Olona Combat

STARTING JANUARY 2025

A fitness class designed for everyone. Yes, that means you too! Think 'Body Combat' but a lot more functional. Whether you are retired, a stay at home parent, shift worker or just around in the day...you are very welcome to join in. Bring the baby and pushchair. The goal is to make this fit the community. Olona means people and it should respond to what people need. It's a combination of a number of martial arts and is based on over 30 years of experience. We're not training for competition, we're training for ourselves and we need to enjoy training.

GO SLOW and GROW.

We incorporate techniques from Boxing, Filipino Boxing (Panantukan), Kali (Knife & Stick), Jeet Kune Do, Kickboxing and Karate. We're just cutting away a lot of the things that become barriers for people as they get older or that are barriers from the onset. Joining a class of what we generally associate with Kickboxing and fighters who compete is intimidating and not every wants to train at that intensity.

You're not going to walk away from a class battered and bruised. You're going to walk away feeling like you worked out the way you needed to and that you're learning something. You're going to feel like your brain engaged in something too. You don't have to spar with people or do things you're not comfortable doing. You will want to spar with people at some point because you'll realise it's very low stakes, very light, a giggle and more about an exchange or a game and flowing. Sparring can be like chess, you think ahead and plan. You don't have to though and nobody is going to frown at you because it's not for you.

The focus with Olona combat is making it work for you, learning something functional, doing it at a pace that is appropriate for you and enjoying it.

BOOK NOW

I'm not sure I'd be able to do it?

Age Range

We're hoping for lots of retirees who are looking for a something a bit different. We're also hoping for lots of adults who are just home in the day.

Fitness Level

It doesn't matter where you are at, it will improve. You don't have to train like a fighter to learn a martial art. You will be encouraged to stretch yourself, but also to listen to your body

Class Format

Very light stretching. Lots of pair work. We teach how to use focus mitts, it's better for the joints to hit a mitt than hitting thing air. Lots of what we call loop drills to functionally learn technique

Weapons

Stick and knife or any weapons work in martial arts is fairly esoteric. However, it teaches range and is a lot of fun. The weapons phase of classes will come later after some weeks of training hands

Filipino Boxing - Panantukan

When people think boxing they generally associate it with a broken nose. Filipino boxing is sometimes referred to as Boxing with all the dirty tricks and then some. It's taught as part of Jeet Kune Do & Kali and is very functional. You train in pairs wearing bag gloves or boxing gloves and the gloves are not worn for the purpose of being able to hit someone hard. They are worn to help you to train longer not harder.

Any sparring is very very low stakes, a light exchange and more so you can apply technique. You are never looking to make hard contact or hit someone hard. It's good to have a moving target, work at different ranges and work at a slightly harder pace not harder hitting. We're not going to make any body do anything they are not comfortable doing and we're not going to ask unless we think someone is ready . It's about training safe and making people comfortable with the training.

olona.io