The club was founded in the summer of 1989 with 1 student and has a number of members still training regularly.
We practice Freestyle Korean Karate, based for the most part on my own original style of I.T.F. Tae Kwon Do. Over the years we have also welcomed visitors from other styles, including Judo, Escrima, Shotokan Karate and Tang Soo Do, who have helped us to add techniques and ideas from their systems. This has resulted in a system that introduces students to more of the situations that they might face in a real life confrontation, rather than a style that only deals with one or two aspects of personal combat.
The junior syllabus is, for the most part, traditional in nature; giving students a good foundation to build on in the future. From teenagers upwards, the syllabus is also studied from a more modern perspective, as this is often more practical for self defence in todays increasingly violent society.
The training sessions are made as safe as possible, but realistic enough to provide good training value. All of the older, more dangerous training practises have been replaced with modern coaching methods. Although the etiquette has been reduced to a minimum and most commands are given in English, we have tried to retain many of the core traditional values. Hard work, humility and self-discipline (the only type of discipline worth anything), seem rather rare nowadays. Training in Martial Arts is one way to redress the balance.
All of our Instructors have First Aid training, and between us we have a range of skills in coaching
and teaching
gained from a variety of backgrounds. This allows us to adapt our teaching methods to help individual students.
Membership of the club and insurance for one year is £ 25, and is required before students take a grading.
We have developed contacts with several reputable suppliers of Martial Arts equipment and so are able to offer
anything students need at a reasonable price. This helps our members to keep the costs of training to a minimum.