Vasquez Academy
5736 Manchaca Rd
AustinTX78745
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Member Reviews
Best Stand-Up in South Austin:
Rudy's current location at Old Manchaca is the same location as South Austin Karate AKA Bakido. I showed up to Rudy Vasquez's Saturday class with my wife. The facility itself is very barebones, but the cleaniness or how the place looks isn't a big deal for me. Your not going to find heavy bags mounted to the wall, a full locker room, boxing ring, or an octogon ring. There is just an open area, carpet, and a mat for ju jitsu. Bare bones and straight to business. That's pretty much all I care for as I'm a pretty simple person anyway. There is no flash to this place, so I guess I can see how it might bother some people.
There was only 6 people in the class including my wife and I. We actually got a lot of one on one time with Rudy even though it was a free class, which kind of made me feel bad because the other guys were regulars but they didn't seem to mind. We warmed up with jump ropes, which I totally suck at because I've actually never trained with a jump rope before (I know sad...I was all track, basketball in high school and never used the jump rope even at the gym I go to). He worked us through footwork and basic punch work and had us practice against pads. Rudy was constantly coming in to observe and re-enforcing the correct technique. Awesome stuff with the one on one attention. We ran a few fitness drills as well including suicides.
I really liked the class, though the size of the class was very surprising. However, after learning about Rudy's history he has recently go back into training fighters again after working for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation to promote amateur MMA in Texas. Right after the boxing class was the brazilian ju-jitsu class. I really wanted to try it out, but we had no gis and my wife was really hungry so we had to leave :(. We also were denched in sweat after we were done with the first class. Pretty good workout ^_^. Rudy told us before the BJJ class started that the belts earned in the BJJ class are offical Gracie Belts as we would be evaluated by other Gracie members to earn our belts. They had a stripe system for all the Belts which I believe is normal in BJJ. Rudy has been instructed in BJJ by the likes of Pedro Saur and Renzo Gracie
Rudy is a good guy. He keeps you very calm and throws in a few jokes here or there which is nice. He sorta cracked a joke when we walked in asking if I was a black belt in some martial art and I kindly sad no thinking in my head that he would totally kick my butt anyway as I'm just straight a body mass that can't fight at all right now :(. Throughout the entire time we were there Rudy made no comment about his background or about the fighters he trained or anything like that. He was just straight there to teach us. I really liked that about him. He never once tried to throw around his creditantals (Of which he has many...he is certified to train Muay Thai under Chai Sirisute, the President of the Thai Boxing Association of the USA and former Pro Thai Boxing Champion...he also trained with Dan Inosanto who is best-known as a student of the late Bruce Lee and authority on Jeet Kune Do Concepts) which is actually pretty surprising considering some people might be turned off by the look of the facility. Rudy has classes around 6:30 Monday to Friday and Saturday Classes Starting at 10AM. The BJJ Class is 8PM Tuesday and Thursday and Saturday at 11:30AM.
Regarding his fighters if you go around town to schools in Austin you will see Rudy's influence all over. Two of the CTC instructors, Jason Webster and Ernesto have history with Rudy. Jason training Rudy years back (Or training buddies...not sure) and Ernesto being one of Vasquez Academy BJJ instructors for the students. Go down to South Austin Gym and you will meet Matt Thompson, the current MMA instructor there who trained under Rudy for several years.
