We’ve said it time and time again, yet we can’t say it enough: we love our community. We’re blessed to have such incredible people on our team, training on our mats, and running the ship behind the scenes.
Along with a great year of curriculum and training which results not only in our students growing but also our instructors leveling up their skills (after all, are we ever not students ourselves?), we’ve had some pretty epic events and ventures!
From our docuseries, The Women of Easton, to our first all-Easton picnic since before the Pandemic, to taking a crew to Panama and another crew to Kids Pans in Florida, Easton Training Center has stayed busy – and we couldn’t have done it without you.
To show our appreciation, we tried our best to compile all of the magical moments this year has brought into one timeline, and it makes our hearts sing to see them all together. We hope reading this brings you as much joy as it brought us!
2022 Easton Events
It’s always a special occasion when all of Easton gets together, bringing all of its communities into the same room and amplifying the impact that one martial arts organization can have on hundreds of lives and friendships. Here are all the ways that Easton Training Center came together this year!
Easton Winter 2022 In-House Tournament
We started the year strong with our semi-annual In-House Jiu Jitsu Tournament, which brought all of the Easton academies together under one roof to collectively test our resilience and strength. In-House tournaments are a great way to get your feet wet if you’ve never done a competition before, and we had a range of new to experienced fighters on the mats.
Marshall Fire Fundraising Event
When the Marshall Fire devastated neighborhoods south of Boulder on December 30, 2021, many of our Easton community members were impacted. Easton Training Center leveraged the Winter In-House tournament, the Dentinho BJJ Seminar, and the Ognjen Topic Muay Thai Seminar to generate proceeds to support those affected. Through our collective support, we were able to raise $12,000 for five different families in our community whose lives were uprooted and set adrift by the fire. Our community is varied and remarkable, and its members walk all paths of life. Together, we continue to rise above and show up for one another both on and off the mats.
Wim Hof + Breath Fitness Workshop
In May, Easton Training Center hosted a workshop led by Professor Miles Lukas which focused on breathing and getting exposed to the cold. Fifty students from all the academies came to participate, and Professor Miles spent the weekend teaching us how to use our breath and mind for better performance. Read Professor Jason Kramer’s blog post, Getting Cold Is Hot Right Now for a fuller picture!
Summer 2022 Belt Promotion Ceremony
We frequently promote people in class, but it’s extra special when we gather to honor the progress, will-power and dedication that the people who make up our community have shown. Who we are is defined by what we’re willing to struggle for, and moments like these remind us that our struggles are not in vain. We work hard for values we believe in, and though we don’t do it for recognition, it’s a beautiful moment when we can all share in the recognition of everybody’s hard work.
Easton Summer 2022 In-House Tournament + Smoker Back-to-Back Event
Our second tournament of the year, this event was the first event in the history of Easton Training Center that was held on back-to-back days, making for a fun-packed weekend of competition! Both our Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai programs represented, and we had 287 individual registrants for Jiu Jitsu and the Muay Thai Smoker brought on 41 bouts with 82 fighters represented.
It was a big weekend for our athletes, our coaches and staff from every Easton academy, and we couldn’t be more proud of how seamlessly the weekend event came together. Check out our blog post on some of our martial arts kids’ impressions, and make sure to watch our recap video!
Summer Picnic
One of the most fun and carefree events of the year was undoubtedly our All-Easton Annual Summer Picnic. We say “annual,” but this year’s picnic actually stood as the first since 2019! What better way to celebrate not only our collective community, but also the Pandemic officially being behind us, by sharing burgers, brats, beer and games to the beautiful backdrop of Colorado’s expansiveness? We really can’t think of anything better.
BJJ + Surf Panama Trip
This June, Easton Training Center held its first-ever Easton BJJ Surf Camp in Panama! Our members who attended got to take surf lessons, relax on the beach, and of course…train some great Jiu Jitsu! We got to see black belts in Jiu Jitsu try surfing for the first time and feel like newborn giraffes (thanks for that visual, Professor Huddleston!) and we got to hang out with friends in a completely different setting, making deeper connections with everyone while getting to know each other’s family!
Kids Pans Florida Trip
This year’s Kids Pans was one of the highlights of our summer! For the first time since before 2020, we were able to coordinate an Easton-wide trip to Orlando, Florida for the 18 kids who competed and their families (A total of 44 people this year!)
