When you think of an academy of martial arts, things like jabs, hooks, and bobs-and-weaves come to mind. Or maybe just the concept of dazzling \u2019em with footwork. American Boxing, located at 1735 Garnet Ave., encourages a serious approach to teaching the true principles of ring combat for sport, fitness and self-defense. Dave Nielsen is owner and trainer of this gym, which boasts as many women as men, who each work on Muay Thai kickboxing, jiu jitsu grappling and cross-fit training. \u00a0 “I\u2019ve had the school since 2003, and it\u2019s been just over a year in this location,”\u00a0he said.\u00a0“We offe training experience for any student who wants to be better at fitness, self-defense, self-confidence or fight competition. Of course, 80 to 90 percent of the people come here for fitness and they may use those martial arts tools for fitness.” Nielsen said although there are other gyms around like his, American Boxing\u2019s bigger gym is a major factor for instruction. “Instead of a class of 30 or 40 people, we can give them more attention in smaller groups,” he said.\u00a0“Never more than 12.\u00a0So we can actually\u00a0train people much better.\u00a0One instructor alone can\u2019t\u00a0teach them proper technique.” He said he received three degrees from Mesa College but decided not to go to UCLA. “My mother is still unhappy about that,” he said. “I got the money to open a gym, maybe not nearly enough, so to speak, for anyone in his right mind who wanted to start a business. But it worked out for me,” he said. \u2022 BOXING CAREER \u2014<\/b> Nielsen is a Muay Thai kickboxing and submission wrestling champion whose ring engagements can be few and far between.\u00a0Muay Thai is a style of kickboxing without the use of customary padding. \u00a0 “Sometimes I\u2019ll have four or five (bouts) a\u00a0year, then only one the next\u00a0year,” he said.\u00a0His fighting weight is between 180 and 185 pounds. \u00a0 For 11 years, he\u2019s been in major competitions in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, the Friday Night Fights in New York\u00a0and a World Cup tournament in Bangkok, Thailand, which involved 180 nations.\u00a0 He\u2019s originally from Seattle, but said his entire Muay Thai fight career has been in San Diego. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u2022 CLUB LOCATIONS \u2014<\/b> Nielsen said he and his team compete in casinos where the size is ideal for good crowds. It\u2019s a contrast to the early years of professional fighting that generated special clubs in Southern California. One of the last was San Diego\u2019s\u00a0Federal Athletic Club (Coliseum), located at 15th and E. It was closed in the mid-1970s.\u00a0 \u2022 WOMEN COMBATANTS \u2014<\/b> “It\u2019s about a 50-50 split among men and women training for boxing,” said Nielsen.\u00a0“Interestingly, they are more in demand by promoters. We have some pretty good prospects.”\u00a0 *** \u2022 GET OUT THE WATERWINGS \u2014<\/b> The 86-year-old Mission Beach Plunge pool should fill back up with swimmers next month. But the question remains, for how long? The Plunge is owned by the city of San Diego and has been run by a company called Wave House. Major issues with the building need to be resolved\u00a0 over the long haul. Tom Lochtefeld, who owns Wave House, has turned over the keys of Belmont Park and the Plunge to the city after a bitter lease dispute. \u2014 Johnny McDonald is a longtime writer and columnist for the San Diego Community Newspaper Group. He can be reached at Johnny23@cox.net.<\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When you think of an academy of martial arts, things like jabs, hooks, and bobs-and-weaves come to mind. Or maybe just the concept of dazzling \u2019em with footwork. American Boxing, located at 1735 Garnet Ave., encourages a serious approach to teaching the true principles of ring combat for sport, fitness and self-defense. Dave Nielsen is […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"America Boxing offers the gamut for fitness nuts","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11593,11552],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-no-images","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}