Wigan sports club encourages residents to get fit through martial arts

Bryn Jiu-Jitsu’s new classes aim to gently introduce novices to a range of martial arts by teaching them traditional Ju-Jitsu, the Japanese martial art from which several others derive, including Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Judo and Aikido.

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The club hopes that newcomers will eventually develop a taste for at least one of the derivatives they learn and then develop their skills in that chosen area.

Instructor Mark Dixon said: “People can come to our club and get an overview of everything that’s available.

“They can come and train with us and get ideas of the entire spread of martial arts.

“We’ll be teaching them ground work, standing up work, punching, kicking etc.

“We’ll cover an entire syllabus.

“People might say they like doing ground work, so we can then tell them to look at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, or can look at doing Judo if they want to do more of the standing up work.

“It’s about introducing people to all of these possibilities.”

The 50-year-old added: “It is an absolute beginner’s class.

“At some clubs, you need a certain level of ability to train with them, so this is for the people who don’t know anything at all about martial arts.

“Everyone is welcome to come down here and train with us.

“Our instructors have a lot of experience, and Ju-Jitsu have a good parent martial art to get into.

“Hopefully, what we want to do is just try and spread this.

“Some people don’t want to fight, don’t want to do MMA (mixed martial arts).

“We can say to them ‘you don’t have to do that’.

“And some people might not have the fitness levels, or the confidence.

“It’s those nerves that put a lot of people off, they are worried about someone strangling them. We’ll take it nice and relaxed, at a slower pace.”

Jiu jitsu is a martial art and combat sport system that focuses on grappling with particular emphasis on ground fighting. Brazilian jiu-jitsu was developed from Kodokan judo ground fighting.

The classes take place on Saturday mornings at Suits U Fitness at the Link25 Industrial Estate, Bryn, and the first class is free. To find out more, visit facebook.com/BrynJuJitsu