Six nights a week you can find Lee Trunks coaching the next generation of martial artists, as the independent club builds towards fight night next month.
Trunks founded the Combined Defensive Arts (CDA) club in 2008, initially going independent, stepping away from mainstream organisations.
But independence caused challenges.
The biggest was access. Without affiliation of a broader organisation, opportunities for the club to compete and showcase their talent became harder to come by.
“When I was young I used to do Taekwondo, and I was part of a large organisation. We had competitions all the time. But when I set this place up, I went independent, and stepped away from any organisation like that. But over the past few years we’ve been trying to build towards getting a fight team together.
“Within the kickboxing program we do sparring, or organised fighting within the classes. We run a fight club once a month, and run an internal competition, called Black and Blue, which we run twice a year.”
And the work has been paying off, with CDA fighters bringing home fantastic results, showcasing the talent within the program.
“Then over the past year or so, we have started hooking up with other promoters that are putting events on, which we send our guys out to.
“Earlier this year we sent three of our fighters out to a competition, and we got a draw and two wins. Two confident wins, which was great.
“We have another competition next month. We’ve got a further two fighters heading to that one, with hopefully a few more going too.”
But the competition is only one part of what the CDA offers.
The club run kickboxing and cardio kickboxing sessions, alongside its street self-defence classes, where classes cover a range of situations, from dealing with confrontations to life-threatening scenarios.
“We teach kickboxing, which is a sport, but also self-defence. Those classes cover anything from someone shouting at you, to someone trying to stab you, or group attacks.
“Those sessions are a little more involved. We do knife and stick, groundwork and all sorts of skills that you never know when you might need to use.
“Generally we’re about organised violence, but done in a nice way.”
It means the club caters to all. Those wanting to compete, those wanting to improve their fitness, and those wanting to learn skills that could potentially help them outside of the gym, so why not give it a go.
