Jason Heit is accustomed to winning, with a combined boxing, kickboxing and mixed martial arts (MMA) ring record of 39 wins, five losses and 35 knockouts.
In the spring, his claim to fame came tackling business on in a March episode of Dragon’s Den. Co-owners Heit and Darren Owen of the Armageddon Fighting Championship put their Victoria-based MMA organization on display across the CBC’s airwaves with some success.
Now, Heit’s Island MMA Training Centre will start courses at the Mary Winspear Centre.
“I’ve had a number of people seem to be interested in wanting to do MMA and not having any MMA in the area. There is martial arts training, but there’s nobody offering the style that we offer. It seems like there’s a market,” he said. “I actually have quite a few students from out that way who make the drive.”
Heit started his training at 14, and sees the positive side of the sport, building confidence, awareness, fitness, balance, speed strength, flexibility and the spiritual side of martial arts training.
“I really like to see what it does for young adults especially; for teenagers just giving them an outlet to burn some energy in a positive way,” he said. “I think people can get a misconception about our sport because of the competition side of it.
“The training side is very disciplined, no different than any other martial arts. It’s a very, very rewarding sport physically and mentally,” he added.
Though there’s no real age limit to the sport, the average student is 18 to 30 of both genders. Athletes at other area MMA centres include children to age 70.
“We make sure it’s scaleable to all fitness levels and all goals. It depends on what they’re after,” he said. “It’s for anybody who wants to do it. We’re not offering a children’s program out there, we do offer a children’s program in Victoria.”
Courses start this week at the Mary Winspear Centre.
“It’s a beautiful facility, high traffic, good location, great staff, lots of room,” Heit said.
Learn more about classes online at www.islandmma.com.