Nwfa Martial Arts, Portland OR

Amazing! Knowledgeable coaches, positive attitude and and an overwhelming sense of safety and happiness within the student community.

This place took over $1000 during COVID from us. DISGUSTING. Scammy business. Also, not worth your money for what they’re teaching. I’ve trained all over hawaii, Washington, don’t trust this guy. Support a real man with real skills who doesn’t creepily make you solute his every move.

Saw a middle aged woman get knocked to the concrete floor during a Tai Chi exercise by a large male- dangerous. I also experienced confusing membership information

Great staff of coaches, great community of gym members. Everyone is super helpful, supportive, and encouraging. The striking program has got me in the best shape of my life. Whether your goal is fitness, self defense, or competition fighting, NWFA is a good spot to be.

We have had the best training experience we could hope for with Coach Stephen Burtt. Coach Stephen is not only a Muay Thai master but also teaches with joy and patience. My six year old son has had the kind of the positive experience he will keep his entire life. Great school!

I am a former tai chi student and I attended class for one year. I enjoyed doing qi gong and push hands in the first half of the class. It was my first experience with push hands and found it highly beneficial. The second half of class is tai chi where the students are broken up into separate groups according to their learning level. There is a beginner level, people who know about half of the form, and there are the people who know the whole form. There can be anywhere from 3,4, or 5 groups in class. Within the time I was there I able to complete the 37 posture yang form. It’s an amazing learning experience. The instructors were all helpful and did whatever they could to improve their students' time in class. I canceled my membership because I got into a car accident which was financially damaging and classes were a little expensive for me. I am thankful for having such a positive experience with the Portland Tai Chi academy and plan on continuing my practice at home.

It has been one year since my daughters first class at NWFA. The positive changes that have occurred in the past year are beyond amazing. My daughter came into this world with a short fuse. She was my youngest and all the parenting tricks that had worked on my others had no effect on her. Martial Arts was foreign to me. A close friend that was aware of my parenting struggles strongly encouraged me to look into it. Fast forward it is without question one of the best decisions I have ever made. The instructors have been phenomenal from day 1. They are able to connect with the students in a way that the students are able to hear and learn. I no longer struggle with my daughters short fuse as she has learned how to manage it herself. Her patience, respect, confidence and discipline have increased 200%! One of the things I noticed almost instantly was that there was no ego in these classes. The higher level, more experienced students did not take advantage of a student that was just beginning their martial arts journey. Instead, they took the time and patience to lead and instruct the new students that weren’t familiar with whatever drill they might be doing. Sifu Jeff, Daniel, Stephen and all those who have impacted the positive changes I see daily in my daughter, THANK YOU!

I started Muay Thai and boxing here a couple months ago and have been loving it! My goal at first was to learn self defense skills and even in just a short matter of time I feel like I have learned so much and then some! The coaches are knowledgable and helpful, especially as a beginner. The classes have been welcoming, very fun and always a great workout. I’m excited to try out more classes here and continue to pursue leaning more about martial arts here.

Before joining this gym, I researched online and visited a bunch of martial arts gyms. I also tried out a couple of different personal trainers with MMA backgrounds to help me learn. With that said, I truly believe Northwest Fighting Arts is the best gym for new beginners who want to start training. I can only speak from my experience which is that of a new beginner (3 months in so far). They have a welcoming non intimidating environment and approach to coaching training and communicating that elicits the best out of their students. The 3 coaches I’ve trained with are Coach Daniel who is a young master martial artist who has been training since he was a child. He’s very technical with his instruction. Next is Coach Brady who is very rhythmic and high energy in his teaching style. And the third Coach I have trained under is Coach Stephen who has teaching style that I’d best describe as a combination of both of the two aforementioned coaches with a very organic down to earth relatability that makes him really good with people. They have a level system they encourage you to follow with them that is like the belt ranking system (white belt, yellow belt, orange belt etc) and following that system makes you aware of your progression. The gym is well equipped with a full size cage, at least 12 punching bags (teardrop heavy punching bag, large maize bag, traditional double end bag, upper cut bag, speed bag, multiple standard hanging bags as well as grappling dummies. They also have a small weight room downstairs. It’s not golds gym but I’ve found it adequate enough to cancel my membership at 24 hour fitness opting to work out solely at Northwest Fighting Arts. Respecting everyone there is taught and expected by everyone who comes through the door and everyone is supportive. In the classes, you will find diversity, inclusiveness and a sense of community. There are men and women of different ages and races that all commonly genuinely seem to be focused on learning growing and becoming better.

