“Rage Ground is a place where people have a new form of entertainment or therapy and can break all sorts of items that you don’t usually get to break in your everyday life. You can break glass, ceramics, electronics, furniture, pallets and all sorts of other great items. We get a lot of our stuff through liquidation so it’s going to be thrown out anyway and the electronics we get from our local e-waste center where they take all the hazardous elements out of the electronics and then we return it to be properly recycled,” says Wolf who is the CEO of Rage Ground.
The company calls it a fun safe environment for those wanting feed their destructive desires or those looking for a new experience.
They say it’s all perfectly safe because guests are put into protective gear including coveralls, a face shield and welding gloves.
“We have a variety of people that come in. Their are people who come in solely for entertainment. We have people that come in and use it for therapy. We have people that come in for corporate events so it’s usually those three categories. The most people that come in is either for entertainment or therapy. I’ve seen a lot of people, it’s really interesting the people that are really quiet, they come in by themselves and they just let it all out. They just start going crazy They start yelling. They start crying. They just break down when they come out. They just feel a lot better,” says co-owner Toribio.
Up to four people can be in one room at a time. All five rooms open up to one another accommodate parties of up to 15 people.
First time visitor Paul Hanson, 33, a cannabis business manager in Los Angeles, says he loved the experience.
“Yeah, I mean it felt pretty good. Not much of an angry guy myself but I could recommend this to pretty much anybody. I mean this is pretty much a workout on its own. As you can see I’m pretty exhausted.”
Dale Francisco, 48, a corporate finance executive visiting from Ashburn, Virginia says: “It’s a great release, a great way to get all your frustration and anger out. I’m tired but I love it. I’d do it again. I’d do it some more. It was a great experience and all the things that you’d like to do to just let everything out, let all your energies and aggression out. It was perfect.”Wolf says 75 percent of people who come to Rage Ground are women.
Andi Leon, 22, a Los Angeles pre-school teacher and Haley Spielberg, 23, a Los Angeles copywriter are roommates and wanted to try it. “It was a really big release. It was just such a good… you don’t get the chance to just throw glass at the wall and break everything. It felt really good. It just like free range. At first I was a little hesitant because am I allowed to break everything? And you can, so it’s great,” says Leon.
“I just didn’t realize what I walking into at first. You hear like you can break things and whatever you have free range but I don’t think it really sets in until you’re here because you’re a little hesitant at first. You’re like ‘is someone going to come in and yell at me?’ Once you first start breaking the stuff but then after, the music bumping and you really get into it and it’s just a really big release so it’s really cool,” adds Spielberg. Timothy J. Patterson, licensed marriage and family therapist who deals with anger issues, says the process can be cathartic, but adds that underlying anger issues are best dealt with by talking through your issues.
“For some people, to be able to have a free and safe place to express their anger in an unbridled, uninhibited way can be cathartic and there can be some short term benefits to be able to have that freedom. What I find is that what’s curative for people however is to be able to talk about what they feel going on underneath that anger so for most people when they have expressed their anger, they will get to what they feel underneath which is usually; their hurt, their pain, their anxiety, their fear and being able to talk though that, helps them begin to resolve whatever it is that they’re troubled by.”
A single visit ranges from US$20 to $60 depending on the size of items in the room. A session for of 2 is $100; party of 4 is $160; party of 8 is $300 and for groups larger than 13 it is $40 dollars per person
