WELCOME TO OUR BLOG

2008-09-01T10:16:00.001-07:00

Thanks to everyone who helped put up the new Hot Springs Sign this week. It wasn't easy, but it looks great now.
Live in Hot Springs? Well come join us! We're easier to find...now that we're no longer the Meat Market :)

We also had some good training this week. Kickboxing testing was quite successful. Awards will be Tuesday.
Jason has a fight coming up, Kickboxers please come help him train and give him all the support you can in class.

Congratulations to the BJJers who got tips at this past weekends workshop...they were all well deserved. Focus hard for the upcoming grappling tournament as well.

Some new kids in the Youth Program will help us kick off September. Kids, focus on the BJJ tournament and we'll follow it up with an October BJJ testing.

Clinch gear has had some new shorts out and we've had quite a few folks asking. If you're interested let me know asap.

REMEMBER-- NO CLASSES TODAY! We have some potentially exciting news coming, hopefully tomorrow!

2008-08-22T10:50:00.000-07:00

Well, It's been a long time blogging. We just spent 2 1/4 days of our lives in a car recently experiencing the great western United States and the Desert. It took a full 2 weeks to recover from that :)

We did have a great time at the Second No Gi World Championships. Everyone from Revolution won some matches and had an excellent performance. Joel from Conway MMA also had his first tournament experience and had an excellent performance as well. Congrats to him and we look forward to competing with him in the future. Abby brought home a Bronze from her Division! Kris fought a giant. While Kris has lost a considerable amount of weight and leaned up, he's still 6'4, and take a look at his opponent! Supposedly he was over 500 lbs. Gas prices in the desert are through the roof! Probably because there is no choice....

But needless to say a lot has happened since our last blog. Our kids had a successful testing. Sparring is getting good.
Adults will have a Kickboxing Testing Tuesday. Remember if its your first one, nothing to be nervous about. We'll have a real good review again Monday, so bring your questions if you have them. Saturday brought a productive review and sparring session for the advanced folks. So many people losing weight and getting in shape!

Adult BJJ, our tournament is approaching. Let's gear up the training some more in these upcoming weeks.
We also have a FREE seminar in Hot Springs this Sunday! Come join us. If you're considering taking up BJJ, this will be a good seminar for you to try, it's free and we'll cover a lot of basic techniques that you'll need to get started. We'll even throw in some advanced stuff for the advanced practitioners.

2008-08-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

It's great to see the kids working so hard, getting in great shape and learning so much stuff. Kettlebells are a favorite, and they're getting quite good. Testing Tomorrow!

Thanks to everyone who came out to support Shaolin's Seminar. It was a great success and a lot of fun to help kick off the Hot Springs classes in the new location. Congrats to those who earned tips on their belts. Congrats to Grant for earning his Yellow Belt. He did great! Thanks for Mr. Dring for brining him in. LDMA regularly brings in some of the top black belts, and we appreciate what we learn from them without having to travel far.

We finished last week with some good training. It's hot outside, but that doesnt stop us from training hard inside.
Renegade is going strong as are the regular programs. Come join us for some strength and conditioning and get in shape before fall gets here.

We started August strong tonight, let's keep it going this week!

2008-08-01T06:31:00.000-07:00

It has been a productive week thus far. Kids testing is TUESDAY. Watching these kids spar has been a pleasure, they are going to be really good! Well they already are, but I expect good things from them when they start competing. Adult Kickboxing testing is August 26. Be sure to attend as many classes as possible to be ready for testing!

BJJ'ers, don't forget this weekend is the seminar!
I can assure you this will be a good one, filled with exciting new techniques and training strategies. It's great to be part of Team LDMA, we've had so many good black belts in including Robson, Shaolin, Paulo, etc. The seminar circuit here is never dull that's for sure. Friday night by the lake, and Saturday at LDMA in Sherwood!

2008-07-22T10:13:00.000-07:00

Kids are having fun, that's for sure! Kids Kickboxing testing August 5. Everyone will be ready I know. We've been doing a lot of new exercises to keep these guys in shape. Today in Kids Kickboxing we will unveil a new surprise in the gray space!

