BRIC combat sport classes welcome all levels of fighters
By Ella Torres, September 29, 2026
Students wield swords, throw jabs and take opponents to the mat. The Bronco Recreation and Intramural Complex offers seven combat sports, including boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, jiujitsu, kendo, Filipino martials arts and taekwondo.
For Steve Del Castillo, who teaches boxing, kickboxing, jiujitsu and Filipino martial arts, the main goal is not simply to teach students how to fight.
“I try to make everybody comfortable and welcome,” Del Castillo said. “People can come and relax and use movement, meet people, relieve stress and clear their mind.”
Del Castillo, who currently works as an adjunct faculty member at Mt. San Antonio College, has taught martial arts at the collegiate level since 2001. His background includes training in wushu, a Chinese martial art commonly known in the United States as kung fu, along with several other martial art disciplines, and he is a CPP alumnus who studied kinesiology.
“An adapted physical education major allowed me to learn how to scale back and modify training to accommodate everybody,” Del Castillo said. “I have the eye to look at people and see what they can do and improve on.”
Del Castillo added this approach allows students with little or no experience to train alongside more advanced students. He gradually introduces sparring and adjusts the intensity of drills depending on who is in the room.
Tyler Mulford, who teaches wrestling, begins his classes with stretching and warmups before moving into wrestling techniques and fundamentals. Students then “go live” and are given the opportunity to test their skills against one another.
Mulford, who has wrestled for six years and began his first year of instructing at the BRIC early this semester, said the physical demands of wrestling often help his students develop better discipline and confidence. For him, it also breaks up the demands of being a third-year accounting student.
“You feel complete because you did something hard,” Mulford said.
Mulford added that students, who initially entered the room as peers, have found a sense of belonging in Studio B. Classes have slowly become much more than mastering technique, he said.
”We started off as complete strangers,” Mulford said. “But since there’s been a group that keeps coming in, they’re starting to build an actual community.”
While it’s the instructors’ jobs to make newcomers feel welcome and included, ASI fitness manager Jessica Yamas tackles a different challenge. Yamas needs to make sure everyone is safe.
The Studio B orientation requires students to learn how to safely use Studio B outside of practice times.
Fitness program assistants are also required at all class and club meetings to help monitor meeting sizes, match students appropriately and respond accordingly if someone gets injured.
While BRIC-sponsored classes are available, student-led clubs have faced challenges reserving BRIC spaces consistently for training.
Jose Mejia, president of the Bronco Wrestling Club, said the club has struggled to reserve an indoor practice space. Members have attempted to secure three different locations through the school but have faced obstacles with BRIC staffing, scheduling and lighting conflicts.
For now, the club holds informal practices on the lawn directly outside the BRIC. Practices include stretching, sparring, hand-fighting and grappling. The wrestling club has nearly 30 members and continues to try to petition for an indoor space at the BRIC, especially as colder weather makes outdoor practices more difficult.
The club’s access problems came shortly after the former student-led mixed martial arts club was removed from the BRIC following an incident where a student was injured while sparring outside the club’s designated practice time, according to Mejia.
Del Castillo said the MMA club did not meet the facility’s expectations of responsibility and safety. Former MMA co-president, Joseph Carter, however, said the club should not be held responsible for actions members took outside of their designated practice times.
The disagreement and subsequent removal of the MMA club from using BRIC facilities highlights the tensions surrounding combat sports on campus. The activities can create community and improve students’ physical and mental health, but they also require careful supervision and clear boundaries, according to Yamas.
Mejia said combat sports are often judged by the violence associated with them rather than the discipline required to practice them.
“It’s not just about losing a practice space,” Mejia said. “It’s one less area for students to build community and feel better.”
For Del Castillo, Mulford and Mejia, the purpose of combat sports extends beyond competition. The classes and clubs give students a place to challenge themselves, find a community and an outlet to release the pressures of college.
All three instructors reiterated the goal is not to leave students looking for a fight, but instead to help them become more confident, disciplined and connected than when they first stepped onto the mat.
Each sport is offered through group fitness classes and is free to all Cal Poly Pomona students. Students of all skill levels are welcome, with instructors adjusting drills and sparring based on students’ experience.