Competing at such a high level can be intimidating, and we’re beyond proud of everybody who trained hard and put themselves out there. Trips like this make a great way for families and kids from different Easton locations to come together in support of one another at the event and feel a strong sense of community while hundreds of miles from home.
We knew it would be a lot of fun going into it, but what about the kids competing? How did their experience pan out? Read our blog post to find out!
Easton-Hosted Seminars
One of the best parts of having a multi-academy network is that we’re able to host events that our members may not otherwise have access to. Along with the Dentinho BJJ Seminar and the Ognjen Topic Muay Thai Seminar we hosted earlier in the year, Easton Training Center also had the opportunity to host a seminar with Muay Thai fighter and legend Jongsanan Fairtex!
On the Jiu Jitsu side, we also hosted a No-Gi seminar with Helio Soneca, a world champion and Professor Amal Easton’s very own professor from his blue, purple and brown belt days. These one- and two-day seminars are a great way to gain experience from Easton-vetted instructors from all over the world, and we highly recommend taking the opportunity if you have any interest in expanding your martial arts practice outside of our weekly curriculum.
What Easton Training Center launched this year
Aside from our events, we’ve been working hard behind the scenes on several other cool projects, and we’re stoked to finally share them with you!
Our newest Easton Training Center location: Central Park
You heard it! Easton Training Center announced its newest location in Central Park, a neighborhood within the city limits of Denver located just east of downtown Denver. We first announced our newest location in July and have slowly been gaining momentum with founding members before it officially opens its doors. We can’t wait to see how this academy grows!
Easton Training Center’s New Website
What a biggie!!! This may be one of our most arduous accomplishments yet, and we’ve been working our butts off to bring you a better, more improved platform to access all of your favorite martial arts information. We’re so proud of how our academy has grown, it felt only right to bring our website up-to-date to reflect our growth. We have all new photos, crisper copy, and more comprehensive navigation. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Women of Easton: a Docuseries
Finding any martial arts space that isn’t dominated by testosterone can feel nearly impossible, and Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai have a reputation as strongly male-oriented martial arts. By some stroke of luck – or intentional genius – Easton grew differently. We have a unique culture of female influence in our company that starts at the top and works its way down to the mats.
Because it’s fairly rare to have as many women in positions of power in a martial arts company, we wanted to bring this unique aspect to light. We have so many amazing and powerful women training in our community, but for this project we focus on the women who make the policies and decisions which help keep you safe (and also get down, sweat, laugh and cry with you) we hope to continue to create a safe space for all people to improve themselves through martial arts forever.
Kids Comp Training
This June, we launched our first-ever Kids Competition Training Class, designed to customize training for each individual child’s competition game. This competition-driven training class is held once a week at both our Boulder and Centennial locations, focuses on the specifics of competition fighting and helps familiarize your child with rules and tournament etiquette. We highly recommend trying this class out if your child has any interest in competing! Click here for more details on how to sign up.
Martial Arts Moves Partnership
This project is near and dear to our hearts. While we know that exposure to martial arts can be a truly life-changing experience at any age, we recognize accessing Easton Training Center may not be financially viable for everyone. To combat this challenge, we’ve collaboratively created Martial Arts Moves, a new 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that will bring Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai to underprivileged children ages 7-10 living near Easton academies. Started by a group of Easton students, parents, and staff, Martial Arts Moves (MAM) seeks to remove every barrier to training for these kids except willpower and effort. Specifically, we plan to provide full scholarships and equipment to kids based on financial need.
We’re actively looking for representatives and volunteers from every location, so if this is something that resonates with you, we have plenty of opportunities for you to help!
New Competition Gear Pro Shop
Last but not least, we now have a year-round Competition Gear Pro Shop full of Easton-toting t-shirts, hoodies, crop tops and more! We’ll continue to have limited edition merch drops each season designed in-house by our creative director Van Tran, but this new pro shop is a great way to load up on Easton merch and rock your favorite martial arts academy anytime!
We’re so thankful you’ve come along this journey with us! If you aren’t yet a part of our community but want to be, sign up for a FREE class at one of our nine locations!