Another Kickboxing Result, one of our new Ladies has lost 9 lbs in 2 weeks! Excellent! Royce walked 6 miles round trip to class Saturday and won the kick award in Kickboxing yesterday. Yay Royce. Wes won the award for making me laugh so hard I almost spit out my water watching his kick!

Speaking of Kickboxing, LDMA brought home 3 titles from the IKF Worlds! Congratulations to these guys and girls on their success! Every year LDMA continues to show that their striking program can produce World Class strikers.

We had another solid Kettlebell workout Yesterday, and it's great to see everyone participating along with the fighters. We have a few more pieces of equipment coming to add even more variety to the workouts.

Gear up for the September 13 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournament!

2008-07-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro is coming to do a seminar with us August 1st at the new Hot Springs location! He'll also be doing a seminar Gi and No-Gi at LDMA in Sherwood on August 2nd! If you've been in class, you've heard the announcement already. I'd encourage everyone to take advantage of this great opportunity to train with one of the best lightweight fighters in the World. Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu submission specialist and mixed martial artist. He holds a professional MMA record of 19 wins and 2 losses, with 12 of his wins via submission. Vitor Ribeiro is a World Class Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Fighter. He has won the CBJJ Mundials (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championship) four times, once as a purple belt in 1996 and three times as a black belt in three consecutive years (1999, 2000, and 2001). He has competed in the Abu Dhabi World Championships in 2000 and 2003. "Shaolin" is considered one of the best lightweights in MMA. He has fought in several bouts in organizations all over the world, such as Shooto Japan, Shooto Hawaii, Rumble on the Rock (Hawaii), Cage Rage (England), and K-1 HERO'S (Japan). He has held the Shooto welterweight (154 lb) title, as well as the Cage Rage World lightweight championship. Mark your calendars! We regularly offer training with Top Black belts including Robson Moura, Shaolin, Rodrigo Vaghi, and the list goes on for our students training benefit and to bring our students the most advanced training available in this area.

We had a good day of Renegade yesterday in the new Renegade space. We had a full Kettlebell class! It was great to see so many women joining us in the class this year as well, and of course we had a few younger ones. Keep up the good work, who knows what today's class holds. Sandbags perhaps, or some training outside..... We just climbed Pinnacle Twice and it's a pretty nice day out I must say.

We will have a Kids testing within a month, and we are scheduling the next Adult Kickboxing Testing as well.

Tomorrow night will be a very exciting night with us. Come join us for our first training session in our new permanent Hot Springs location, nicely situated with a view of the LAKE!

I just heard Scott goes to the board tomorrow to see if he gets Soldier of the Month. Wish him luck.

On a final note, I wanted to remind everyone of our Gi blowout sale in the pro shop. If you're tired of constantly washing your Gi, now is a real affordable time to pick up an extra one.

2008-07-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

We finished this weekend and began the next with some hard training. Today we attended a training session in Batesville with Rodrigo Vaghi, a 4th Degree Black Belt under Rickson Gracie and teacher at the original Gracie Academy in Rio. Vaghi is a super guy and great instructor. We picked up some new and exciting things to pass along to you all to add to your game. I am disappointed that I did not get a picture to spice up the blog!

Team LDMA will have another Grappling tournament September 13 in Sherwood. Let's gear up and get ready for it.

By now you've noticed the changes to the Benton gym, and we had even more come this weekend. Be prepared for some exciting workouts to come.

LDMA has some Kickboxers headed to the IKF this upcoming weekend. Our thoughts and well wishes go with them as they look to bring home more titles.

2008-07-13T06:06:00.000-07:00

All the fighters had a good level of training volume this week. A lot of the new equipment is in and being put in place. We finished off the week here at the school with a long Saturday workshop, and added a lot of side mount attacks to everyone's game plan. We continued the training last night in Conway with the fighters there. We have a load of events over the next few weeks, which will keep everyone training at their peak. All of you that didn't make the workshop this Saturday or those that want more review on the attacks we added, we'll be doing it again in Conway this coming Saturday the 19th. Everyone be sure to welcome the new kickboxers in class. We move Renegade to the new Renegade Room this week! Everyone make sure you're brining some carbs to drink with you while you train. Don't let your training bonk;) We'll kick it off again Monday like last week was easy.

