Classes starting 12th November

You always wish you'd given yourself a bit more runway when opening classes. Such is life. Now the real legwork begins to make something work. If you live in Market Rasen, you may see me in the next few weeks walking around town fully garbed handing out cards advertising for classes. Feel free to stop me and chat about classes.

What should you expect from one of my Kickboxing classes? Quality. Great martial arts is like making cake. It doesn't matter how good the icing of the cake makes it look, if the ingredients are crappy the cake tastes crappy. 'We train cake' as Bob Breen would say. I trained with Bob for a while many years ago. He is the father of Jeet Kune Do & Kali in Europe and in my opinion the greatest martial arts coach in the world. Guru Bob Breen is second to none in terms of communicating and coaching concepts.

I hope to bring some of that teaching to Middle Rasen and Welton. Kickboxing is a broad base from which to build and allows me to include lots of the other arts I've trained in including Jeet Kune Do & Kali. We do lots of pair work and drills from JKD. We call them loop drills and they are great for building confidence and familiarity in the techniques. We engage in sparring obviously and that can be a bit intimidating for people considering Kickboxing. One thing I learned from Bob Breen is that your pads are there to let you train for longer not for hitting harder. It should always be light and controlled. GO SLOW and GROW is another thing he says a lot and you’ll hear me saying to people in classes.

TOO FAR, TOO FAST or TOO HARD. If you’re thinking one of those three statements, you say it. You’re partner MUST then address it. Nobody is learning anything when the stakes are too high. I trained with a friend some years back and you could do 10 rounds of very low stakes sparring and be completely exhausted at the end of it. That’s what good training is. Enjoyable and at your limit, not all the time, but for good period.

Come and check out a class. It’s a new class, almost everyone will be at a beginner level. It’s the perfect opportunity to meet people and start a journey that will bring something really positive into your life. Everybody gets there. Over 30 years of martial arts has taught me that when it comes to skills attainment, everyone gets there. Of course it takes time. But it’s a personal journey and a worthwhile one. I’ve seen the most unlikely people become great black belts over the years and they’ve been good black belts too.

Middle Rasen Village Hall 12th & 14th November

Welton Village Hall 18th November