Dear Elite Community,

We are a community, not a gym.

I am writing to all of you today as I am troubled by the ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic and its impact on our group of family and friends. I apologize for the long email, but at times like these I find it important that we take the opportunity for introspection. For example, one positive from all this is I have had the opportunity to spend more time with my son, and I’ve discovered that I could have been happier with a slightly different schedule over the years and a little different appropriation of the valences I applied to my time, focus, and schedule (and for that I find some gratitude for this trying time).

I am sure many of you are in the same process: trying to navigate the challenges of health/safety/family/finances, etc. for the future. In this email, I want to address the purpose of creating Elite and how it relates to your billing, training, community, and commitment to a purpose driven life. (I love listening the podcast of Rick Warren, the author of “Purpose Driven Life”.

The Elite MMA vision you may have seen on the wall poster at the school is:

“Our Vision at Elite is to share God’s principles through the discipline of martial arts. Through the practice of martial arts, we as individuals are able to form a community to push, pull and empower one another to a higher level; to achieve goals which are bigger than any one of us as an individual. We are committed to supporting one another inside integrity in all areas of life: Spiritual, family, friends, education, financial, mental and physical. We are a world class enterprise that is committed to excellence in martial arts and lives committed to integrity.”

Deciding what to do during this time of duress is difficult because we are asked to isolate instead of congregate for our safety. So, the Elite MMA team and I have been brainstorming how we can be of service to our community. Listed below is a brief summary:

SPIRITUAL– We have a number of clergy members in our community from different faiths- if you would like to visit with someone, we can connect you.

FAMILY– Mattress Mack had beds to give during Harvey- we have online classes- invite your family to train. 

FRIENDS– Invite your friends to do a workout with you online. 

MENTAL– Pray, Meditate, Communicate, Eat healthy, Sleep, Exercise.

Physical– Exercise! Good Health is wealth!

Financial– Let us know what works for you.

Educational– We have a vast community full of experts from different backgrounds. If you need help finding a job, medical advice, housing advice, business advice, banking advice, nutrition advice, fitness advice, etc. we can connect you.

We have heard from some of you regarding your current status and we find responses all across the spectrum- some folks have lost jobs, some are working a ton, some are tired of being cooped up at home, some welcome the solitude. 

In regard to your monthly billing, we have inquired with people and the answers are all over the place. So, we just decided to let you decide how you would like to proceed forward for now, to let you share with us your situation and allow us to support you in a manner that accommodates you. Current states of being that people have shared include:

·         “My wife and I have both been laid off, we would like to freeze our billing for 2 months and then visit with you again to determine where we are around continuing the billing freeze or being able to get back to training.”

·         “We are OK. I am working long hours with my job as a first responder and I would like to continue my monthly payments but would like you to credit my account at the end for extra months of training or  credit to use for doing private lessons/semi-private lessons/equipment for training, etc.

·         “We are OK. We are doing the classes online and really appreciate the online program so we can keep training. It helps with conditioning, martial arts technique, and our sanity”.

·         “We are doing well. I would like to pre-pay for some private lessons to help you with cash flow during this time of duress. I am planning on being here for a long time and I want to make sure you guys are still here and open when this is all over. Let me know if I can help”

Please share with us if one of these applies to you or how we can be of service to you.

These are all real responses and show how our community is being affected by this Pandemic. To all of these responses, I say, “THANK YOU”. Thank you for sharing and being in communication. Thank you for letting us know how we can best help you. Thank you for being part of this Elite Community and we look forward to getting back to normal life as soon as possible, to being back together at the gym pushing/pulling/and empowering one another. We look forward to laughing, crying, and sharing our lives with one another again.

Elite MMA was designed to be a community, not a gym. Let’s keep it that away. Let us know what you need, how we can help, and we will do our best to accommodate you. We are receiving and making many calls, so leave a message if we do not answer right away. Call us at if you need to visit with us regarding any of the seven areas of life listed above.

Atascocita – 832-632-4829

Baytown – 281-424-4662

Greenway/Galleria – 832-779-4319

Kingwood – 281-358-4662

Westheimer – 713-339-4662

This too shall pass!  We look forward to seeing you all on the mats soon. 

Godspeed,

Eric Williams and the Elite Team 

P.S. Please check out the ONLINE CLASSES!! Listed below are links. It contains: 1) online pre-recorded lessons about what you will need to do online classes as well as videos of techniques and drills https://elite-mma.teachable.com/courses 2) Recordings of previous classes you can work out to on your own schedule https://elite-mma.teachable.com/courses 3) Live interactive classes with  coaching and feedback during class. https://www.elite-mma.com/latest-news-april-2020. Working out, being in shape, and having a strong immune system could be a great help if you do get the Covid-19 virus!