2008-07-07T10:43:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend.
Please remember the guys we have serving: Scott, Casey and Brandon. Drop them a line if you haven't and would like to do so.

We got a lot accomplished here this weekend, so hurry in tonight to see it!
Renegade is going to get quite exciting with the improvements. I've been expecting the new equipment any day now.

If you need any home repairs, please contact Bobby. I can say from personal experience he is quite good at what he does.

Well, more later. It's off to the mountain to train!

2008-07-01T21:19:00.001-07:00

We finished off last week strong, and Sara won the Saturday Adult Contest making her the Kicking Champion!
And Stephen Won the Kids today, beating Dylan by 1 kick!
Woooo Hooooo!

We have another kids and adult Kickboxing testing coming up, and Jason and Helen have fights coming up. Please help keep them motivated and cheer them on! Aaron is back in Kickboxing. I am posting his pic on the net for 1 reason. Please notice the black trash can. That was for him to puke in if needed. Lesson #1, Coming back from a break can be tough. :) We are glad to have him back.

We had a tough yet fun Renegade tonight, filled with olympic lifts, kettlbells and sledgehammers on the tire out back.
It's good to see so many ladies and kids joining all these guys in the class.

In BJJ we had a few people get Tips on their belts recently. Congratulations and Stay focused everyone.

It's hard keeping up with the blog with as busy as things are, but we have been sending regular team emails. If you did not provide your email when you signed up, please send it to us so we can keep you up to date on all the fun and festivities.
We have stuff going on Thursday night after BJJ and Saturday. If you don't know, ask!

Scott, or "Scotzi" as he's now called, is still in Iraq along with Casey, send them a word of encouragement if you know them.

2008-06-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

Well we've finished all the Kids' Make-up testings. I'm so proud of these guys. We will have another Kickboxing testing coming up followed by a BJJ Testing. Don't forget our summer contest!

Adult Kickboxers are working towards our next testing as well. Jory will be giving out details in class. It's good to see Jim back!
We can now welcome Sara to our sparring class! She's been taking for quite awhile now, and has decided to join the sparring group. She and Jason stayed to spar after class Saturday. Our Kickboxing program has grown considerably and we have a lot of promising new competitors in the making.

Renegade is back at your request, and keep watch over the next 2 weeks we have a lot of new equipment coming in, and other goodies as well. I'm excited, it will be like Christmas in July!

BJJ has some new times scheduled and it's working great. We have a seminar this Saturday followed by a session in the park and some good eats!

Charlie lost a decision at Caged Fury in Conway this weekend. What a bummer, he dominated in the third round, lost the second and we all thought he edged it out in the first. Unfortunately we don't count. Anyway, we're proud of him for getting out there. Overall it was a great show and we saw a huge display of tattoos! What are the chances that 2 people would show up with the same tattoo? It was a great production of 16 exciting fights. Check out the pics in the MMA gallery!

We're almost out of Hoodies, get one while you can.
Don't forget the June specials!
We have an even planned for the weekend of July 5, please get with one of us if you would like to know what it is and participate. I can assure you it will be well worth it.

Kris has earned his Camo belt! How do you earn a Camo belt at REVOLUTION? I don't know, but Kris earned it! It sure isn't for learning how to tie a belt properly...

2008-06-12T20:55:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a long time blogging. Things are busy behind the scenes, days filled with training.
Anyway, we missed a lot of stuff, on the blog at least.

The kids just finished another successful Kickboxing Testing. Congrats to all of you on your hard earned new rank. We are already started for the next one. We had almost a full day of sparring today, and I was impressed. I can not wait for one of you to have your first Kickboxing Competition. We know how well you do in the Grappling Competitions. Our next Kickboxing testing has been set as well as the next BJJ testing.

We had the Recent MMA and Kickboxing Fights. It was a great show, and the only thing that didnt please me really was these pictures.....Congrats to Helen on her successful exhibition. Jason fought his first fight to a Draw. He did great, and had a pressing offense and solid technique. Jason and Helen have really stepped up to lead the Kickboxing Team and we're proud of them. They are training hard, and both of them have transformed themselves since being in the gym. We're excited for what lies ahead for these two. Jim also had his first Kickboxing exhibition. He got back in right after his thumb surgery and worked hard. He's got some solid leg kicks, that's for sure.

