My name is Jill and I am the owner of Knockout Fighting & Fitness. I started my journey in Krav Maga 5 years ago after successfully losing 200 pounds on my own. After spending numerous hours in the gym I was bored. Bored of doing the same thing (or close to) day in and day out. Facts are there is only so much you can do at the gym, and after awhile it just gets old. But I kept going because I knew I needed it. So I am burnt out on the gym and I am at the gym trying to figure out some other way to keep moving forward with my personal fitness goals that doesn’t entail some stupid piece of workout equipment and something happened.
I decided to see if there was a local Krav Maga School (mind you my husband had been trying to convince me to take Krav Maga for months – but you know sometimes it just has to be YOUR choice). What I found was MMA Academy. I scheduled an orientation class for the same night. When I got there I was nervous. I had no idea what to expect – I mean these Krav people are BRUTAL… right? Well as it turns out, not really. They are brutal if they are pushed to be brutal – otherwise they are normal people like me and you. People who care enough about themselves to learn how to defend themselves. People who care enough to spend their time teaching others to defend themselves. Needless to say, I was hooked after my first class.
Since my first encounter with Krav Maga, I have had the pleasure of learning from and working with Anne and Mike Mihalkanin (they are the owners of MMA Academy in San Diego, California). They are two of the most compassionate and outstanding Krav Maga instructors I have ever met and the best in the business – at least in my opinion. After a few years of training with them, Anne suggested that I go to Phase A to get my instructor training certification. It was up in the air for awhile, but finally I went. Phase A was like nothing I had ever done before – 7 days of insanely tiring workouts. 7 days of proving you know the curriculum backwards and forwards. And after you prove you know the curriculum, you have to prove you can teach it in front of people who know far more than you do. It was exhausting, it was stressful, and it was awesome. Really it was, or maybe I am just crazy – you can decide. So I went to instructor training, I passed and have taught Krav Maga and Fitness Classes for Anne and Mike ever since. I would still be teaching for them if I had not moved to NC, but I did.
When me and my husband moved out here a couple months ago my first mission was to find a place that taught Krav Maga. Krav has been a huge part of my life for the last several years and I intend to keep it that way. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a place that teaches Krav – at least not the way I learned it – not with the umph – the power – the aggression – the real life scenarios – the emphasis of saving your life or the life of someone you love. And that sucks, because so far as I can tell that is what Krav is all about. It’s about being able to defend yourself and those you care about. It’s about being assertive and aggressive if need be – it’s about going home safe by any means necessary. So after searching to find the right Krav Maga Studio out here and not finding it, I decided that it was time I bring it. So Jacksonville…. Here I am. Here it is… are you ready?!
Knockout Fighting & Fitness 