Rochford Martial Arts Academy

28/09/2026

28/09/2026

What a fantastic fun night, at our Ladies kickboxing.

Fitness
Friendships
Fun

And most of all learning skills for life.

Only two spaces left on this class.

Well done ladies, I leave with a smile 😊

26/09/2026

Sifu Gavin has written a new article for the Academy of Chinese Swordsmanship.

As he approaches 50, he's been reflecting on nearly 40 years in martial arts, what years of hard training can do to the body, and how his own approach to training has changed.

He still loves fighting and doesn't want to give up sparring or training under pressure. But these days he's rather less interested in getting smashed to pieces in the process!

In the article he talks about his own experience with sciatica, getting back to enjoying movement again, and why Chinese swordsmanship and push hands are becoming such an important part of how he wants to train for the next 20 or 30 years.

Read it and let us know what you think, especially those of you who've been training for a few decades.

👇 Link in the comments.

At what point does training hard stop being worth the damage?

Academy of Chinese Swordsmanship UK representative Gavin King has trained martial arts for nearly 40 years, and he's approaching 50 with a slightly different attitude toward full-contact training than he had at 25.

He still loves fighting. He still wants pressure, resistance and somebody genuinely trying to beat him.

What he doesn't want is another decade of getting smashed around just to prove that he can.

After years of hard sparring and the best part of ten years dealing with sciatica, Gavin has found something slightly unexpected in swordsmanship and push hands. They still give him much of what he loved about full-contact martial arts, but without quite the same physical bill afterwards.

More importantly, for the first time in probably 10 or 15 years, he's enjoying moving again.

He's written about that journey in our latest article:

I Still Want to Fight. I Just Don't Want to Wreck Myself

We'd especially like to hear from older, long-term martial artists following the Academy.

Has the way you train changed as you've got older? What have you kept, what have you dropped, and what do you wish you'd done differently 20 years ago?

👇 Full article in the comments.

25/09/2026

Congratulations on to our TEENS, all successful passing their gradings.

They turn up each week, they over come challenges, push through things they find outside their comfort zone but each week they grow.

We focused on confidence and fitness this grading cycle and our cardio team challenge was great to watch.

Well done all, sorry not all in the pics.

Join our teens kung fu only two slots remain.

17/09/2026

We’re currently finishing off our Sabre & Longsword training for the year by going back through the applications of the Dadao and Miaodao forms.

The Practical Dadao was recorded by Jin Enzhong in 1933 as a military system, with the movements designed around dealing with an opponent armed with a r***e and bayonet.

What you’re seeing here isn’t sparring. It’s a flow drill.

We take small sections of the form, give each movement the attack it was designed to deal with, and then join them together into a continuous sequence.

It’s a really useful bridge between simply performing a form and actually understanding it. You start to see why a cut travels along a particular line, why the transitions are there and what tactical problem each movement is trying to solve.

Once that starts making sense, we can take the same material into progressively less cooperative partner drills and, eventually, free play.

Forms are useful, but only if we understand what we’re actually practising.

14/09/2026

CHINESE KNIFE THROWING THIS SATURDAY

Our next Chinese Knife Throwing workshop is this Saturday, 19th September, at Rochford Martial Arts Academy.

Our last workshop filled quickly, and we’re nearly there again.

Only 3 places left on the adult session, with just a few spaces remaining for juniors.

This is proper Chinese feijian throwing, not trick shots. You’ll learn the mechanics behind a controlled, repeatable throw, including grip, release, stance, weight transfer and working at different distances.

JUNIORS | Ages 8–16
🕘 9:00am–10:30am
💷 £25

ADULTS | Ages 16+
🕚 11:00am–1:00pm
💷 £30
⚠️ ONLY 3 PLACES LEFT

No previous experience needed and all training knives and targets are provided.

📍 Rochford Martial Arts Academy
📅 Saturday 19th September 2026

Booking link in the comments.

If you’ve been thinking about giving it a go, this is probably the time to get your place booked.

31/08/2026

We are BACK

Classes start tomorrow with our Mini 🐉

See you all on the mats.

22/08/2026

Was great for the club to support Artemis GYM today with there in club Hyrox event.

Can you spot some of the mums and dads?

Great work to all.