A Community Helps Program of Central Baptist Church
Church MMA is a Community Helps Program of Central Baptist Church in Aurora, Colorado. Training is free. Our program currently runs on Wednesdays and Fridays in two hour sessions from 3 P.M. to 9 P.M. The first hour is training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ), and the second hour is training in striking.
Regarding Jiu Jitsu, if you are unfamiliar with this form of martial art, it is the best form of martial arts for self defense. Jiu Jitsu is a Japanese phrase that translates to “the gentle art.” When you think of martial arts, you think of punching and kicking similar to techniques used in Karate and Tae-Kwon-Do. Like Judo, there is no punching or kicking; it is a grappling and ground fighting art. What makes Jiu Jitsu unique is that it can safely be practiced with training partners, whereas striking styles can only be used in real life situations as someone may get hurt. In Jiu Jitsu, you have the ability to constantly test techniques in this evolving martial art. Rather than relying on size and strength, a smaller person can use Jiu Jitsu by leveraging and joint manipulation to defeat a bigger, stronger person. Most street fights end up on the ground which is where the Jiu Jitsu is taught and practiced.
Our BJJ Fundamentals program teaches essential offensive and defensive techniques from the core positions. You will start to build a foundation for competitive sport Jiu Jitsu and learn self defense techniques for real life situations.
Our striking system is unique and innovative and a perfect balance of Muay Thai, Western Boxing, Kickboxing, and Dutch K1. We teach the fundamentals so that you have a strong foundation in striking.
Integration: Once the student has developed a strong foundation in BJJ and striking, the two are combined to make a complete and well-rounded MMA fighter.
We invite and encourage students and parents alike to train together. We can say from experience that this is a fantastic bonding time for the family, so we would encourage families to train together! We do train in pairs and, starting out, it is helpful to have partners that are roughly the same size, so if you have a "partner of choice" that is available to come with you, then that is great.
Yes, this is legit. The head coaches are Shane and Jeanine Sowers, IBJJF recognized purple belts and advanced fusion strikers. We train at High Altitude Martial Arts (HAMA) in Denver under Professor Cody Donovan. For belts and promotions in BJJ, we follow IBJJF rules. For striking, we follow the same system as HAMA. Therefore, both your BJJ promotions and your striking promotions count, are recognized, and will translate to other gyms if and when you move on from Church MMA.
Yes! There’s no catch. It’s free. We want to give back, and this is one of the ways that we are doing it.
The best way to find out is to come into the gym, and try it out in person. If your goal is learning self-defense, then we are an ideal fit for you. Also, if you just want a fun activity that teaches a valuable skill, offers a great workout and has fantastic community then this is a great fit for you too. Finally, if you’re an aspiring MMA professional fighter, while we are not the gym to take you all the way, we can absolutely get you started and moving in that direction.
Yes, largely, we focus on the Fundamental Four positions: mount, full-guard, side control, and back. For each of these four positions, we will teach how to maintain position, attack, and escape. Some examples of attacks are the arm bar, triangle, Americana, Kimura, guillotine, and rear-naked choke.
We want to help make our community safer. Through offering self-defense training, we hope that we will be a blessing to our neighborhood by helping to make our community safer.
We train from four-years old (calculated by birth year) and up. While most gyms separate by age, we all train together, as one big MMA family.
No! There’s no catch. We just want to give back, and this is one of the ways that we are doing it.
Yes! We invite and encourage families to train together.
Absolutely. We homeschool, and we personally have used MMA as our P.E. credit for six years now.
No, we cannot bring you all the way to the top-level tier of being a professional fighter, but we can get you started on your journey. If you are just beginning and wanting to “test the waters” and make sure this is something that you want to pursue for a career, we are a good place to start, as we will teach you the fundamentals that are essential to know before you progress to the next level. Think of us in a community college context where you can use us to complete your general studies before you progress to the four year university to learn the more advanced and specialized courses. We will give you a strong foundation in the fundamentals so that you can pursue your career at a gym that caters to the pros and offers one-on-one, personalized instruction incorporating intermediate and advanced technique. We highly recommend High Altitude Martial Arts to pursue this career. Be sure to let them know that the Sowers sent you!
Ready to train? Reach out to us! We're here to help you get started on your MMA journey.
29 Del Mar Cir, Aurora, CO 80011
303-591-2270
connect@churchmma.com
