About us

Introduction


The Academy of Traditional Fighting Arts is a school that teaches traditional fighting arts from a number of east Asian countries, namely Japan (principally Okinawa), China and the Philippines.  These arts include:
  1. Karate (an unarmed art from Okinawa)
  2. Jodo (traditional 4' staff from Japan)
  3. Arnis (a stick and knife combat system from the Philippines)
  4. Shaolin gong fu forms to supplement the above
  5. Chen Pan Ling family system of gong fu ("kung fu"), namely:
These arts encompass a comprehensive range of skills including striking and kicking, grappling and throwing, and training in a variety of weapons.


Wu-Wei Dao: the Academy's martial system


The Academy teaches some of the above arts in isolation (in particular, the Chen Pan Ling Chinese arts), however all the various arts of the Academy are also taught collectively as a single comprehensive system called Wu-Wei Dao.  This system is designed so as to provide the widest, most appropriate range of skills possible to each student.

The Wu-Wei Dao system is relativistic in that it gradually changes to accommodate the increasing experience of the student. Initially the techniques taught are simple, easy to learn and effective. As the student progresses the techniques become more and more sophisticated (and hence harder to master) but the student learns to rely less on physical strength and more on timing, positioning and economy of movement. In this sense Wu-Wei Dao moves from what is termed a "hard" or "external" art to one that is "soft" or "internal" (see the discussion relating to the logo).

Click here for a detailed description of the philosophy of the Wu-Wei Dao martial system.

Our focus


We focus on personal development, health and fitness and self defence - all in a fun, safe environment.
The Academy has classes for adults and teenagers (beginners and advanced) and a separate children's class.  (See our Mission Statement here.)