A martial arts club on the Brynmenyn estate since 2006: karate from five with a sixth dan, kickboxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and a self-defence course for women. Sixteen sessions a week, gradings dated with their places, monthly prices with no contract, and the first session free.
Disciplines
01
Shotokan karate for five to eleven-year-olds in two groups, Little Dragons (five to seven) and Juniors (eight to eleven), up to twice a week: basics, kata, controlled partner work and the grading syllabus, with the discipline and the confidence that come with them. No full contact, ever. £32 a month or £6 a session.
Kids karate £32 a month for up to two sessions a week, or £6 a session.
02
Traditional Shotokan karate for twelve-year-olds to people in their sixties, three sessions a week with Gareth Morgan, sixth dan, who has taught in Bridgend for thirty years: kihon, kata and kumite to the full syllabus, with black belt and dan gradings for those who keep going. Fitness is a by-product; the point is the art.
£45 a month for every karate session, £60 for every discipline, or £9 a session.
03
Kickboxing for adults and teens from fourteen, Monday and Wednesday at 7pm and Friday at 6pm, with Rhys Evans: punches, kicks, knees and combinations on pads and bags, conditioning, and controlled sparring only for those who choose it. The fittest hour in the building and a proper martial art, not an aerobics class with gloves on.
£45 a month for every kickboxing session, £60 for everything, or £9 a session.
04
Brazilian jiu-jitsu, the grappling art of positions, sweeps and submissions, for adults and teens from fourteen, on Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm in the BJJ area and Saturday at 11:30am no-gi, with Ffion Davies, brown belt under a black belt affiliation. Technique, drilling and positional sparring every session; the safest way to spar there is.
£45 a month for every BJJ session, £60 for everything, or £9 a session.
05
A six-week course for women of any age and fitness, two hours on Sunday afternoons, £60 for the six: awareness and avoidance, voice and boundaries, releases from grabs and holds, strikes that work for a smaller body, and getting up and away from the ground. Taught by Ffion Davies in a women-only room, with no sparring and no expectation of any previous training.
£60 for the six-week course, two hours each Sunday afternoon.
06
How belts work at the club: ten kyu grades from white to brown and then dan grades for black, each with a minimum time in grade, a syllabus of what is examined, and a grading in front of three black belts on a dated Sunday with a fixed number of places. Kids £25, adults £30, black belt £120, belt and certificate included. Nobody grades until their instructor puts them forward.
A kids grading £25, an adult kyu grading £30, a black belt grading £120, the belt and certificate included.
The belt ladder
Start
Stance, the bow, the first blocks and punches, the dojo rules
Three months
Front stance and back stance, rising and downward blocks, front kick, the first kata (Kihon)
Three months
Combinations in kihon, Heian Shodan, five-step sparring
Three months
Roundhouse and side kicks, Heian Nidan, three-step sparring
Six months
Heian Sandan, one-step sparring, the first free movement
Six months
Heian Yondan, semi-free sparring, back kick
Six months each
Three brown grades: Heian Godan, Tekki Shodan, Bassai Dai; free sparring; the bunkai (applications)
A year at first kyu
Shodan: the whole syllabus, a chosen kata, free sparring against two, over two days in front of the senior panel
The next grading
Gradings are on the calendar a term ahead with the belts being examined and the places left. Nobody books their own: the instructors put forward the students who are ready, a fail comes with a mark sheet, and the retake is free. Next: Adult karate kyu grading, Sunday 8 November 2026, 6 of 24 places left.
How we train
Nobody spars until they can control a technique, and nobody spars hard who has not asked to. Children never do full contact. Mouthguards, gloves and pads are compulsory in any contact session and the instructor stops a round the moment it stops being training.
A belt is examined by three black belts at a grading after a minimum time in grade, and a fail is a mark sheet with what to work on. We would rather a child waits a term than wears a belt they cannot defend.
Bowing on and off the mat, lining up by grade, listening when the instructor talks. Parents tell us this is what changes first at home. It is also what makes it safe for forty people to throw each other about on the same floor.
Sessions start on the minute and finish on the minute, so a parent can plan the evening and an adult can plan the shift. The timetable on the website is the timetable.
Women's self-defence
Awareness, voice, distance, releases, strikes and getting up off the ground, taught by Ffion Davies to twelve women at a time on Sunday afternoons. No sparring, no fitness test, no experience needed. £60 for the six weeks, free to women already training here, and about a third of each course join a class afterwards.
Members and parents
Josh started at six because he could not stand still in a line at school. Two years on he has his green belt, bows at the front door without being asked, and his teacher wrote on his report that his listening had transformed. Gareth and Cerys are firm, kind and completely consistent, and the grading was the proudest morning of his life so far.
Started at forty-four after watching my daughter for a year from the bench. Five years later I am a brown belt and training for shodan next March. Gareth teaches the old way, properly, and does not care how old you are as long as you turn up. The best decision I have made for my health in twenty years.
I booked the six-week course after something happened that I will not go into, and I nearly did not go to the first week. Ffion made it a room where I could be terrible at it and nobody minded. The voice work in week one has changed how I walk home. I am now in the Tuesday BJJ class, which I would never have believed.
The unit
Two hundred and twenty square metres of red and black mats, a row of heavy bags, a black-matted grappling area and a bench along the wall for parents. Five minutes from junction 36, free parking out front in the evenings, buses to Brynmenyn Square.
Kids karate £32 a month for up to two sessions a week; one adult discipline £45 a month for every session in it; everything £60; a family of up to four £95. Or pay as you go at £9 (kids £6). The licence is £25 a year. No joining fee, no contract, a month's notice.
Book a free first session in any class for your age on the website, or ring. Come ten minutes early in a T-shirt and joggers, train barefoot, and decide afterwards. Children's first sessions have a parent on the bench.
Karate for a traditional art with belts and kata; kickboxing for striking and fitness; BJJ for grappling and the safest full sparring; the women's course for practical self-defence. Most adults try two in the first month. Children start in kids karate.
Control comes before contact in every discipline. Children never do full contact; adults spar only when they choose to, matched by size, in full kit, with an instructor on the clock. Every instructor holds first aid and a coaching qualification.
On dated Sundays roughly every four months for each discipline, with the places left shown on the gradings page. Nobody grades until their instructor puts them forward, and a fail is retaken free.
Five for Little Dragons, eight for Juniors, twelve for the adult karate, fourteen for kickboxing and BJJ, sixteen for the women's self-defence course. There is no upper limit; the oldest member is sixty-eight.
Tell us who is training, how old they are and the discipline you are curious about, and we ring back the same evening with a session that has space. Train barefoot on the mats, ask the instructor anything afterwards, and decide then. Or ring the club.
