockers, ceiling net, etc. The new place is going to be the best equipped training facility within a hundred miles when it opens.
If you’re looking for one-​stop shop that will help you train for self-​defense without breaking your bank (cheap! ask about pricing!) this is the place. Looking forward to sparring with you!