World Class Grappling

Nexus Chief Instructor Stephen Whittier is the area’s senior full-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt Professor. One of the first ten students promoted to BJJ Black Belt Roberto Maia, New England’s highest-ranking instructor, he has traveled all over the country teaching others the unique training methods that have given Nexus a well-earned international reputation for excellence. In 2010, his student Cesar Barros defeated a 4x Brazilian National BJJ Black Belt Champion by submission in just 32 seconds – as a purple belt!

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Mediocre Grappling

Sad but true… now everyone is trying to cash in on the trend of BJJ and MMA. Other schools in the area either have no real BJJ experience, or hide their lack of experience by hanging the sign of some well-known organization. But what level of coaching are you actually getting? Step on the mats at Nexus and the skill level of our students speaks for itself. Many of our higher belts are grappling champions, and our professional instructors undergo many hours of instructor training each year. We would never let unqualified or mediocre instructors teach at our school like you see at most others. BUYER BEWARE!

World Class Muay Thai / MMA Striking

Nexus Coach Stephen Whittier is Southern Massachusetts’ highest-ranking Muay Thai kickboxing trainer in the world-renowned Sityodtong style (under top UFC striking coach Kru Mark DellaGrotte, arguably the best in the country and among the best in the world!). Our instructors have spent countless hours on the mat sparring and training with professional MMA fighters from the top organizations in the world (like the UFC, Pride, Strikeforce, BodogFights, and EliteXC). But more importantly, they have spent countless hours learning how to teach others to be their best! We specialize in Muay Thai, Boxing, and are on of the few schools that really understand how to adapt the striking game for Mixed Martial Arts!

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Poor Muay Thai / MMA Striking

Most other so-called “MMA gyms” around offer striking classes taught by career “karate/tae kwon do” teachers who have suddenly decided to jump on the bandwagon Muay Thai / MMA bandwagon, or outsource their striking programs due to a lack of experience. Having a “certification” or bringing in an outside instructor to teach a class does not equal expert instruction! Unfortunately, even the few who have decent striking tend to cater only to fighters, and have not put in the time to really learn how to take anyone, from day one beginners, and get them to a high level!

High Level Wrestling and Takedowns

Our instructors have trained for years with some of the country’s top submission grapplers as well as high level collegiate wrestlers, and have a proven system for teaching students without wrestling or judo backgrounds how to develop solid clinch and takedown games. We also have one of Massachusetts’ most technical wrestling coaches on staff, with a real talent for breaking down technique and training methods to help students get maximum results in minimum time!

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Weak Wrestling and Takedowns

Most MMA schools have no real expertise in the clinch (much less how to apply it in MMA), or learn their takedowns from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu … and any educated grappler can tell you that BJJ has weak takedowns – their specialty is once the fights hits the ground… not before! And even if an MMA school does have strong takedowns – they typically have mediocre jiu-jitsu … or bad striking.

World Class MMA & Self-Defense

What good is knowing striking, takedowns, and ground grappling if you can’t put it together! At Nexus, our head instructors have not only trained with and coached some of the top fighters in Mixed Martial Arts, they have also taught everyone from civilian security to local, state, and federal law enforcement personnel how to survive in actual situations (including blunt and edged-weapon defense, and firearm retention). We know what works and doesn’t work in a real fight – no theories, just proven facts that they can vouch for themselves. Our instructors can teach you what to expect as the adrenaline goes through your body and how to handle real fatigue as it sets in during a real confrontation!

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Mediocre MMA & Self-Defense

The majority of programs that teach MMA either have little to no experience outside of local competition, or alternatively, only really care about their fighters. Still fewer have the years of know-how to understand how to train students of all ages, fitness and ability levels to not only develop real skills for sport, but also for real-world self-defense! We have spent as long seeking out top instruction and figuring out how to best teach our students as most so-called instructors have even been training!

Specially Designed Classes for Beginners

As professional educators and performance coaches, we are committed to helping any student who walks through our door to be the best they can be. That’s why we have an extremely refined and detailed curriculum to teach beginners the core fundamentals of the martial arts systems they are studying, at a pace appropriate to new students. These specially designed classes will not only get you in shape for the more advanced programs, they will give you the technical tools to succeed.

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“Thrown to the Wolves”

As a beginner in most martial arts programs you are just thrown into mixed classes and left to fend for yourself and “tough it out” until you can hang with more skilled students. In this environment, instructors typically just teach whatever they are good at or what occurs to them to teach on a given day, and the students, lacking expert instruction, tend to rely on strength and power to mask poor technique. Not exactly a recipe for success!

Safe, Supportive Environment

Unfortunately, many people associate grappling, kickboxing, and MMA training only with professional fighting or with bad experiences they have had at other schools. At Nexus, we realize that many students have families, work or school and do not need or want to get beaten to a pulp in training. We train our students in a progressive manner, and allow them to progress to more competitive training as their skills increase and they learn good control in a supportive environment with other skilled partners. It’s not how tough you act that matters, it’s how smart you train!

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“Swing for the Fences” Environment

Many MMA schools mistakenly think that you have to brawl full-out and swing for the fences all the time to train properly. This is a common misconception, and can even be counter-productive (not to mention dangerous). Our instructors know how to bring students’ skills to a high level safely, progressively, and most importantly with good technique!

Clean, State-of-the Art Facility

One step inside of our clean, state-of-the-art facility and you will know you are in a real professional school. Our 6,400 square-foot studio is one of the finest in the state, with two comfortable student lounges, a full pro-shop, and two large, well-equipped training floors complete with everything you need for your martial arts and fitness goals! We are also sticklers when it comes to hygiene. Our facility is cleaned daily, and our top-of-the-line mats are sanitized daily as well.

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Run-of-the-Mill Facility

Step into many so-called MMA schools and you will learn that daily sanitation, training equipment, premium matting, odor control, and amenities are apparently not a priority. If you school is not willing to invest in a high quality facility, chances are you are not going to get a high level service.

Great Customer Service

Along with the awesome training we provide, this is an area in which we take a lot of pride. At Nexus you get more than tremendous martial arts and fitness instruction, you get a great experience! We are constantly looking to improve our service and go the extra mile for our students.

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Bad or Non-Existent Customer Service

At most MMA “gyms,” the customer service is either atrocious or just plain doesn’t exist! In some cases, you actually get attitude from the staff and other students as they size you up and boast about how tough they are. Big egos and bad attitudes like this are a sure fire recipe for bad service, period.

World Class Fitness

Nexus has been voted the region’s #1 Health & Fitness Center for the past three years, even surpassing the large area health clubs and mainstream fitness programs. This has to do with the incredible fitness results we our students get from their training (our member retention rate is a remarkable 80% above the national average for health clubs!). We were also the first training center in the world to be certified in the industry leading Burn With Kearns Core Fitness and MMA Conditioning program.

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“Same Old, Same Old” Fitness

You often see programs that specialize in fitness training but have to bring in outside instructors to teach martial arts, or you see martial arts training gyms without any real professional fitness training. Very seldom will you find a program anywhere with a well-rounded a curriculum and depth of experience as Nexus.