WARRIOR / Tandez Academy of Martial Arts — Local services in Mountain View

This is a top-tier martial arts academy, and I am proud to say that I have been coming here for the past two years. Prior to attending Tandez academy, I trained in collegiate wrestling, jujitsu, and kajukenbo for a combined total of six years. During that time, I have had mostly good but also quite a few bad instructors. Teaching explosive movement with a high degree of precision is not an easy feat, but I can confidently say that SiFu Adrian Tandez is one of the best there is at doing so. His natural charisma and passion for the arts he teaches really show during the lessons, and the friendly demeanor of both him and his senior students makes it easy to ask for help if you are struggling.

What you learn here is true self defense. The arts we learn are not for sport. They were designed to be brutal, effective, and fast, so that you have the best chance of neutralizing a threat and getting away safely. The drills and techniques learned are reality-based and tailor-made to give you the skills and reflexes needed to win a fight with no refs, weight classes, or rules. Please stop by the Academy to get the full information on each of the arts taught there.

The classes are pretty fast paced, but that's a good thing. When I first started attending the Academy, the classes seemed a bit too high-volume. I was used to being shown a technique and then being required to master it before moving on to the next. Here, each lesson will have numerous techniques, and each technique is given just a few minutes before moving on to the next. I thought the instruction was too fast paced, but I now see that this is a brilliant approach to learning such a complex art. By teaching this way, students quickly learn how their body behaves in a number of different positions. It also gives SiFu an opportunity to see your whole body in motion, and thus what areas you are strong in and what areas he can work with you to improve.

It can be a bit daunting at first, but in essence, each lesson you are given many small puzzle pieces as opposed to a big bland one. This has two huge advantages. One, lessons are always engaging. You never know what you're going to learn day-to-day which keeps things fresh, and you won't have lessons that are dull, hour-long sessions of "this is how to jab". Two, you really get a sense how all the techniques and drills you do fit together to make you into a skilled martial artist. In hindsight, I can see that everything SiFu taught me built up to an "aha" moment. Going back to my puzzle piece analogy, after attending for a few weeks you'll have enough puzzle pieces to make a cloud, a tree, and maybe a house. You attend another week and fill in a little more. Then another week, and then another and suddenly... Aha! This is a picture of a lakeside cottage.

In much the same way, you come here for a few weeks and you get exposure to striking, weapons fighting, and grappling, but they feel like disparate modules. Each week you put in, your skills increase until, Aha! You see how these different modules all blend together, and how everything you've learned reinforces everything else. Suddenly the lesson pace that was so fast one month ago seems natural. The three minutes you get per technique is almost too much time, because everything you've learned up to that point can be easily rearranged or adapted to perform the new technique. During lessons, SiFu doesn't seem to be spitting out rapid-fire gibberish while doing a complex set of moves like he did last month. Now, he is rather helpfully explaining exactly what you need to do to perform the actions correctly, and he's helping you refine your motions to make them more powerful and efficient. You wonder what changed from last month to this one until you see a new student that looks just as lost as you once were, and you realize that what changed is you. If that sounds awesome to you, stick with it and don't be intimidated. The teaching method works, and...

Adrian does a very good job of trying to scrub and negative reviews of his "school", and then lashes out and calls them fake. Let me be clear, I went here for about 2 weeks in 2010, and from everything I can tell absolutely nothing has changed there. So here is my actual, real experience as a warning to those just reading the hype:

While Jeet Kune Do is an awesome art, I could not have been more disappointed with this dojo. First off, there was only 1 introductory lesson for free (other places will offer you a week, or not even particularly care about payment for a while), at which point Adrian wil lstrongly pressure you to join and start making payments. After the first class, you will have to be willing to pay $25 for another class, or pay for a full month's tuition, or you will be asked to leave. You will also be asked to pay $80 for "uniform and curriculum"... the "uniform" being a single-color silk screen printed t-shirt, and the "curriculum" being a word document that gets emailed to you, which you are expected to print off and bring to class every day (I have never seen this anywhere else.) Most classes will be about HALF lecture, with intermittent exercises. There is no real rhyme or reason to any particular lesson, and I felt as if half the time Adrian wasn't showing things with the intention of progressing his students, but rather to just try to show off things that he thought he knew. One time he "demonstrated" finishing a move with a double-leg takedown... he had his legs perfectly straight, his head down looking at the mat, will all of his balance past the front of his toes (and stumbled off and turned around after the sloppy demo). His beginners are thrown in with everyone else, and no special attention is given to them to come up to speed, they are just expected to hack it with everyone else. Needless to say, a lot of bad habits were observed due to this, and I never once saw a beginning or level 2 student be able to demonstrate the same move twice consistently. Adrian is more concerned about making money, running his dojo like a business, and inflating his own ego (he has posters of himself all over to be sure) than he is worried about the progression of his students. Oh yeah, and he threatened my life when I said it wasn't working out and I wouldn't be continuing there. Talk about not only being unprofessional, but completely opposed to the calm and peaceful mentality that a true martial artist should have.

EDIT: Adrian needs to learn that just because a review isn't positive doesn't make it fake. This happened. He threatened me. I still have the t-shirt lying around somewhere- I use it as a rag. I posted this review as a warning to others looking to study martial arts, there are plenty of better alternatives. It's pretty obvious something is up when Adrian lashes out and screams "fake!!!" at any review that isn't glorifying him in a...

I am about four months into my training at Tandez Academy and it has been a phenomenal experience so far. I always look forward to coming to classes and being challenged but supported in my goals of physical fitness, martial arts skills, and overall self-improvement. It is a marvel to see just how knowledgeable and skilled Sifu Adrian Tandez and his senior students are. They say that great students are made by great teachers; Sifu Adrian's martial arts lineage tracing directly back to Guro Dan Inosanto, therefore this martial arts academy sets a high standard of quality instruction. And there is a strong sense of community, from Sifu Adrian Tandez and his senior students down to the newest students. Everyone is respectful but easygoing and understands the importance of enjoying the journey and helping each other grow together.

Although I'm no expert, I am aware enough of the martial arts landscape to say that there are few places in the US where you can find any style of Silat being taught, and the LaCoste Inosanto style of Kali (including the many other styles it borrows from) has a deep and comprehensive curriculum. The Wing Chun and Jeet Kune Do taught here are also geared towards practical self-defense. This place has it all, plus Muay Thai (which I currently don't train in because four different martial arts is all my schedule and body can handle at this time). If you can make coming to class regularly work with your life, you should absolutely take advantage of the opportunity.

Another thing to note is that Sifu works in lessons on martial arts history and cultures of the originating countries of the martial arts he teaches, which is so important because it ties back into the school's commitment to fostering respect and understanding. In my opinion as well as the school's, martial arts knowledge should not be taken from its cultural roots and used purely as a tool for aggression or dominance over others while failing to credit the peoples who developed the arts.

I think I've written plenty at this point, so bottom line advice: come on in and give this place a try. I am a hard judge of martial arts schools and I'm still here, so yes, I give this school my highest recommendation. Come see for yourself; I daresay you will find everything you need or want from a martial arts school, if you are looking for the...