Kali Academy

I have been with Sifu Bud since 1993 and probably one of the best decisions I have made in my life. Sifu Bud has a vast knowledge of many systems and brings seamlessly together as to promote application in real life situation. In the recent years the term MMA gets thrown around a lot, while most schools teach no more than 3 arts. This school has been doing MMA (using more than 8 arts) before it was cool. We do not practice the sport of martial arts, we strictly do Martial Arts here. If you want to get away from the flash and train with a legend in the Art (not the sport) this is the place for you.

If you’re serious about a disciplined martial art school, this is where you want to be. The unassuming studio has an intermigled strength of Kali, Jeet Kune Do, Aikido and Kickboxing. Sifu Bud Thompson and Sifu Raul are amazing instructors who pay attention to, and scrutinize the smallest details in your training to help you effectively build great habits.
I searched a few schools in varying disciplines, and was very disappointed by what’s out there. Example: I sat through an hour-​long class at a school in La Habra that touted Krav Maga training. The class was more of a Tae-​Bo conditioning work out. All that was missing was Little Richard playing on the intercom and you would have been watching «Sweating to the Oldies.»
But I digress …
Sifu Bud studied under and is personal friends with Sifu Dan Insanto, and his teachings (and those of Bruce Lee), permeate the fluid nature of all that is taught.
I highly recommend the Kali Acadamy as a place of both physical and spiritual growth.

Sifu Bud Thompson’s academy is as good as it gets. He’s academy teaches an all around fighting system, that leaves nothing out. It’s not a «Tapout» kind of school, which teaches impractical MMA. He teaches real world fighting techniques with deep roots to past masters.

I have been a student of Sifu Bud Thompson for eight years now, so I can vouch for the validity of his training and what it has done for me personally. The Kali Academy is a place where you come to work hard, if you are not prepared to work hard then you will not be able to get the full benefit of the training.
Kali is a complete system that offers training in multiple real-​life situations: striking, ground fighting, weapons, close quarter combat, and multiple attackers. Sifu Bud and his instructors have helped me over the past with any questions that I may have had and have helped me to become a better practioner of the arts I have chosen to study. Everybody who comes here and puts forth the effort will leave with something that can help them on their journey to becoming a better student and practioner of the arts.
I highly recommend this place if you are serious about learning and training; you’ll be surprised at what you can learn.
As for the previous (filtered) review, I can only say that he has a skewed perspective of what really happens here. No sparring? No emphasis on execution? You either didn’t show up enough or you weren’t ready for sparring, because our sparring is full contact (boxing gloves and mouthpiece/​cup) and is very intense. I, myself, have sparred on numerous occasions and have had my fair share of bumps and bruises. So don’t try to tell these people there is no sparring. We almost always video tape our sparring sessions and they are available on dvd for your review and for your further improvement.
Everything we do prepares you to properly execute your training in real combat, but you do have to put the TIME AND EFFORT in or else it won’t make any sense and you’ll forget about it when you really need it. Don’t blame Sifu Bud for your inability to understand what he’s teaching, or the lack of training on your part. If you had a problem understanding then you should have asked for help or stayed after class with a more experienced student and asked for some clarification. Yeah, we do train certain things a lot but it’s because they want us to understand important concepts that are necessary to proceed. How can they teach us to run when some are barely able to stand?
As for the contract, Sifu always told us that we could break it as long as we gave a 30 day notice in writing. If people want to leave, it’s really that simple.
The website has been updated, by the way, to show that there is no more annual contract. Please refer to it for updated pricing plans.