I attended Villari's Holliston roughly 30 years ago, it set me up for a lifelong love of martial…read morearts as well as instilled confidence, honor and discipline. First and foremost Sensi Julie is absolutely amazing! The lessons/training are life changing. Julie is a person of deep personal integrity, honor and respect and she is extremely good at instilling those values in others, adult or child. Julie is the type of sensei who is a living embodiment of her teachings. She leads by example. The lessons I learned under Julie's guidance kept me out of trouble in middle school and high school. These lessons shaped me a person and are still with me today. 30 years later I still train martial arts (Muay Thai 10 years and just started BJJ) and I have no doubt that this lifelong pursuit is a result of my time with Julie at Villari's Self Defense Holliston. What price can you put on confidence? Determination? Respect? Honor? A lifelong passion? Whether you are a child or an adult, think of this as an extremely valuable life investment. This isn't just money spent to keep your self or your kids occupied for a couple hours, it is an investment in character and self that will last a lifetime. Can't recommend this place enough!

From the owner: Our martial arts programs offer both children and adults the ability to learn self defense…read moretechniques, improve coordination, hone reflexes, develop self-confidence and self-discipline, reduce stress, and much more. All of our classes are taught by a team of certified Black Belt instructors whose mission is to provide you with the highest quality martial arts training and to create an atmosphere in which you may be motivated to reach whatever goal you set, be it Black Belt, or beyond! To provide every man, woman and child the highest quality of martial arts training so that they become empowered to live richer, more rewarding and meaningful lives, and in so doing, contribute to a stronger community.

Sensei Paul Belle Isle is an excellent instructor of Shindo Jinen Ryu Karate. I attended his class…read morefor a little over a year and can easily attest that his approach to instructing and teaching this style of Karate makes it easy to understand yet keeps it challenging as it should be. He doesn't just "hand out" belts like some other dojos nor does he allow the students to forget the very basics. For every belt you earn, you can honestly say you know everything you are required to know up to that point. Sensei Paul makes the student understand the purpose of each movement in Shindo Jinen Ryu and with the typically smaller sized classes, he has time to teach one on one if need be. Sensei Paul truly has a love for Karate and a passion for teaching. I highly recommend this class to anyone.

I started taking classes here a few months ago after my (fit) wife gave me karate lessons for…read moreChristmas. Hmmm....Was she inspired by Michelle Obama who gave gym clothes to the President? Anyway, I happily accepted the gift because I was already wondering how to add more variety to my daily fitness routine, which consists of bending, stretching, and balancing exercises along with weights and cardio (I am lucky to have the equipment and space in my home to do this). I was also hoping that by participating in a group exercise, I will not have the monotony of working out alone (listening to the Morning Edition) at least twice a week. Well, despite the fact that I had never taken marital arts lessons before and other than tidbits gathered from watching Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies, I hardly knew anything, I found that at the end of the day, karate is yet another way to improve fitness. Obviously, it was a little intimidating to join a class with that level of ignorance, but I found the instructor to be supportive and patient. Over several weeks, I have learned a few stances and kicks, and feel much more confident about being able to defend myself in the future. Now, yet again, maybe it was my ignorance, but I did not expect that we will be doing a lot of other exercises to warm up and to improve our fitness levels in addition to actual karate techniques. So that has been a blessing for me because I am realizing that by doing these additional exercises I am exercising each and every muscle in my body. Let me add that karate can be learned at any age and I am aware of instructors who are in their 70s and 80s. That is yet another plus because this is a fitness activity that I can envision doing the rest of my life. Taking on karate classes as I am approaching my 50th birthday was a step outside my comfort zone of fitness, but it has been fun because the classes are designed to be slow-paced and focused more on getting it right than on speed.

I come here mainly on weekends, when my home Y closes way the heck too early (4pm vs 7pm here)…read more I'd say that about 70-80% of their equipment is fine. Lots of free weights and strength machines. The highlight is the huge, high-ceilinged (30-40ft?) functional fitness space that features a turf area, a sled, kettlebells, plyo boxes, plyo smash balls, a do-it-all calisthenics multi-station that includes weighted pulleys, dip and pullup and monkey bars, a free hanging real boxing bag (nice angled uppercut bag that's just the right weight to make you "dance" to avoid the swing back, yet forgiving enough that you can punch it without gloves without risking a broken wrist or bruised knuckles), a pair of Assault bikes and treadmills, a Concept rower, some meh Schwinn stationary bikes (more on that later), and two full squat cages with plenty of plates and barbells. So, what about the other 20-30%, you ask? Well, their cardio machines range from so-so to unusably lousy. All the treadmills are Precor, which are a clear step down from the Life Fitness TMs most Ys have: smaller uglier fuzzy screens with spotty internet connection that can freeze up in the middle of a workout, noisier and less stable platform. The stationary bikes are a mix of Precor (typical mediocre gym bike with crap ergonomics where you feel like you're on a creaky toy bike pedaling against some barbaric pad not magnetic resistance) and Espresso (video-gaming type bike clearly designed to seduce ADD teenagers or lazy af adults) and the horrible Schwinn bikes (just as bad as most home exercise bikes, you can understand why people mostly use them as clothes hangers). Please please please can you guys get at least a few KEISER bikes? We know you can have decent taste in cardio machines because you kept your CONCEPT rowers instead of choosing some oversized gym-brand rowers which look impressive but have similarly lousy ergonomics. Oh and they have non-mechanical Assault brand treadmills which nobody uses because they are brutal on the knees, too narrow and unstable. I don't know who was in charge of choosing the cardio equipment, but that person needs to be put to work cleaning the bathrooms or something more appropriate! The other major gripe I have is their sauna --- it's spacious and new and pretty, but who in the hell decided to have only ONE row of seating? Completely idiotic, folks: did you not pass seventh grade Life Science, where they teach you that heat RISES, and that's why all real saunas have TWO levels of seating, with the 2nd one being a good 4-5 feet off the ground so that you get the full benefit of the heat in the room? Here you have to STAND on the damned low benches if you want to get a decent sweat in ... the sauna thermometer reads 170F but if you're sitting down you'd be lucky to get 140-150F, which is useless. (The sauna of the Melrose YMCA has the same idiotic mistake.) So, while I'm grateful that this Y offers me decent hours to work out on weekends making the long drive out there worthwhile, their cardio machines selection and sauna design really really need a rethink.

Terrible manager terrible customer service terrible experience!!! After 5 years I canceled my…read moremembership! Don't waste ur time or Money!! Classes are crap, they have young kids coaching, u have to just keep taking the same class over and over there is no going anywhere is just basic redundant classes!! The facilities are nothing exciting and prices are going up now every year!!