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NEXT LEVEL FITNESS & MARTIAL ARTS

“Self-Defense Training for the Modern World”

 

Kids Martial Arts

2531 S Gilbert Rd, Ste. 111, Gilbert, AZ 85295

Located on the Southwest Corner of Williams Field Rd. and Gilbert Rd. in the Fry’s shopping center on the Gilbert side of the road. We are 1 door South of Subway, right next to Sushiya. Just look for the big sign that says “KARATE” and you will find us. We are open Monday – Thursday & Saturday for your convenience.

Teen/Adult Self-Defense

183 E. Williams Field Rd., Ste. 109, Gilbert, AZ 85295

Located on the Southwest Corner of Williams Field Rd. and Gilbert Rd. in the east side of the Fry’s shopping center. We are right behind the Auto Zone next to State Farm Insurance. Just look for the big banner that says “Krav Maga” and you will find us. We are open Monday – Thursday & Saturday for your convenience.

About Us

With our students progression and happiness in mind, we have created a fun and safe environment in which to learn the martial arts. Our state of the art facility here in Gilbert has just what you are looking for.

In our 30+ years of teaching experience, we have come to find that most everyone who initially sets out to learn the martial arts, has a goal in mind. Those goals very and it is our job as your coaches to discover them and help you achieve them.

Our goal is to improve the lives of each and every student by providing healthy lifestyle choices of exercise and nutrition.

We strive to make positive choices on a daily basis that help those in our community better themselves. By providing a learning environment that continually grows and changes to keep advancing, Next Level Fitness & Martial Arts is helping make your experience the best one possible.

With the Life Skill benefits of the martial arts and the positive learning environment here at Next Level, there is no better place to start the journey to the new you.

Don’t sit back and watch others achieve their dreams, let us help you and your family achieve yours.

ABOUT JOSEPH EDMONDSON – OUR GRANDMASTER INSTRUCTOR and self-defense coach

Joseph Edmondson has been involved in martial arts training since the early age of 4. While growing up in California, he was picked on and bullied in school and lacked confidence. That is, until his mother decided to put him in the martial arts, which helped to build his self-esteem and teach him to defend himself.

His teacher was Grand Master Dan K. Choi, who’s famous students include Ernie Reyes, Sr. and Ernie Reyes, Jr.; Cynthia Rothrock, Tom Callos, Scott Coker, David Douglas and Kim Do; to name a few. Grand Master Choi, who retired in the year 2001, entrusted Joseph to teach his students and oversee enrollment. He promoted Joseph to 5th Dan Black Belt in January 2001, bestowing upon him the title of “Master Instructor.” He now holds a 7th degree black belt in Taekwondo under GM George Bell.

Grandmaster Edmondson has owned and operated his own schools since 1993, promoting martial arts and improving the lives of thousands of students over the years. He holds multiple advanced degrees of Black Belt and numerous teaching certifications. Still committed to learning even more forms of realistic training, Grandmaster Edmondson began training with Krav Maga Instructor Sam Sade, who promoted Grandmaster Edmondson to Certified Black Belt Instructor. GM Edmondson has current partnerships with World Renown Coach GM Itay Gil and Protect Krav Maga and works locally with Dr. Neil Farber, who is the Co-Founder of FIMA (Federation of Israeli Martial Arts). GM Edmondson recently received his 4th degree Black Belt in Krav Maga from GM Itay Gil.

GM Edmondson also passed his Krav Maga Masters program with GM Itay Gil and proudly represents Protect Krav Maga and has his Purple Belt in Gracie BJJ from Professor Nick Stefan and Quan Phu. 

You may have seen Grandmaster Edmondson, aka Karate Joe; on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and Good Morning America; as well as Black Belt Magazine, to name a few.

To this day, you will find Grandmaster / Coach Edmondson training alongside his students on a daily basis and even after his years of competition and numerous championships; he still finds joy in teaching his students how to perform at a top level.

Grandmaster Edmondson has also recently been appointed as the Arizona Representative for The Federation of Israeli Martial Arts (FIMA). Get more information at https://thefima.com

Meet Our Coaches

Continued Education is our Top Priority

Here at Next Level Fitness & Martial Arts in Gilbert, we take your training seriously. Our coaches are hand-picked from our existing student base. “There is something to be said for building a coaching team comprised of our existing students” says Master Edmondson. Not only do they continue to train on a weekly basis, but we put our coaches through a rigorous training process after which they have to complete annual certification exams. You are in GREAT hands with us!

