Disciplines
Traditional karate from five years old to sixty-eight, kickboxing for striking and fitness, jiu-jitsu for grappling, a six-week course for women, and the belt system that ties it together. Each page says who teaches it, which nights, what it costs and what to bring.
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 first session
In a T-shirt and joggers, with water. Shoes off at the edge of the mats, jewellery off, long hair tied back. Tell the instructor about any injury before the warm-up, not halfway through it.
Onto the mat, off the mat, to the instructor and to a partner. It takes ten seconds and it is the most important thing taught in the building, because it is how forty people agree to look after each other.
A senior grade or an assistant teaches you the basics while the class does the same thing at speed in front. Nobody spars on a first session, and nobody is shown up.
Afterwards the instructor tells you honestly how it went, which session to come to next, and what membership fits. Nothing to sign on the night; the direct debit form is online when you are ready.
The teens
There is no separate teens karate class on the main nights because the grades mix better than the ages do. A teenager partnered with an adult of the same belt both learn something, and Cerys runs a teens-only technique session on Tuesdays at 5:30 for the drills that need more repetition than the adult class gives them. Teens never spar with adults outside their weight range.
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.
