Extolling the MARTIAL benefits of martial training

The Martial Training Association (MTA) is a group of people (teachers and students) who practice martial arts for the sole purpose of developing real-life self-defence and combative skills, rather than as any kind of artistic, gymnastic, spiritual or sporting pursuit. We feel that by focussing on this aspect, we remain truest to the origins of the arts we practice. This is important because it prevents our fighting techniques from becoming watered down, stylised or otherwise rendered less effective by having priorities other than full martial potency. It is also important because it ensures our students never practice in a way that could lead them into bad habits, such as training outside of effective combat range, using a “safer” portion of their elbow for “sport-legal” striking, or employing fast but weak strikes for the purpose of simply scoring points in a sporting contest.

To give other examples, we also recognise that few real-life assaults will be brought to a satisfactory finish by use of a “submission hold” or because someone has been pushed outside of a ring, or off a platform. Very often in a real-life assault, you will not want to end up on the floor grappling with your assailant; you will want to disable him or them as quickly as possible and escape. As lives could depend on your martial training, we take this fact very seriously and work hard to prevent students from developing unrealistic expectations of what might work in a life-or-death situation.

Safeguard Yourself, Protect Others

Importantly, we do not consider knocking another person unconscious or causing them permanent or lasting injury for the purpose of winning a medal, title or prize to be a very moral use of martial skill. Realistic but sensible martial training for the purpose of learning how to protect ourselves and other people from harm is our focus.

The long and the short of it - we’re in it for the long haul.

We also recognise that martial skills weaken if they are not practiced regularly, so we do not believe in giving people the false impression that a short self-defence course will prepare a person for real-life combat. Martial arts should be practiced for an entire lifetime.

No nonsense

We don't do qi (ch'i / ki), qigong, energy, channeling, meditation, mysticism, magic, tenaga dalam, enlightenment, NLP, hypnosis or any other kind of extraneous mental gymnastics. We love martial arts, but don’t like all the mind games, rituals and superstitions that are so often associated with them. We rely on refined physical skills and martial tactics, nothing more, nothing less. Regular, physical martial training is good enough for us. We think you can develop all the skill and confidence you need, simply by doing regular, contact-orientated martial training.

No brutality or reckless over-competitiveness

Our training mostly takes the form of co-operative, semi-co-operative and refereed competitive training, often making use of various kinds of body and limb armour. By sensibly assessing the kinds of assault you are simulating, training can be intense and realistic without resorting to the causing of permanent injuries, and can be safe without resorting to complex, points-based scoring systems. As training is intended to be for mutual benefit, it is often unnecessary to decide on a “winner”. Training that willfully disregards the safety of another person is not permitted. If tempers are lost, training stops.

Which styles?

We value all good quality martial training, so we are not style specific. Nor do we get hung up on lineage or tradition. Whether you practice an older style or a more modern synthesis, you are welcome to join us.

If you require more information, please feel free to