23/06/2026
Our Women’s Kickboxing programme continues to grow 🥊💪
And honestly, a huge part of that is down to Coach Emily.
For a lot of women, walking into a martial arts class for the first time can feel incredibly intimidating.
Many have never hit pads before.
Many haven’t exercised in a while.
Some are simply looking for something more engaging than another gym workout.
Taking that first step can be the hardest part.
What Emily does so well is make people feel welcome from day one.
She creates an environment with plenty of laughter, encouragement, and support, while still delivering sessions that challenge people and help them improve.
The classes strike that sweet spot between:
✅ Fitness and conditioning
✅ Learning real skills
✅ Having fun
✅ Feeling part of a community
And I think that’s why so many women keep coming back week after week.
A great coach doesn’t just teach techniques.
They help people feel comfortable enough to keep showing up.
And Emily does that brilliantly 👏
19/06/2026
Super proud of our Under 16s Jiu Jitsu team 🥋💪
One of the things I’ve been enjoying most recently is watching kids from different schools, age groups, backgrounds, and parts of the city come together to help each other grow.
Jiu Jitsu might be an individual sport when you step onto the competition mats, but nobody gets there alone.
Every round, every drill, every piece of advice, every bit of encouragement from a training partner helps make everyone better.
And that’s something this team does really well.
The atmosphere on the mats is genuinely fantastic.
The more experienced kids help the newer ones.
The older kids encourage the younger ones.
Everyone wants to see each other succeed.
For a sport that is technically individual, there is a huge team element behind the scenes.
Everyone is welcome, everyone has a place, and together we’re building something pretty special 👏
Very proud coach.
13/06/2026
Hair grabs ✋💇♀️
How do we teach kids to deal with them?
Hair grabs are very different to things like wrist or clothing grabs.
They hurt.
They can disrupt balance really easily because the head is being controlled.
And for a lot of kids, they can feel quite personal and frightening.
So when we teach these situations, the focus is always on simple, realistic priorities rather than complicated techniques.
We teach the kids to:
✅ Make lots of noise and call for help
✅ Fight to stay balanced and protect their head from strikes
✅ Potentially attach themselves to the grabbing arm to reduce pulling force
✅ Try to isolate fingers on the grabbing hand to help break the grip
✅ And if nothing else is working… strike painful targets until the grab is released
As always, we try to teach serious skills in a way that is age-appropriate, controlled, and engaging for the kids.
And despite the topic…
The session was actually great fun 😂
Although the robot hoover definitely struggled with the amount of hair left on the mats afterwards
12/06/2026
I don’t get a huge amount of chance to talk about our Youth Self Defence group very often.
The reality is… the sessions tend to be pretty intense from a coaching perspective, so there’s usually not much time left to stop and take photos 😅
But honestly, these classes are some of my absolute favourites to coach - and here’s why.
As most parents know…
Getting teenagers to consistently do something they don’t want to do is basically impossible 😂
Which is why I think this group is so special.
Every single one of these teens is here because they genuinely want to be.
They’re self-motivated.
They walk themselves over from school.
They remember their own kit.
They support each other.
And in some cases, we’ve even had older teens pay for their own memberships because training means that much to them.
That kind of ownership and commitment at that age is genuinely impressive.
It’s an absolute pleasure to coach this team and watch them grow into confident, capable young people 👏
13/06/2026
12/06/2026