Rudy currently has two pro fighters that stop by to train right now. Dave "The Rockstar" Phillips (8-4 MMA Record), a BJJ Black Belt under 6th degree BJJ Black Belt Pedro Saur is one of those fighters and he stops by ocassionally to teach the BJJ Class. Nick "The Ghost" Gonzalez (14-8 MMA Record) is another pro fighter that trains with Rudy and currently is under contract with Bellator. Nick has be around several MMA leagues and a few kickboxing leagues including World Combat League and K-1. I can definitely say that throughout the month I've been here I have improved a bunch. My wife loves the stand-up. Our only gripe so far is that we wished more people would show up to the BJJ class. You can always fix that by showing up to one of the classes yourself :). That and I wished I started earlier because I think about how much I was missing out on think weight lifting and the gym was what was going to keep me in shape and happy. Website is currently
There was only 6 people in the class including my wife and I. We actually got a lot of one on one time with Rudy even though it was a free class, which kind of made me feel bad because the other guys were regulars but they didn't seem to mind. We warmed up with jump ropes, which I totally suck at because I've actually never trained with a jump rope before (I know sad...I was all track, basketball in high school and never used the jump rope even at the gym I go to). He worked us through footwork and basic punch work and had us practice against pads. Rudy was constantly coming in to observe and re-enforcing the correct technique. Awesome stuff with the one on one attention. We ran a few fitness drills as well including suicides.
I really liked the class, though the size of the class was very surprising. However, after learning about Rudy's history he has recently go back into training fighters again after working for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation to promote amateur MMA in Texas. Right after the boxing class was the brazilian ju-jitsu class. I really wanted to try it out, but we had no gis and my wife was really hungry so we had to leave :(. We also were denched in sweat after we were done with the first class. Pretty good workout ^_^. Rudy told us before the BJJ class started that the belts earned in the BJJ class are offical Gracie Belts as we would be evaluated by other Gracie members to earn our belts. They had a stripe system for all the Belts which I believe is normal in BJJ. Rudy has been instructed in BJJ by the likes of Pedro Saur and Renzo Gracie
Rudy is a good guy. He keeps you very calm and throws in a few jokes here or there which is nice. He sorta cracked a joke when we walked in asking if I was a black belt in some martial art and I kindly sad no thinking in my head that he would totally kick my butt anyway as I'm just straight a body mass that can't fight at all right now :(. Throughout the entire time we were there Rudy made no comment about his background or about the fighters he trained or anything like that. He was just straight there to teach us. I really liked that about him. He never once tried to throw around his creditantals (Of which he has many...he is certified to train Muay Thai under Chai Sirisute, the President of the Thai Boxing Association of the USA and former Pro Thai Boxing Champion...he also trained with Dan Inosanto who is best-known as a student of the late Bruce Lee and authority on Jeet Kune Do Concepts) which is actually pretty surprising considering some people might be turned off by the look of the facility. Rudy has classes around 6:30 Monday to Friday and Saturday Classes Starting at 10AM. The BJJ Class is 8PM Tuesday and Thursday and Saturday at 11:30AM.
Regarding his fighters if you go around town to schools in Austin you will see Rudy's influence all over. Two of the CTC instructors, Jason Webster and Ernesto have history with Rudy. Jason training Rudy years back (Or training buddies...not sure) and Ernesto being one of Vasquez Academy BJJ instructors for the students. Go down to South Austin Gym and you will meet Matt Thompson, the current MMA instructor there who trained under Rudy for several years.
Rudy currently has two pro fighters that stop by to train right now. Dave "The Rockstar" Phillips (8-4 MMA Record), a BJJ Black Belt under 6th degree BJJ Black Belt Pedro Saur is one of those fighters and he stops by ocassionally to teach the BJJ Class. Nick "The Ghost" Gonzalez (14-8 MMA Record) is another pro fighter that trains with Rudy and currently is under contract with Bellator. Nick has be around several MMA leagues and a few kickboxing leagues including World Combat League and K-1. I can definitely say that throughout the month I've been here I have improved a bunch. My wife loves the stand-up. Our only gripe so far is that we wished more people would show up to the BJJ class. You can always fix that by showing up to one of the classes yourself :). That and I wished I started earlier because I think about how much I was missing out on think weight lifting and the gym was what was going to keep me in shape and happy. Website is currently
Information from the business
Vasquez Academy one of the leading martial arts schools in Austin, San Marcos, Kyle, and Buda teaching kickboxing, boxing, MMA, mixed martial arts
