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Best Practices For a Positive School Culture

  • Courtesy

    • Please avoid talk of sensitive subjects such as politics or religion. 

    • Make everyone feel welcome in the school. 

    • Respect pronouns. 

    • No inappropriate touch or sexual harassment

    • Please do not post videos or photos without the consent

    • Don't be a jerk.

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  • Safety

    • Safety on the mat is Everyone's responsibility at all times.

    • Do not wear jewelry in class. 

    • Wear appropriate safety gear when sparring. 

    • If something hurts, tap.  If someone taps, stop what you are doing. If there is a concern of danger.  Tap.

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  • Cleanliness

    • Sanitize feet when returning from the bathrooms.  

    • Please wash uniform, including belt.  

    • Shower after every class.  

    • Clip your nails

    • No shoes on the mats.  

    • Clean up after yourself, especially in the bathrooms.  Flush the toilet, throw out your garbage, wash your hands in the bathroom.  

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School Notifications - Spond App

  • School notifications are given through the Spond app.  We provide school or class closings due to weather or life events in the app.  We also provide tournament and competition information for those interested, and it is a place to share content or communicate with other students and coaches.

  • https:/spond.com/invite/GIUWY

  • The group code is GIUWY

Payments

  • The monthly billing is done by a 3rd party secure service, Finli.  After your 2 week free trial, you will receive your first monthly invoice through email and text.  Payments can be made through ACH or credit card.   Exceptions to pay by cash or check may be made only by special permission

  • Purchasing equipment from the pro shop may be done through cash, check, or venmo.  You may also add it to your next invoice (does not apply to trial members).  

  • If you cannot attend classes, it is your responsibility to let coach Greg know so he can pause your billing.  We don't want to charge you if you aren't attending, and if we notice you are still paying after not attending in a while we'll check in with you, but it's not our responsibility to chase you down. 

  • Cancellations - no formal paperwork is required to pause or cancel.  Simply text coach Greg at 216-799-8076 and your billing will be stopped.  

  • Financial Assisted Training - Students who have been with the school for at least a year who undergo financial hardship may request to have a continuation in services until they get back on their feet.  For every year of training, starting after a complete 1 year billing cycle, a student may request a month of free training to help with financial hardship, capping at 6 months.  It is asked, but not required, that during this time, you assist in cleaning the school, including wiping down the bathrooms, taking out garbage, vacuuming the carpet, cleaning the mats, and other reasonable tasks as requested. 

MMA Sparring Rules

  • Contact - We only do light contact sparring.  Full contact sparring is prohibited for all students.  Light contact is not based on speed, but is based on impact, and should be 40% or less of your max punch power. 

  • Extreme light contact - in certain locations, power must be reduced to under 20%.  Adults sparring children under 16, or against much smaller opponents, extreme light contact should be used.

  • Equipment

    • ​Headgear - it is recommended that all students wear headgear in sparring, but it is required for any student allowing for head contact.  

    • Groin protection - Not required, but usually a good idea.  It is not permitted to deliberately strike the groin, but accidents happen.

    • Gloves - Boxing gloves 14oz or greater is required for head contact punches.  MMA gloves are permitted for sparring, but not for head contact.  If you are working on grappling skills, wear the mma gloves, if you are working on striking, wear the boxing gloves.  It's a good idea to own a set of each. 

    • Foot pads - Foot and shin protection is required for kicking.  

  • General rules​​

    • Head contact - No contact may be made to the head for students under 16 years of age.  Halo non contact or light contact to the shoulder can be used in place of head contact.  No student may make fun of or negatively comment on a student's choice to not take head contact.  ​

    • Body, leg, and arm striking is permitted. 

    • Striking to the back or to a downed opponent is permitted with extreme light contact.

    • Striking with knees or elbows to the body is permitted with extreme light contact.  Elbows and knees can be done to the head with extreme light contact only to protected areas.  

    • Clinches and clinch striking is permitted, including against the wall

    • Takedowns are permitted, and once on the ground you have up to 30 seconds to work.  

    • ***Submission Permission - Students need to get cleared to use any sub they wish to use in sparring, particularly joint locks, to ensure that their partner is given time to properly tap without risk of injury.  This is to prevent overly eager white belt teenagers from reckless poor attempts at ripping armbars.  It is often tempting to try out a move you saw on Youtube, but it is not permitted to use it in sparring until you have been properly trained on how to correctly apply the technique. 

Other Rules

1.  No underage student is permitted in the coaching office.  If something is needed, you can wait by the door.  If the door is closed, please knock and wait for the coach to open the door, as we often change in there.  
2.  Video monitoring is always active in the gym for the safety of all.
3.  Clean up after yourself.  Anything left behind is kept in a lost and found or thrown out.  At the end of the month, the lost and found is dumped, so if you leave things behind it's on you.  
4.  Coaches are not permitted to give rides home or to events to students, particularly underage students. 
5.  Parents please be on time for pickup at the end of class.  We can't close until you pick up your kids so please be on time.  Sometimes classes are cancelled or shortened, but this is always indicated on the Spond app.  Repeated offenses, will mean that your child will not be allowed to be unattended during class.   

Violations

The policy is very simple.  For minor infractions, coach Greg or one of the other coaches will give you a verbal warning, such as accidentally going a bit too hard while sparring or making a comment that may be towing the line.  

Severe violations or repeat offense we simply ask you not to come back.  Our program is exclusive, and those who cannot follow the rules will be asked to leave.  We try to avoid having to do this, but for things like sexual harassment, we have a zero tolerance policy.  
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