Run by Craig Gibbons who holds a Black Belt rank under Master Colin Van Essen, classes have gone from a handful of students in the past couple of years to almost 30 regularly training at the dojo in the fitness, karate, ladies kickboxing and other classes on offer.

On November 28, nine students attended a grading held at the dojo and all performed well enough to be graded to their next respective ranks with Jarrad, Jackson and Shane to yellow belt, Niamh, Jake and Ebony to orange, Adrian and Oot to Green and Ben to green/black. Congratulations to those students.

Sensei Craig is planning a return to competition for the school next year after a long absence from the tournament scene, with many students keen on the idea of testing their skills against other martial artists from other schools.

Sensei Craig has taken a new direction with his Martial Arts journey this year and travels down to Penrith every week with Oot to train in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, which is becoming a very popular art with the increasing popularity of MMA (mixed martial arts) fighting. Craig also attended a seminar recently in Sydney held by Marcos “Conan” Silviera, eighth Dan Black Belt in BJJ and head coach of American Top Team in MMA. Craig who still teaches the Van Essen style as taught to him by Master Colin Van Essen, plans on also introducing the BJJ to his syllabus.

There are currently four classes available at the dojo with plans to increase that in 2010 including personal training.

All Classes will finish on Tuesday, December 22 and will return on Monday January 18 2010. For any information contact Craig on 0419 445 228 or Tracey for personal training on 0449 195 348.