Katalin Rodriguez Ogren
I’m a native Chicagoan who grew up on Chicago and Wells in my father’s photo/art studio. My brothers and I were raised in a creative environment provided by my artistic father and brilliant mother, a Cuban exile. Today, I feel lucky that I work close to where I grew up, in Chicago’s West Loop. As the Owner of POW! GYM Chicago & the Parisi Speed School of Chicago, I strive to make our training accessible to everyone. Since 2001, POW! GYM has become the home of a wide variety of people, combat sports athletes, youth athletes, fitness enthusiasts and active Chicagoans.
POW! is the culmination of my training since the age of 9. I have over 40+ yrs in the martial arts/combat sports industry, 30+ yrs in the fitness industry and 12 years in the performance training community. I have developed a unique pedigree in the martial arts, fitness and performance industry. I am a very active Owner-Operator serving also as the Program Director and a coach. I coach Parisi Speed & Sports Performance sessions, combat and fitness session each week. I enjoy being active in all areas of our training offerings. While the combat sports are my longest discipline, I have grown tremendously as a coach since joining the Parisi Speed School network. The addition of this program to POW! GYM has enhanced all classes. All our adult and youth members receive the best performance training and injury mitigation strategies.
My years with the Parisi Speed School of Chicago have been very successful. Since joining in 2015, I have applied my martial arts mindset to my growth as a speed and sports performance coach. My coaching style is disciplined, technical and thorough. For several years, I have also become an asset to the Parisi Speed School corporate team, co-authoring our enhanced speed training manual, working for Bill Parisi, building speed curriculums for youth populations, and now as an Associate Master Coach.
Some of my key career highlights include earning 4 blacks in various martial arts, authoring two books (Weight Training for Martial Artists on Amazon), starring in 17 dvds, completing a 100 city speaking tour across America, authoring 4 industry educational manuals, publishing over 200 articles in national magazines and playing the role of the female ninjas Kitana, Mileena and Jade in Mortal Kombat 2.
My Writing Career
I started writing in 1998. At the time, I was building a reputation for combining martial arts and cross training. I knew I was one of the few preaching an athletic approach to martial arts and boxing training, so I pitched an article to Inside Kung Fu. Once my first feature was published, I was hooked on writing. My first National article lead to several features and a monthly column. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to write for every major martial arts magazine, but I also loved boxing. I then got a job covering boxing in Chicago and Las Vegas for a bi-lingual boxing magazine called Chicago Boxing. This was fantastic! I was present during the days of Oscar de la Hoya, Hector Camacho, Andrew Golota, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis. As challenging as it was to assimilate into the ‘scene’ as a female writer; It did not impact my drive to continue writing and or cover fights. I had achieved the best balance of editorial style writing and technical writing. During this time, I was continued to grow as a writer of educational material and lecturing in the fitness and martial arts industry worldwide.
After I opened POW! I then moved onto covering the sport of MMA. Ultimate Grappling Magazine offered a great opportunity for me to dive into the MMA scene. I covered the fights as a independent features writer for almost 4 years. Since the UFC only had fights about once a month, it worked well with my operational and teaching responsibilities at POW! GYM. I will occasionally brag that I was there when the real MMA Superstars were born: Matt Hughes, BJ Penn, Randy Couture, Rich Franklin, GSP, Tito Ortiz....
The Culture of My Training Center
The first priority of my staff is to teach anyone, at any age. POW!’s combat & speed coaches have mastered the art of “second nature” training, organically teaching members in striking, strength, kicking, speed and performance skills. Our staff sets the bar high by teaching a technical program and motivating the students to learn more and reach their athletic potential. POW!’s staff has a great sense of humor making the science of speed, performance, boxing, and striking the most fun part of our member's day.
When you walk into POW! GYM, the home of the Parisi Speed School you will see that our CORE VALUES are on our wall:
- Honest in Relationships
- Positive in Atitude
- Excellent in Service
