Today we’d like to introduce you to Rob Rowland
Hi Rob, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’ve been doing martial arts for about 20 years now. I’ve done a little bit of everything, but primarily I’m trained in Kajukenbo Karate. After I got my black belt, my instructor told me to start taking a new style to expand my knowledge, and that led me to start training in Muay Thai, which I have been doing for the last seven years.
My partner, Tracy Barksdale, has been a lifelong athlete, starting with ballet at age 4, and continuing to dance until this day. She started the first parkour gym in Austin back in 2010, right down the street from my martial arts gym, and that’s where we met, and remained friends thereafter. After she left that business, she started training in Krav Maga, where she found a passion for striking. Eventually, after about a decade, our paths crossed again when she walked in to my Muay Thai gym, and we began training together, and subsequently fell in love. After a year or so together, we decided we wanted to branch off and operate our own gym.
Initially, this was going to be a part time business, done either in our garage or at a community center. However, we had a dedicated group of 20 students on our first day, who showed up with equipment and demanded we give them enough hours to train and compete. This led us to pursue subleasing a space, taking our fighters around the state to compete, and traveling for our own continued training. We have since become an affiliate gym for Bang Muay Thai, one of the biggest Muay Thai organizations in the world that has produced world champions like UFC vet TJ Dillashaw.What started as a small group of four at a time in the garage has grown exponentially and become a tight knit community of friends and martial artists who push themselves to become better every single day.
Our name, Fox House, is reflective of mine and Tracy’s backgrounds, as well as the community we’ve built. As a martial artist, I’m described as quick and deceptive – very fox like. Meanwhile, Tracy’s nimble and graceful movements – no doubt developed through her years of dance – have led to me describing her as foxy, or fox like as well. In addition, her compassion and caring nature for our members has earned her the loving nickname of “Fox Mama.” That, plus the fact that the gym literally started in our home, made the name “Fox House” a no brainer.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Starting a business presents its own set of challenges, but launching a martial arts studio brings an entirely unique set of circumstances. Fox House has always been a labor of love, but that doesn’t diminish the hard work involved. One of our main challenges has been growing our community while keeping our overhead low and operating as a sublease space. Limited to non-peak hours and only a handful of classes each week, it has been difficult to expand our reach.
Despite these hurdles, we have persevered, steadily increasing our membership. Our next goal is to secure a full-time location where we can offer multiple classes every day.
That said, the most significant struggle we face is maintaining and nurturing our culture. We aim to foster an inclusive, beginner-friendly environment that welcomes people from all backgrounds. It’s essential that anyone who walks through our doors feels a sense of belonging. However, upholding this standard sometimes means we have to turn people away or ask them to leave if they do not contribute positively to our community. Whether it’s someone who comes in looking to harm their training partners or fails to respect our rules and code of conduct, we must be willing to make difficult decisions.
While this may mean turning away business, the strength of our community is our greatest asset, and we believe it’s crucial to maintain high standards. Personally, I would prefer a gradually growing group of kind-hearted individuals collaborating together rather than a rapid influx of members who may not share the same values.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Tracy and I bring a very unique background to the martial arts space. With her extensive training in dance, Tracy views martial arts training as a form of self-expression and a movement study, aiming to make each technique as precise and crisp as possible. On this, we agree. I see martial arts as the ultimate form of self expression – demanding perfect control of your own body so you can execute moves in realtime fighting. At the same time, I am a dyed in the wool martial artist, constantly studying video, old manuals, and learning from the greats to expand my own knowledge, and doing my best to pass that on to my students.
The style we teach is called Bang Muay Thai, and it is a highly energetic form of kickboxing developed for MMA. Its combinations and techniques rely on a blend of power, speed, and timing – something that is easily brought out of a natural athlete, but also easily taught because of the methodical, organized approach the system takes to instruction. Couple that with the belt system (similar to Brazilian jiu-jitsu or karate) and what you have is a highly practical, extremely fun, real life Cobra Kai.
As for myself, I am most known for being a YouTube content creator. My channel, formerly called Combat Self Defense, but since rebranded to Freestyle Martial Artist, is focused on – you guessed it – martial arts, and is currently around 50,000 subscribers. On the channel I teach techniques for use in the ring or cage, as well as martial arts broadly, including weapon reviews, interviews with fighters and trainers, and much more. While I try not to mix the gym with YouTube, it is always fun having someone walk in and say they’ve been a long time subscriber.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
The rain cloud hanging over every gym owners head right now is “What about covid-19?”
I was lucky enough to be working as a general manager for another martial arts gym when Covid first hit back in early 2020, and my boss at the time did his best to be proactive before the shut downs happened. This meant we were deep cleaning the gym basically every day, installing temperature checkers, and doing our best to social distance or limit class sizes. However, there’s only so much you can really do in a hand-to-hand combat sport, and even then, most of those things didn’t work for us.
So what we’ve learned since then is a pretty simple rule that has helped us avoid spreading diseases around the gym: if you think you MIGHT be sick, don’t come in. This is pretty straight forward, second grade rules, but it’s incredible how many gyms ignore this simple protocol. People will come in with coughs, runny noses, or say “yeah I had a fever this morning, but I feel fine now,” and then proceed to infect the whole gym. So now, we make it clear if you think you might be sick – even if it’s just allergies – air on the side of caution and stay home.
The second thing I’ve learned is to be adaptable. To that end, I’ve been using my experience as a filmmaker and content creator to create a catalogue of online lessons so that – if and when the time comes to shut down because of another pandemic, we can transition to online classes beyond just zoom lessons, keeping our students engaged and allowing them to continue their training even without physically coming to the gym.
Pricing:
- $99/month for the first 3 months
- $179/month for unlimited training
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.foxhousemartialarts.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foxhouse_kickboxing
Image Credits
DJ Oribello
