Michael Katilus
Name: Michael R Katilus
Occupation: Social Worker with New Directions Youth and Family Services
What kinds of activities do you enjoy when you’re outside the gym? I like to feed my sophisticated palate (cooking and only the finest of dining), follow political thought and theory and pretend like I know a thing or two about knowing a thing or two. Checking out bands has been another hobby for a long time. Spending time with my wife and family
Member Since? Trained with Kyle Saunders for awhile, and started checking out Eric’s classes at CrossFit 585 BJJ shortly after they opened.
What is your favorite Jiu Jitsu Technique? Touch of Death. Then, after, probably triangles off sweeps.
Why do you come to 585 Jiu Jitsu? Where to start!? First off, the variety of training partners is fantastic. All ages, all different colored belts, plenty of different styles to adjust to, from the smothering bully to the fast and tenacious. Most of the training partners are unique in that they are usually athletic and pace pushers, which resembles a similar to competition roll feel. Even the beginners are innovative and dedicated after just a short time, which is a testament to the quality of the program.
What makes 585 unique? Training environment? Coaching? Eric is unbelievably helpful and each class gives myself and whoever I bring with individual attention anytime we need it. Eric is always seeking new knowledge, not in the slightest bit egotistical, and seems to retain information at a computer like pace. His assistants are just as helpful as him and its just a perfect atmosphere for learning and pushing yourself. Staying up to date with modern information and insuring that each of your students don’t slow down on their learning curve are two extremely important elements that I personally feel Eric does better than anyone I’ve trained with in upstate New York . Plenty of people from outside gyms are catching on to all of this, and its becoming a melting pot of various training partners looking to get in some high quality cross training, at Cross Fit. Lastly, Eric makes it fun and has an exercise science background which puts the whole class structure together perfectly.