Wes and Royce both won their title fights. It's been great to watch Wes grow as a BJJ player and Fighter with our team. Now we get to see Royce as well, who is dominating all of his fights. At the age of 19 Royce has a solid future as a fighter and BJJ player.

Jeremy Thompson also won his MMA Fight. His opponent had a weight advantage and a few boxing and MMA Matches. Jeremy finished this fight quickly, just as he has in the past. He used his pressing offensive standup and finished with a standing Rear choke. He looked like a Monkey for a minute!

Conway MMA had a great showing as did LDMA in Sherwood. Fighters from Arkansas and Surrounding states came to play for this card, and it was a fun show.

We also just attended the Mundials. It was an exciting competition and the black belt division was steep. Jory had a great showing. He lost his match by 2 point, he sunk in a choke at the end but time ran out before he could finish. Oh well.
Win or Lose, he still brought back more experience and knowledge for your benefit, and he's got plenty of experience under his belt, and now at the black belt level!

We also have new Tshirts in!!! They are FANCY! This is the type of Tshirt you wear out at the club that gets you all the dates!
Just kidding! Get one today they are going fast! We also have the zip Hoodies in! They are going even faster.

While gas prices may be going up, be glad you do not live in California!

And How can I forget we went to the San Diego Zoo! We always try to do at least one fun thing on the trips.

Looks like we've got some seminars, training camps and competitions coming up for later this year. We'll also have more equipment coming for your workouts!
We also have workshops coming up at a few places around Arkansas. Hit one of these to touch up on your "Turtle Attacks".

2008-05-14T09:04:00.000-07:00

2008-05-13T15:19:00.001-07:00

The new schedule is a hit! We've got more Renegade Training, more Kickboxing and more Jiu Jitsu. Remember Benton's Ultimate Fight Night is this Saturday night at The Armory! We're needing some volunteers to help with setup and breakdown of the show. There's a sign-up sheet in the lobby. Revolution Benton will have 7 of it's own fighters on the card!

Justin Fiser
Jeremy Tompson
Wes Baxter
Jim Whitley
Helen Davis
Jason Davis
Royce Cummings

Plus many more fights!
I'd talk about the after party but it's a secret. You all will have to ask me in person ;)

The new t-shirts and hoodies are also on the way, and there's plenty of new gear in the pro shop! We'll have some other special announcements about upcoming events soon. Also don't forget the fighters will be back in action at Caged Fury in Conway on June 21st! We've got a lot of stuff happening to get the summer kicked off proper!

2008-05-06T20:59:00.001-07:00

After 2 years of hard, dedicated training, David Earned his Blue Belt tonight!

Congratulations David! Revolution's 10th Blue Belt!
(David's been sick the last two weeks with allergy problems. Then he tore a muscle in his back last week coughing hard, and he's still in rolling like a champ!)

Keep up the hard training! Copies of the new schedule are in the lobby. We take it up a notch next week!

We have a BJJ Seminar this THURSDAY in Benton and the cost is $25. We'll cover advanced techniques and a lot of other good stuff. SATURDAY we have a BJJ Seminar in Hot Springs. See you at one...or both!

Fights in Benton May 17! Are you ready?

2008-05-05T21:37:00.001-07:00

The people have spoken! We'll be releasing a new schedule this week, which will begin on this coming Monday. We'll be expanding the kickboxing, adding a lot of new stuff in and adding more BJJ classes to the schedule. Also be aware we have two Brazilian Jiu Jitsu seminars this week. One will be here in Benton on Thursday night at 7:00. The other will be in Hot Springs on Saturday at 12:00. We will also be doing a seminar coming up at Conway MMA. I'll get the date out for that as soon as it is set. Don't forget! The fights here at the Benton Armory next Saturday night on May 17th in the new Monster Cage! We've already got a full card of Benton fighters ready to get in there. Check with us here at the school for tickets! We'll have some more big names and announcements over the next couple of weeks!

2008-04-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

Great work this week, and it's good to see a lot of the competitors back in after the tournament. We've got a few seminars coming up, so get ready for those in the next few weeks, and of course the upcoming MMA fights!