Checkout Our Training Centers

TESTIMONIALS

About Krav Maga Founder Imi Lichtenfeld

Lichtenfeld was born on May 26, 1910, to a Hungarian Jewish family in Budapest[5] in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He grew up in Pressburg (Pozsony, today’s Bratislava). His family moved to Bratislava, where his father, Samuel Lichtenfeld, was a chief inspector on the Bratislava police force and a former circus acrobat.[6] Lichtenfeld trained at the Hercules Gymnasium, which was owned by his father, who taught self-defense.

Lichtenfeld was a successful boxerwrestler, and gymnast since his youth.[4] He competed at national and international levels and was a champion and member of the Slovak National Wrestling Team.[7] In 1928, he won the Slovak Youth Wrestling Championship, and in 1929, the adult championship in the light and middleweight divisions. That year, he also won the national boxing championship and an international gymnastics championship.[citation needed

In the late 1930s, anti-Semitic riots threatened the Jewish population of Bratislava. Together with other Jewish boxers and wrestlers, Lichtenfeld helped to defend his Jewish neighborhood against racist gangs. He quickly decided that sport has little in common with real combat and began developing a system of techniques for practical self-defense in life-threatening situations.[8][9]

In 1935, Lichtenfeld visited Palestine with a team of Jewish wrestlers to participate in the Maccabi games but could not participate because of a broken rib that resulted from his training while en route. This led to the fundamental Krav Maga precept, ‘do not get hurt’ while training. Lichtenfeld returned to Czechoslovakia to face increasing anti-Semitic violence. Lichtenfeld organized a group of young Jews to protect his community. On the streets, he acquired hard won experience and the crucial understanding of the differences between sport fighting and street fighting. He developed his fundamental self-defense principle: ‘use natural movements and reactions’ for defense, combined with an immediate and decisive counterattack. From this evolved the refined theory of ‘simultaneous defense and attack’ while ‘never occupying two hands in the same defensive movement.’[10][11][12]

In 1940, Lichtenfeld fled the rise of Nazism in Slovakia, heading for Palestine on the Aliyah Bet vessel, Pencho, which shipwrecked on the Dodecanese Islands in the Aegean Sea. He reached Palestine in 1942 after serving with distinction in the British supervised Free Czechoslovak Legion in North Africa.[13] The Haganah‘s leaders immediately recognized Lichtenfeld’s fighting prowess and ingenuity. In 1944 Lichtenfeld[14] began training fighters in his areas of expertise: physical fitness, swimming, wrestling, use of the knife, and defenses against knife attacks. During this period, Lichtenfeld trained several elite units of the Haganah and Palmach (striking force of the Haganah and forerunner of the special units of the IDF), including the Pal-yam, as well as groups of police officers. In 1948, when the State of Israel was founded and the IDF was formed, Lichtenfeld became Chief Instructor for Physical Fitness and Krav Maga at the IDF School of Combat Fitness. He served in the IDF for about 20 years, during which time he developed and refined his unique method for self-defense and hand-to-hand combat. After he finished his active duty,Lichtenfeld began adapting and modifying Krav Maga to civilian needs.[citation needed]

The method was formulated to suit everyone – man and woman, boy or girl, who might need it to save his or her life or survive an attack while sustaining minimal harm, whatever the background of the attack – criminal, nationalistic, or other. To disseminate his method, Lichtenfeld established two training centers, one in Tel Aviv and the other in Netanya.[citation needed]

*this information credited to wikipedia

About Gilbert, AZ

Gilbert is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, located southeast of Phoenix, within the Phoenix metropolitan area. Once known as the “Hay Shipping Capital of the World”,[3] Gilbert is currently the most populous incorporated town in the United States. Gilbert encompasses 76 square miles (197 km2) and has made a rapid transformation from an agriculture-based community to an economically diverse suburban center located in the southeast valley of the Phoenix metropolitan area. In the last three decades, Gilbert has grown at an extremely high rate, increasing in population from 5,717 in 1980 to 208,453 as of the 2010 census.

Gilbert, AZ, with surrounding areas in Chandler, Mesa, Tempe, Queen Creek and San Tan Valley; is home to World Champions Alpha Krav Maga, a Martial Arts facility focusing on programs in Krav Maga, Taekwondo, Kids Martial Arts, Adult Martial Arts, Fitness Kickboxing, After School Transported Martial Arts and Birthday Parties.