User:Erik Klinger

My name is Erik Klinger and I along with my Aunt(Jeanie Agmon) am one of the co-founders of Fighting Fitness. I’ve been involved in Martial Arts for most of my life.

My experience training, teaching and competing around the country and around the world has helped to form my view of fitness, lifestyle and healthy living.

I started teaching Martial Arts professionaly at 16, when I opened a small Karate club on Stanford University campus, to provide an after-school activity for Professor’s children. After teaching there for two years I was invited by my Karate teacher, Toshihiro Oshiro, to assist him as he was opening a new school in Chico, California. I worked in Chico for the next five years teaching Karate to a wide variety of students at various levels including children, adults, university students, and even senior citizens. I learned a lot about the many different needs of students with varying abilities. I began to develop warm-ups and exercises specific to both amatuer normal.

During this time I also attended California State University, Chico, where I graduated with a bachelors degree in Asian Studies. Shortly after this I decided to further my Karate training in Okinawa, Japan, the birthplace of the art.

In Okinawa I visited many different Martial Arts schools, training and studying with various people around the island. Wanting to increase my knowledge and understanding I decided to further my training at Hybrid Wrestling Mugen, the most renowned Mixed Martial Arts gym on the island. There I was introduced to the world of professional and amateur Sogo Kakutogi(MMA in Japanese)and the world of submission grappling. MMA combines the striking arts such as Karate, Kickboxing, and Boxing with the grappling arts such as Jiu-jitsu, Sambo, Judo, and wrestling. MMA’s fusion of these arts is amazing so I was immediately impressed and decided to enter the ring to fight. I fought on the amateur circuit for 3 years.

At Mugen I refined my stand-up skills including my striking, wrestling take-downs, clinch fighting, etc. I also was introduced to the world of submission grappling which combines the deadly submissions of jiu-jitsu with the positioning and agility of western wrestling.

To continue further my training I decided to move to Brazil and study Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.