Angela started her martial arts journey in 2007. She was introduced to boxing by a friend from work. This started as a way to learn to help her patients(professionally she is a Physical Therapist , specializing in Brain Injury Rehabilitation). It quickly became a new way to improve herself and led to sparring, sparring, and fighting in some amateur boxing fights.
When she moved back to the midwest in 2010, she was lucky enough to walk into Pete Peterson's Muay Thai gym. The transition American Boxing to Muay Thai was difficult. Even though she fell in love with boxing, Muay Thai stole her heart. her first Mauy Thai fight was in 2012.
In the transition to Mauy Thai, Angela found the clinch to be particularly difficult to learn and deal with. Because of this difficulty, she began training BJJ in 2012. These two arts have complemented each other greatly.
The competition in Muay Thai has led her to compete in Thailand, Bosnia, Abu Dhabi and throughout the United States. She was fought in the WAKO Kickboxing World Championships in 2019. She has earned Gold medals at 2 WMO Muay Boran tournaments, several regional belts in the US, the 2021 TBA Classic A-Class Belt, Gold at the 2022 USMF World games Qualifier, and Silver at the 2022 IFMA World Championships. She was part of the 2022 US Muay Thai Olympic Team participating int he World Games.
Her BJJ competitions have been infrequent, but she trains for these in hopes of future matches(there have not been many opportunities, YET!) She was awarded her Black Belt in BJJ in 2022 from Erik Paulson.
After 2 months I can now say, Professors Jared and Cliff are teeming with knowledge and information about their sport. They are more than willing to answer questions, even encouraging the asking most of the time. They, and the rest of the instruction team, also aren't afraid to point out mistakes and shortcomings (usually in a funny and witty manner). This make for an extremely productive environment to learn in. Constructive criticism along with the encouragement to be your best self seems to be at the core here. Joining No Coast BJJ has been on of the best decisions that I've made in a long time. Looking forward to learning and continuing the uphill battle! Thanks for your time Professor!
With my parents recently moving to Waukee and myself at their home visiting for winter break from school I wanted to find something to help me stay active over the holidays. From the first time I contacted No Coast BJJ to making me feel very welcome and taken care of during my first class, I realized No Coast is the place to learn jiu-jitsu. They worked with my short two-week time frame that I had in Waukee and made it possible for me to learn the basics of the sport. Having no previous martial arts experience, all the instructors took the time during each class to start from square one helping me build a solid foundation. In fact, I felt like I got a new instructor every time I went in for a work out; everyone there is extremely friendly and helpful! Every person I met asked me my name and made me feel respected even as a complete beginner. This quality and atmosphere is something unique to No Coast as it shows their focus on you as an individual to help you learn and be the best you can be. It’s too bad I have to go back to school and can no longer attend classes at No Coast, but thanks to them I now have a solid foundation of BJJ from which I can build upon.
Thank you for taking the time to make me feel so welcome, see you Saturday for my last class! I highly recommend this place for anyone interested!
I was very impressed with the instructors at No Coast during the kids jiujitsu class. They are great at attention to detail but also great at knowing when the kids just need to roll for a while and figure things out themselves. We live out of town but will be visiting No Coast every time we visit family in the Des Moines area!