Vasquez Academy — Local services in Buda

I no longer train at Vasquez MMA due to no longer living close enough to attend their classes, but it was one of the best years I've spent in any community. It's an overstatement to say I have trouble in social situations, but I've always had a deep interest in martial arts and never been able to afford classes growing up, so I was nervous about picking a place to train in martial arts that was still affordable. I called and visited several gyms, but it only took one visit to Rudy's gym to know this was the place for me.

I had first called on the phone and nobody had answered, but Rudy immediately called me back within minutes to answer all of my questions. I was also informed of my favorite part of my gym: the fact that they teach grappling AND striking classes back-to-back in the same day! He assured me that being a beginner wasn't an issue and that I could purchase any gear/equipment I'd need there with them. When I went to my first class, I was greeted by his wife Nora who helps run things. For kickboxing, one of the instructors had the rest of the class go through combos while another worked with me one-on-one to ensure I could get the fundamentals of footwork and basic combos first. I was once again taught fundamentals for Juijitsu, but I was also able to learn a bit from what the rest of the class was learning that day.

The rest of my time (about a year) was great there, and I recommend it to anyone regardless of what your goal with the gym is. If you want to learn martial arts like I did, Rudy and the rest of the instructors are excellent teachers who were just as passionate about teaching as I was about learning. If you want to join their competition team, they're just as good! I never competed myself, but many of the students are medaling at tournaments they attend so I assume they're doing something right!

The only negative thing I have to say about Vasquez MMA is the lack of day classes. I don't know if this has changed since I last attended, but they had just gotten rid of their weekday day classes due to low attendance. I also should note that this is a family gym, so there will be youth classes going on before adult classes. I'm fairly patient with kids so I didn't even really care, but If you're easily irritated by children then I wouldn't recommend this place since they'll sometimes be running around at the start of adult classes. I'd also be careful who you spar with if you do striking classes. Some students don't have good sparring etiquette, but Rudy is usually quick to shut anything down before it gets bad.

However, those 'cons' are hardly anything compared to the pros! Rudy and his family are all passionate about martial arts and teaching it to others, the other students who train there are the friendliest people I've ever met, and I had an amazing time during my time there! My only regret is that I could have trained more. If you're looking to train martial arts in South Austin, this is the absolute best place to do so. Thanks...

I had a really bad first-day experience here.

First of all, even though I scheduled my first class online AND called to confirm, I wasn't registered in the system when I arrived.

When I got there, I didn't really know what to do (since it was my first day) and the instructor never came over to greet me, didn't let me know what the structure of the class would be, or what would be expected of me on my first day. I saw people start to jump rope, but I wasn't sure if that was my class or if I should be doing the same thing. After about 5 minutes, someone told me to grab a jump rope, so I did. I didn't know the structure of the warm up and no one said "hello" or let me know what to do, so I just looked around and followed along as best I could.

After warm-ups, I introduced myself to the instructor hoping to gain some info and maybe get introduced to the class, like "oh is this your first day, welcome!" but all I got was "My name is Rudy".

Then people started wrapping their hands/wrists and grabbing their gloves. I wasn't told to bring any gloves and wasn't given instructions on what I should be doing so, after a few minutes of awkwardly standing near the instructor, I had to let him know I didn't bring gloves (wasn't told to).

The only time I got clear instructions on what to do was during combo practice, other than that, I pretty much just felt like a fool trying to figure out what everyone else was doing and follow along. Once the class was over, I hung around for a couple of minutes to see if someone that works at the gym would eventually (or the instructor) would talk to me about my first day and ongoing classes, but no one did so I just left.

The whole experience felt very isolating. I was hoping to find a gym that would feel like a community and a welcoming atmosphere, but I didn't get any of that. I won't...

If you like punching and/or kicking things and choking and/or arm barring people then this may be the establishment for you!

In all seriousness, Vasquez Academy offers both Brazilian jiu-jitsu and boxing/kickboxing every single day (only closed on Fridays and Sundays... which you will want it to be... because you will be so sore and need a day to recover if you attend all the classes) as well as kids classes on every day except for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

There is sparring for boxing on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and wrestling/rolling in BJJ every day. You can get as much training in as you could possibly handle, and Rudy is very knowledgeable about all aspects of martial arts. He is a very well renowned instructor and has recently earned a spot on the Martial Arts Hall of Fame.

The bad thing is that if you train here... You may find yourself taking way too many pictures of your abs in...