At the threshold of the door to Mat Life Training Center in Jonesville, a tan mat greets entering members with the phrase, “Welcome to our home, I mean gym, I mean office.”  

For husband-and-wife owners Jason and Kim-Anne Dodd, the 5,000-square-foot martial arts “dojo,” or gym, at 404 SW 140th Terr., Ste. 30, has been all three of those things for the nearly 20 years they’ve owned the place.  

While Jason, a third-degree blackbelt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and former MMA fighter, and Kim-Anne, a personal trainer, nutritionist and purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, have seemingly perfect resumes for running a gym, neither of them saw themselves in this position years before it fell into their laps.  

Now offering Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and fitness kickboxing classes three times a day, five days a week to a few hundred members, the space has grown into the largest martial arts gym in Alachua County.  

But the Dodds say it’s evolved into something even bigger than that. Training through life’s ups and downs has shaped Mat Life’s mission to serve beyond the sport and woven its members into a family-like community learning with every spar, choke and scissor sweep on how to fight together and for each other on and off the mat. 

“Everyone calls us the dojo mom and dad,” Kim-Anne said. “We have like 250 children that range from six years old all the way up to 80 years old. Our members are our family, and we mean that.” 

A soldier at heart, Kim-Anne started fulfilling her call to serve and fight for others as a military combat medic. That call was cut short, though, after being shot twice in the back while serving in Baghdad. Following a stint with the Peace Corps, Kim-Anne came to Gainesville in 2017 after serving with the Red Cross during Hurricane Irma recovery.  

She found Mat Life after seeing an advertisement online for a fitness kickboxing challenge and quickly fell in love not only with the gym, but the gym’s owner, Jason, too. 

“When we started dating and I got put on a medical leave from work, he said, ‘well, why don’t you just come help me out at the gym?’” she said. “Now we can’t see running the gym without both of us in it.” 

A North Central Florida native, Jason began training in Japanese martial arts with a passion for fighting that he said grew out of being bullied in high school for his Latino heritage. While attending Santa Fe College, he started learning under and eventually coaching alongside UF professor Alex Heyman, who owned the Jonesville gym.  

In 2006, Jason bought the gym from Heyman for the price of a used pick-up truck and carried on Heyman’s coaching legacy while putting together a professional career in fighting that involved competing on national teams, training law enforcement officers, and earning his black belt from the Gracie family, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu’s founders. 

Even since marrying Jason in 2023, Kim-Anne has continued abiding by Jason’s Mat Life policy that all the gym’s coaches must also be actively training themselves. 

“Iron sharpens iron, and you’re only as good as the last technique that you learned,” she said. “All the coaches, including me as his wife, if I’m not training, I can’t coach. So, I do the Muay Thai classes, and that way I can translate that better to my [fitness kickboxing] students.” 

Instead of just moving to music like in a cardio class, Kim-Anne said Mat Life’s fitness kickboxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and Muay Thai classes all use Jason’s curriculum, which actively engages practical self-defense skills while also getting a workout.  

Jason said intimidation should never keep someone from trying a new class. Fighting is a great space for anyone to know and test their limits, and whether a member is 80 years old or post-partum, all classes can be modified and offer a buddy program, pairing any new learners with a senior belt in the class. 

“The hardest belt to get is a white belt because 90% of the general public, they don’t even step in the door,” Jason said. “If you can make it into the door and make it through the first 90 days, you’re in like the top 10%.” 

The gym also offers members free nutrition planning and coaching, classes for special-needs individuals, scholarships for veterans and youth, and a year-round competition Brazilian Jiu Jitsu team, where Kim-Anne said her combat medic training sometimes comes in handy at tournaments.  

“Jason’s ringside as the coach, and I’m ringside so that if anyone gets injured, I jump in in between rounds, ice them down, stop the bleeding, things like that,” she said. 

This year, Kim-Anne and Jason are also offering free 60-to-90-minute self-defense classes for women and teenagers two Saturdays a month. With the world only getting more violent, Kim-Anne said she unfortunately knows firsthand how critical developing self-defense skills is. 

In 2021, Kim-Anne was walking her dog before work one night when a stranger sexually assaulted her. The man has since been sentenced to jail, but the experience left the Dodds wondering how they might give back to the community to keep something like it from happening again. 

“If I had had some of the skills that I have now that Jason has taught me, maybe I could have gotten away, or at least defended myself enough to get away,” she said. “If all we have to do is give up a couple Saturdays a month to come in to try and help women and teens empower themselves to be able to defend and get away, it’s well worth it.” 

In addition to training, the Dodds said Mat Life offers a family of support that carries members through the physical and emotional challenges of fighting and life. 

When one member, who is a single mom, asked in the gym group chat for help getting school supplies for her five sons, Kim-Anne said members rallied around them with clothes, shoes, backpacks and gift cards.  

When Kim-Anne continued to teach her fitness kickboxing classes through chemotherapy for her cancer last year, she said seeing the members continue to show up kept her going. When the Dodds lost their baby in 2023, two days before a C-section, Kim-Anne said it was a loss for the whole gym. 

“This is our light in a dark, little world,” she said. “We share our challenges, we share our strengths, we uplift each other…when you join, you’re in a family.” 

On top of the free self-defense classes on Saturday, Mat Life Training Center is also offering a $65 first-month special for the fitness kickboxing class, including boxing gloves and hand wraps. After the first month, the price is $89 a month for three classes a day, five days a week. 

For the martial arts classes, the gym is running a $125 a month special this spring and summer. The deal offers unlimited access to a program, nutrition coaching and access to the mini gym, and includes another unlimited program that would be an additional $49 a month. 

Visit Mat Life’s Facebook page for updated class information.