Disclaimer: Refer to my other post re. Renzo BJJ in Portland. I had been unable to make Renzo's…read moreschool so I chose to try Impact as it was closer and the class schedule jibed with my available time. I am a life-long martial artist with a Black belt in Taekwondo and a senior Blue belt in BJJ, and have trained at many schools throughout Southern California, Arizona and Texas, but have been away from training for half a year. My experience at Impact led me to the following post to share on my Social Media sites: "OMG, what a cool experience, and so hard to describe the incredibly open and friendly students. Even the girls were not shy or afraid to drill with me. This young beast pictured with me is Tyler [pic not included here]. He's got Keenan Cornelius' flexibility and freakish strength. Tyler tapped me out twice: once with a toe-hold on my right ankle he transitioned to after a gogoplata-to-knee bar-to-toe hold, and once with a calf-slicer, neatly transitioned to after I defended his knee bar with a figure-four he counted on me doing. Wow! I've never been attacked with those before. I asked him if he had intended on doing a gogoplata on me but he said it was a feint, and that he wouldn't do that because it was a "dick move" due to the trachea being attacked, ditto for guillotine. Wow. What a great class sequence too, run just like I would want. A good mix of students and gender, no time wasted on the pseudo cross-fit crap. We just bowed in, then drilled sweeps with several partners, four minutes each. Learned one technique, then sparring. The technique shows too. Each student I rolled with was very good with far more varied attacks than I'm used to. ALL holds allowed. One of the friendliest schools I've ever been to, and a great one to come back to BJJ to after being out for over six months."
Basically the students of any school reflect their instructor Richard Rangel, and the friendliness of these students was almost shocking. Within minutes I was practicing with several different students, each introducing themselves by name with a smile and handshake. Now that in itself is not that unusual in BJJ schools, but the best way I can put it is that the friendliness and "comfort" was almost ineffable. I just don't know how else to put it. I'm no slouch at grappling, but I was put through my paces. Yet, each guy or gal I went with was almost like an instant friend! I'm used to the family atmosphere that develops when one practices at any martial arts school for a while, but this was ridiculous! Back to the class sequence, BJJ schools fall into two major categories of error (in my opinion). One; they try to be a do-all-fitness and then train BJJ the remainder of the allotted time meaning that 1/3 to 1/2 of the class time is spent on conditioning instead of learning. Personally, as a trainer myself, I separate conditioning and strength from technical training. Two: they try to teach too much at once, with little practice or organization, and that leads to a lot of frustration and slow growth. Here at Impact, the "warm-up" consisted of practicing specific, vital skills (such as sweeps). This means the students get warmed up physically by training specific BJJ techniques: this is like killing two-birds with one stone and about as functional as you can be. Now I only practiced one class session here at Impact Hillsboro, but based on the students' varied demonstrated defensive and offensive skills, as well as SENSITIVITY in the application of techniques, I know that their instruction and training regimen is excellent. I sincerely look forward to coming back to Impact, hopefully with my wife who also trains, and meeting back up with these ineffably friendly students whose attitude creates an instant sense of bonding and camaraderie. Big congrats to the owner/professor Richard Rangel! You're making a difference in the lives of so many students, so keep it up! I'm wearing the school tee-shirt with pride and please, and look forward to seeing you all again!