Jory did some extreme training today,
Here he is showing off his 40+ inch Vertical Jump. Keep an eye out. Word on the street is Jory will be making a brief return to his old event the decathlon a little later this year! We're negotiating a deal, and he's been spotted out on the weekends throwing some discus. Would you like your image airbrushed on his shirt? Contact us for details!

Come do some Renegade!
p.s. we wont make you jump over the hurdles or anything else inhuman :)

2008-04-24T12:40:00.000-07:00

So, I stayed up almost all night the night before the tournament bracketing things, well a bunch of us did actually. I think I must be getting old because it took me a few days to recover from that......

Anyway, HUGE success for REVOLUTION at the Arkansas' Invitational! We've got a ton of up and comers!
We had a few people ask and we brought home 33 Medals! Congrats to everyone on a job well done, whether you placed or not. We had a few people winning matches who made some strategical errors that either kept them from getting their points or allowed the opponent to score. One of the reasons for this tournament was to help everyone get experience. We will quickly fix those things so that no one makes the same mistake again :) Some of the men's divisions were huge!

Remember If you're looking for the best in BJJ, come see us at REVOLUTION :)

Here's the REVOLUTION Results

Kids 6-8 Years Gi:
Noah 1st
Madi 2nd
Jake 3rd

Kids 6-8 Years No Gi:
Noah 1st
Madi 2nd
Jake 3rd

Kids 9-11 Years Light Weight Gi:
John Penn 1st

Kids 9-11 Years Light Weight No Gi:
John Penn 1st

Kids 9-11 Years Heavy Weight Gi:
Jordan 2nd

Kids 9-11 Years Heavy Weight No Gi:
Ethan 2nd

Kids 11-12 Years Gi:
3rd Shelby

Kids 11-12 Years No Gi:
3rd Shelby

13-14 Years Gi:
3rd Jake

13-14 Years No Gi:
2nd Jake

16-17 Years Gi:
Justin 2nd

16-17 Years No Gi:
Justin 2nd

Men's Middle Weight White Belt:
Aaron 3rd

Men's Light Heavy White Belt:
Wes 1st
Cameron 2nd

Men's Super Heavy White Belt:
Royce 1st
Ben 2nd

White Belt Open Class Gi
Royce 3rd

Men's Blue Belt Light Heavy:
Jeremy 3rd

Blue & Purple Open Class:
Jeremy 1st

Men's No Gi Beginner Light Heavy:
Cameron 1st
Greg 3rd

Men's No Gi Beginner Super Heavy:
Royce 1st
Charles 3rd

Men's No Gi Intermediate Heavy Weight:
Jeremy 2nd
Wes 3rd

Men's No Gi Advanced Heavy Weight:
Ty 2nd

Men's No Gi Absolute:
Royce 1st
Wes 2nd

(Pls let me know if I have anything wrong here)

Finally, here's the PICS!

2008-04-20T23:16:00.000-07:00

The tournament was a huge success.
Congrats to Royce for winning the No Gi absolute and Jeremy for winning the Advanced Gi absolute. Congrats guys!
I'm really proud of everyone who entered, and even those who came to watch but didn't compete. Look for pics and more tomorrow! If we could get everyone in for a group pic here and in HS that'd be great, we didn't get one at the competition...

Hope all had a good weekend and it's back to training :)

2008-04-15T11:04:00.001-07:00

Good training this past week everyone!
Everyone is training hard for the upcoming tournament. We have a few kids training extra hard; making it to both the youth and adult classes.

Patrick won his fight this weekend. He just began training with us just prior to the fight. He looked great during his fight and we are proud to have him training with us! Thanks to everyone who came out to support him.

Please pray for Bro Ray he is in the hospital.

2008-04-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

Exciting weekend!
We had a good Saturday class, and the Inferno Supershow in Clarksville was a great show! It was exciting production-wise and the quality of fights was really good. It was fun to watch.
I'd like to thank the people who came out to watch the fighters and support the team. We appreciate it!

Royce was up first. He came out strong and the fight went to the ground. Royce worked his jiu jitsu against a more experienced wrestler and moved his record to 3-0 with a RNC in the first round. Congrats Royce!

