Eastern Academy of Mixed Martial Arts was founded by Mr. Wahsei Miran in June 1999. The school is currently located off of Bonney Road in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Eastern Academy offers several styles of martial arts to include Muay Thai, Filipino Martial Arts, Jun Fa/ Jeet Kune Do, Maphalindo Silat, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, and Combat Submission Wrestling. Wahsei provides classes for both the youth and adults, and for those interested, a fighter program.
Eastern Academy boasts over 5200 square feet of training space. Amenities at the school include the main training area, two rooms for private lessons or smaller classes, a heavy bag area, a boxing ring, and weight room and cardio training area. Aside from the staff of martial arts instructors, Eastern Academy also has a personal trainer, two chiropractors, and a massage therapist available to assist the students.
The school focuses on the individual care and feeding of each student. Personal attention provided to each student in a laid back, family oriented training environment was what Wahsei had in mind when he founded the school. To accomplish this, the classes are maintained at only between 12 and 14 students with at least two or three instructors present for each class. Although there is a growing youth program, Eastern Academy has mostly adult students (about 80% of the student population).
Conditioning is also of great import for this school. Classes include time on the road for runs and strength training within the school using pull-up bars, kettle bells, free weights and weight machines, yoga balls, and drills using monster truck tires. Students learn to use different heavy bags with different focused tasked such as the speed bag, uppercut bag, and sand bags. Core exercises and grip exercises are also utilized for style-specific training. These training techniques help the student increase his or her endurance level while becoming a fit and stronger martial artist.
Eastern Academy offers several different styles, including Muay Thai, Filipino Martial Arts, Jun Fan/Jeet Kune Do, Maphalindo Silat, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, and Combat Submission Wrestling. Muay Thai (also known as Thai boxing) was developed in Thailand and is derived from the military art of Kabri Kabrong. Muay Thai is a devastating fighting style that utilizes punches, elbow strikes, knees and kicks. Filipino Martial Arts, one of the most complete and practical martial arts, is weapons based. At Eastern Academy, new students are taught the use of weapons first before empty hand techniques are introduced. Training includes the use of single and double sticks, single and double knives, and other short and long weapons. Jun Fan/Jeet Kune Do is the name of the concepts developed by Bruce Lee. This philosophy allows the student to “find” the style that works for him or her alone. Students learn to flow from long distance kicking range to middle distance hand range and close quarter trapping and grappling range. Jun Fan/Jeet Kune Do includes techniques from Western-style Boxing, Wrestling, Judo, Jiu-Jitsu, Wing Chun, Fencing, Thai Boxing, French Savate and many others. Maphalindo Silat is a collective word for indigenous martial arts of the Malay Archipelago. Originally developed in Indonesia, Silat focuses on strikes, joint manipulation, and bladed weapons.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (grappling) focuses on takedowns, sweeps, throws, and body positioning and body control. Through physical and technical skills, students learn the ability to plan and anticipate an opponent’s next move. Combat Submission Wrestling is a no holds-barred fighting system founded by World light-heavyweight Shootwrestling Champion Erik Paulson. It is a blend of grappling techniques and concepts from Judo, Freestyle Wrestling, Greco Roman Wrestling, Sambo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Catchascatchcan, and Shootwrestling. It also includes techniques from Western-style boxing, Muay Thai, and French Savate. Combat Submission Wrestling teaches students to effectively function and flow from kicking to punching to grappling range. Of note, Wahsei will be introducing a Women’s Self-defense class and will be providing Western-style Boxing training at Eastern Academy soon.
Eastern Academy has great instructors, numerous styles to choose from, and awesome amenities and extras to offer its students. If you’d like to meet Wahsei and learn more about Eastern Academy, come by the school at: 3900 Bonney Road, Suite 213 Virginia Beach, Virginia 23452 or checkout the school’s website at: http://www.easternacademy.com.
