Martial Arts in Deer Park

Winner of more than 100 mixed-martial-arts competitions, Tiger Schulmann shares his pride and love for fighting and self-defense with both adults and children in gyms across five states. From first-time grapplers to expert muay thai fighters, students of all fitness and experience levels are welcome to dive into a class at Schulmann’s. At more than 47 locations, adults can take classes in kickboxing, MMA, and jujitsu—the last of which instills students with the skill and confidence to take down opponents of any size, strength, or telekinetic ability. Kids, meanwhile, can learn martial arts for fun, or gain useful experience in bully prevention; the kids’ classes help victims immediately identify and safely diffuse situations when pitted against an aggressor.

After serving as a krav maga officer for a special-ops unit in the Israeli Defense Forces, Matan Gavish relocated to New York, where he founded Krav Maga Academy. Stateside, Gavish has also served as a fitness officer in the U.S. Army, shared his expertise in the pages of the Washington Post and provided input on NYPD Tactical Training Unit techniques, all while running his academy full-time.

Krav Maga Academy's curriculum imparts creative strike techniques, defense strategies against chokes and grabs, and methods for neutralizing attackers through a krav maga–centered schedule that also touches on MMA and Brazilian jiujitsu. Beginners taste combat in Level 1 trainings and all-levels classes, and more experienced fighters ramp up their workouts during upper-level classes or sparring sessions. On Fridays in Jeans, instructors teach students to fight in street clothes or with asphalt chunks of actual streets.

Sifu Dan Anderson is a walking dictionary of fighting techniques; he practices jeet kune do, kali, muay thai, Brazilian jujitsu, silat, Russian sambo, and French savate, to name a few. He showcases his expertise to programs on CBS, NBC, and the History Channel, working as an expert in the martial arts. He was even named NY1's New Yorker of the Week for the self-defense classes he teaches for women. For two decades, he's studied with the grand masters of various forms from around the world, synthesizing and sharing his hard-won knowledge within Anderson's Martial Arts Academy’s 12,000-square-foot facility, which also boasts a boxing ring and small gym area.

Dan, along with his equally seasoned and lauded partner Simo Dasha Libin Anderson, works to equip students of all ages and experience levels with a diverse toolbox of skills that hail from many martial-arts styles. In addition to combat training, Dasha leads her signature kettlebell-kickboxing and conditioning classes, in which she guides students through her trademarked method—which earned her a feature in Self magazine—to tone muscles and cultivate stamina.

For more than 20 years, Igor Dyachenko has trained with top coaches around the world and won numerous awards in international competitions. As a former world champion, certified instructor, and founder of D-Dojo Karate, he calls upon those years of experience to fuse classical Japanese karate techniques with modern science, including knowledge culled from biophysics, biomechanics, and reruns of The Bionic Woman. The dojo is a member of the World Karate Federation (WKF) and an official branch of the Shotokan Karate-do International Federation (SKIF), headed by Hirokazu Kanazawa. Dyachenko trained with Kanazawa, a 10th-degree black belt who studied with the creator of Shotokan karate.

Dyachenko and his team strive to train students quickly with basic karate techniques known as kihon, kata, and kumite exercises. Children practice exercises through running, jumping, and playing, in order to help develop physical strength, agility, and mental toughness. Dyachenko also used his karate skills and sense of humor to help commemorate the 20th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall" speech on The Colbert Report.

World Martial Arts Center isn’t just a gym where individuals can improve their muscle tone or fine-tune their roundhouse kick—it’s a refuge designed to help clients build both inner and outer strength. These lofty aims motivate the center’s instructors, who help students achieve their goals. During hapkido classes, they teach seven techniques—strikes, blocks, holds, throws, weapons, internal techniques, and healing—that combine to create one fluid and versatile mode of self-defense. Alternatively, trainers also lead groups through a series of punches and kicks during kickboxing classes, which use combat moves to create a high-octane, total-body workout. Equipped with 25 years of hapkido and kickboxing training and instruction, Master David Herbert teaches beginner classes, available at both locations.

Inside the dojang, or school, Eastern-style tapestries and plants set guests at ease as they work toward physical or metaphysical improvement. To that end, World Martial Arts Center complements its training regimens with health and nutrition advice. In addition, both the Brooklyn and Manhattan locations boast locker rooms for men and women, where guests can shower after a vigorous training session or lock up their Bruce Lee bobble heads while they work out.

At City WingTsun, chief instructor Sifu Alex Richter emphasizes the respect, discipline, and courtesy that is so important to traditional Chinese martial arts, but aims to dispel the hindrance of mysticism with modern teaching methods and training protocols. The result of his efforts—a kung fu program accessible to today’s youths and adults—has garnered the attention of media including USA TODAY and Harper’s Bazaar. City WingTsun’s classes welcome both casual and intense practitioners, shepherding all students toward greater confidence, levels of health, and the self-defense skills needed to acquire a belt from a monster-inhabited closet. The studio’s full schedule caters to women with female-only classes and expands from kung fu to include special programming. This additional programming ranges from kettlebell fundamentals to practical weapons training, which teaches students to defend themselves with everyday objects such as keys, magazines, or the anvils they carry around in their bag.