Wes was the main event. He came out strong in the first round but just wasn't himself Saturday Night. He lost in the third round but no doubt he'll be back.

Sorry there are not more pics, it was a little dark.
Enjoy your day off and let's train hard starting Monday!

2008-04-03T20:09:00.000-07:00

Well, Everyone is back and fully recovered from the Pan Ams! If you're looking for the Best in BJJ come train with any LDMA School and see the quality of Black Belts!

We also had a very successful Kickboxing Testing Tuesday! We're excited about everyone's progress in all respects. Speaking of, we've had another person lose 25 lbs in 4 short months of REVOLUTION training! We're not only teaching people self defense, or getting them ready for a competition, we're changing people's lives! And success stories such as these show that you don't have to "get in shape" to get started. We can get you in to shape!

We've had some really exciting training thus far this week, keep it up in to the weekend! Great class tonight as well.
I'm proud of the kids for working hard. Jake had a tough match in Kids class but he kept going, showing everyone that he has the heart of a fighter. We had a few other kids make it in to the adult class for extra training. They figured out it may not be quite as fun as kids class, but they should be commended on their hard work! Good job!

Oh and how can I forget we got Dojo Stormed Tonight!
;)
Thanks for coming down!

Here's some pics from the Pan Ams:
Results are below but Jory and Paulo brought home Bronze in their respective Black Belt divisions.
Brandon, Kris and Royce all had tough divisions and congrats to these guys for going. Come to BJJ and reap the benefits these experienced individuals bring to the team.

Here's a pic of Helen and Sara From KB Testing!

That's about it for this week. Come support Wes and Royce this weekend!
And come join the fun!

2008-03-31T11:24:00.000-07:00

Well, I hear it was a pretty good trip.

Jory ended up with Bronze in his division(Jory bye 1st round, loss to Ruff via points in 2nd round 1-0) as did Paulo. I heard they both looked really good and were very competitive in their respective divisions. Jory was the only American in his Division.

Royce and Kris didn't make it to the finals but I hear they looked really good.
Royce won his first match 16-0 and was winning his second 12-0 when he got tapped with 5 SECONDS LEFT...nooooo....
But given that that was Royces 1st time in a Gi ever, and he's been to less than 10 classes, I predict good things from him! We'll keep up the training and he will be unstoppable next time. But regardless, I commend these guys for stepping out there and competing. I'm sure they will all bring back more knowledge and experience to share.

As far as us here at REVOLUTION, we had a GREAT class Saturday! Good work everyone. Let's start off the week right with some training for the events coming up. The guys will be back for class Tuesday! Also Tuesday is Kickboxing Testing!

2008-03-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

3 Large Men, & 1 Toyota Corolla...

And so it begins, the quest for the 2008 Pan Ams. They made it there safe and are ready to go. Brandon has his hands full with a division of 59 people! I'm thinking whoever wins that deserves a medal made of solid gold or something!

Here's a few pics of the Drive. They even saw Snow in AZ:

Good training thus far this week everyone. Keep up that GPP. 20 Minutes! I'm excited about the weather and we started training outside again this week. Plan on more of it! Let's train hard in to the weekend and there's a break Sunday.

Sparring looked great last night....real good. The BJJ players working hard towards the tournament as well. Keep up the pace in training. We will focus on strategy more next week and make final preparations the week after. There's lots of opportunity right around the corner for everyone...Kickboxers, BJJ players and the MMA fighters...not to mention the Kids!

Kids have been training extra hard. I'm proud of their dedication in working towards their various goals. Ethan has really made some progress and he deserves to be mentioned today!

2008-03-13T22:22:00.000-07:00

When he is not making Dentures, he is training BJJ....the life of Kris "Pe de Pato" Pierce.
Kris is going to have an employee spotlight featured in his corporations magazine (nationwide).

Great Kids class today. We did a lot of grappling, hard training. Gave out some awards, and finished up some testings. New kids are looking great! More talent means more fun for everyone!

They also seem to have figured out what happens when they press on someone's stomach...

Good to see all the teachers grappling these up and comers.

The surprise was unveiled today. I am pretty excited for Saturday. Train hard. See you tomorrow.