Wonderful martial arts program for children with patient and knowledgeable instructors like Stephen who made us feel so welcome! Another benefit of having kids in martial arts classes at North West Fighting Arts is the individual attention in group classes whenever possible. Amazing gym all around!

Shady billing practices, try to lock you in to paying 2 months AFTER you call to cancel. Stay the hell away. Instruction is just so-so, even if this place wasn't a scam (which, to be clear, it is).

I wasn’t expecting to build long lasting friendships here. The coach’s are filled with passion to teach and connect. I’m glad I instinctively decided to join, best life choice I’ve made in a while:)

Northwest Fighting Arts has scamming business practices.

On yelp they are listed under their other business name (and have many bad reviews) -check out “Portland Tai Chi Academy. ”

I was very excited to start Muay Thai, but could only commit to two months at the time. I specifically went to them saying that I was interested, but only could commit to a two month contract. I had an initial 1-on-1 session which was great, and I signed their contract without understanding its terms. I should have read all the fine print and did not because I trusted the person signing me up and I was very clear that I would only sign up if I could do a two month contract. My situation changed at the end of those two months and I could not continue, and then a $235 charge to my credit card appeared. They said I had to have given 30-days notice to not be auto-charged. This was more than the monthly rate that I had paid for the first two months. I contacted the business immediately, and spoke to the teacher who was there. They would not refund me the money, so I asked to speak to the owner. He declined speaking with me and sent me an email instead. We had a back and forth, in which he dropped off and stopped responding. I went to the business to set up a meeting to talk with him. When I did, he said that all businesses are run this way and he believes all the terms of the contract were communicated to me. Obviously, based on other reviews, this is not the case.

I did get my money back because I disputed the charge with my credit card company.

As a side note, the classes were fun and made me excited about Muy Thai. But this is a terrible business.

In response to this review, I got an email from Jeff which included the following:

“I just saw that you wrote a negative review on our academy and I am hoping that you will reconsider and take it down…Legally I could have held you to the contract and forced you to pay that final month or sent your account to collections where if you did not pay it would affect your credit report for 7 years. I did not do this”

Threats are not going to help your cause, Jeff.

I moved to Portland just this year, and I'm so grateful to have found this place. If you're looking to get fit, have fun, and punch all the things, you've come to the right spot. One thing I was worried about when I signed up was training as a woman in a traditionally male-dominated sport, but at least a third of all the classes are women, and the men are great to work with. The energy, the other students, and the coaches are all phenomenal! They'll push you as hard as you want to go, but you'll always have a good time. If you're considering training here, just do it!

This place has decent teachers but Jeff the owner will make all types of promises about “first month is free” “you can help out around the gym to help pay your fees” but then charged me $800 when I missed 2 weeks of class for a family emergency. I had to threaten to tell my bank they were stealing to get them to stop billing me. They have scammed multiple friends like this. They just want your money.

A great martial arts community. They offer a wide range of practices including Muay Thai, Boxing, Ju Jitsu, Eskrima and Tai Chi. Professor Jeff is phenomenal and focused coach. He has been at it for over 40+ years. Everyone is friendly, safe and focused on helping each other improve. Love ju jitsu we roll every class. They also have 1 of a kind seminars with Grandmasters Rigan Machado and Pedro Sauer. I have learned a lot about marital arts and myself here. I look forward to the ongoing practice. OSS!