Coventry Martial Arts Academy
Long time readers might remember that, after almost 20 years of traveling the length and breadth of England while training in dozens of martial arts clubs and styles, I went through a martial arts mid-life crisis between 2001 and 2003. I earned my Tae Kwon-Do 1st Dan in 2001, and with the rush of success to my head I determined that I’d been crazy to give up on Shotokan Karate just 1 grading shy of Black Belt. I went out and found a small club at Stourport Leisure Center that were prepared to train me for a year and let me retake my 1st Kyu and then essentially pick up from where I left off.
Not content with Tae Kwon-Do on Wednesday and Sunday nights, plus Shotokan Karate on Tuesday night and Sunday Morning, I was also fighting competitively on the Tae Kwon-Do Open circuit organised by the GTI, but struggling to make much of an impression… usually eliminated in the 1st or 2nd round.
Since Tae Kwon-Do is similar in many ways to Shotokan Karate, I decided that the best way to improve my competition performance was to study another entirely different martial art to give me an edge over my competitors: Preferably something with an emphasis on hands rather than legs, especially given that being at the lowest threshold of the Heavy Weight category, most of my opponents were several inches taller than me, and in some cases 100lb heavier! I eventually discovered a marvelous school in Coventry, teaching Bruce Lee’s traditional Jun Fan Gung-Fu as a foundation for Guro Inosanto’s Jeet Kune Do mixed in with a little western boxing. I was already hooked, and then I learned that the chief instructor had lived with Rhee Ki Ha (the man who brought Tae Kwon-Do to England) and was acquainted with local hero Geoff Thompson.
I badgered my good friend Richard Meeking to car pool with me for the 100 mile round trip to Coventry once a fortnight, and devoted the remaining 4 hours of my non-competition Sundays to training at the JKD Academy. And there it was that I first met the phenomenal Andre Martin, whom I have mentioned before. I always learned more from Andre in those 2 hours than from the other 14 hours of martial arts I pursued between visits to Coventry. Despite the crazy schedule, it was always worth the effort. Every second Sunday I would get up at 9am to give my breakfast time to go down before Karate in Stourport from 10.30 until 12.00, I then had time for lunch and a shower before driving to Kidderminster at 3.00 for the commute to Coventry for 2 hours of JKD between 4.00 and 6.00, which gave me just barely enough time to tear back to Worcester to teach an hour of Tae Kwon Do at 7.00, followed by a final hour of TKD training at 8.00. Sunday evenings usually finished with a shower at the sports centre, a pint of Guinness with the other black belts, and then home by 10.00 to collapse into a deep sleep before work the following morning!
I would have loved to have spent more time learning JKD from Andre, a rare instructor who combines a love of the history and philosophy of martial arts with practical experience of effective techniques tempered while working as a doorman around Coventry. He has a friendly energetic teaching style, and really knows how to get people to push themselves. During the sporadic 2 years that I spent at Coventry JKD Academy I went from an also-ran cannon fodder Tae Kwon-Do competitor who rarely got through the second round of eliminations to Silver Medalist at the English Tae Kwon-Do Open, due in no small part to the experience and wise words of Andre. In common with a very few other outstanding martial arts instructors I’ve had the pleasure of training with, Andre introduced me to his philosophy of learning from all martial arts, no matter what their style. Since then my whole outlook on martial arts has changed dramatically, indeed I am often surprised at how narrow-minded many otherwise respectable instructors get about how their style is better than everyone else’s, and equipped with that style they have no need of anything else.
I hadn’t realised how much I had taken those sessions for granted until the Academy closed it’s doors for the last time around 2003. Most especially when I started to search for somewhere else to train after moving away from Worcester, and consistently came up short.
A couple of days ago Richard excitedly emailed me to let me know that, after gaining some more qualifications in the last few years, Andre has opened his new Multicultural Martial Arts Academy, incorporating the Jun Fan Gung-Fu, Jeet Kune Do and Western Boxing teachings I’ve missed so much, as well as a handful of other styles including Kali/Escrima — something I’ve been itching to try out as soon as we get to the Philippines.
Whether you are an experienced martial artist, or someone looking for the chance to begin training with an excellent instructor, you would be missing a golden opportunity if you didn’t pay a visit to Andre’s new Academy. Before I relocate to the Philippines and start to build my knowledge of Escrima, I’ll certainly be lengthening my stay in England by a month or two just to take advantage of the chance to learn from Andre. Maybe I’ll see you there?
