The Utah Martial Arts site is built, and maintained by Steve Spencer (that’s me.)

I have always been involved in, and an avid follower of unarmed combat in one form or another.

For starters, I was one of six children, and was ADHD before there was a fancy name for it.  That meant that nearly every moment of my young life was spent in intense rough-housing.  Back in high school I did wrestling for several years, and then, in my early and mid twenties did several styles of karate, a bit of informal fight-clubbing with friends, and became something of an MMA junkie, watching Pride and the UFC from their early days.

In the fall of 2007 however, I found a real passion for Judo, and began the website Utah Judo to publish why I love Judo, and what I am learning from it.  You can learn more about me, the Dojo that I train in, my experiences, and contact me though that site.

One of the things that I have really enjoyed from the Utah Judo site is the ability to interact with other people who share my passion and interest in Judo.

That was fine and good, but I find I always want to know more.  How effective is Krav Maga outside of a cool episode of Human Weapon?  How do Greco Roman wrestling throws compare to those of Judo?  How does a good Judo ground game compare to a Jujitsu one… has it become too focused on sport and the Ipon?  What about the lack of Jujitsu standup?  The kicks of Karate, and the vicious strikes of Muay Thai?

Where could I learn about these, and share my interests with others in Utah?  What gyms teach what skills?

I went looking on the web, and could not find what I was looking for.  So I decided to do something about it.

This site is that effort.  I hope that this can be a place for everyone to learn, and to share their experiences.  I hope you will all enjoy it as much as I have.  I look forward to getting to know you.  I look forward to learning from you.

Thanks for stopping by, we’ll keep a light on.

Also, feel free to follow Utah Martial Arts on Facebook, or Utah Martial Arts on Twitter.