About East West Martial Arts
East West Martial Arts have been teaching Karate in Northampton for over 30 years, and since 2004 has had its own fully equipped purpose built facility for martial arts training.
At East West Martial Arts, we blend the greatness of the ‘Eastern’ traditions of martial arts training with the latest, more upbeat and ‘Western’ teaching methods, for a fresh and inspiring approach to teaching martial arts, which can create positive change in peoples lives, especially children.
Our Karate System is based on the traditional Japanese Karate Style of Wado Ryu – “The Way of Peace and Harmony” which incorporates the very best from Karate, Kickboxing and Fitness training methods which are combined with our own realistic self defence system, so that students practice how to deal with the most likely acts of habitual violence and the types of attacks that they may face in the everyday life. Students are taught how to read and defuse a situation and how to react/respond accordingly if they are attacked, even if they’ve not experienced the exact same thing in training.
A Very Different Kind of Martial Arts School
We teach separate age-specific classes, and our children’s programmes are Fun, Exciting, Inspirational, Motivational and Educational, and are combined with our own powerful ‘Life Skills’ Programmes to help develop and build positive character traits in our junior students.
Our classes have been specially designed for the specific needs and attention spans of the different age groups that we teach, to ensure that our professional classes are always a great experience for our students, and taught in a format that both educates and entertains at the same time. This is what parents tell us they love about our classes.
- Karate Tots for Ages 3 to 4 years-old
- Little Dragons for Ages 4 to 7 years-old
- Karate Kidz for Ages 7 to 14 years-old
- Adult Karate-Self Defence for Ages 15 to 50+ years young
Parents can enjoy a free tea or coffee in our viewing area, whilst watching their children having great fun and learning.
About Sensei Nigel Davison (6th Dan Wado Ryu Karate)
I have been extremely fortunate to have been training in the martial arts for over 35 years and to have been taught by some of the finest English and Japanese karate instructors in the world. During this time, I have developed a love and passion for teaching students of all ages, and have come to realise that martial arts is my way of life, and I really enjoy what I choose to do for a living.
I believe that there is something special, almost magical about teaching the martial arts, especially to children, when you can influence and empower them to become more successful in all areas of their lives. They not only become a black belt in martial arts, but perhaps more importantly, they also become a black belt in life, which gives a great sense of self-fulfilment.
After training in the martial arts for over 35 years, I believe it would be correct to say that there are no ‘bad’ martial arts’, just ‘poor instructors’, as in reality all martial arts, when taught correctly are good, and whether you are ‘good’ or not is an individual matter.
Whatever style or system of martial arts someone practices, they are all the same to me, as they are just variations of something very similar. It is important to both understand and realise that there are only so many ways that you can be realistically attacked by someone, or that you can attack, or counter-attack someone: punches, kicks, strikes (knees, elbows, head-butts, etc), grabbing attacks, pushes and shoves, take down techniques (throws, foot/leg sweeps, etc) as well as attacks with weapons (knife, baseball bats, sticks, etc).
Just because they are conducted in different ways, it is ridiculous to say that one style of martial arts is better than another. Problems are often caused by bad instructors with a lack of experience, knowledge or understanding of other styles or systems, telling their students that their style or system is the best and everyone else’s is rubbish, which can lead to a lack of respect for other martial arts.
The most important thing is that whatever style of martial arts you train in (traditional karate, realistic self defence, sport karate, m.m.a, kickboxing, taekwondo, kung fu, judo, jiu jitsu, etc), you know exactly what you are getting and you enjoy yourself and train safely.
Over the years I have trained with many of the best instructors in different types of martial arts from the UK, Europe and USA on Courses, Seminars and Workshops, and without fail I have always found that if they are a good instructor, then the style or system that they teach is good.
I am not ashamed to admit that I have learned and adopted many of the best principles, strategies and techniques into my own training and teaching methods from these teachers.
All martial arts training should be enjoyed – not endured, if you want to become successful in the martial arts business.
Why NEST?
I have been with NEST since 2002 when I decided to make my Karate Club more professional and took the first and most important step in growing my school in size, which was the introduction of a monthly Direct Debit system of payment which was the key to growth.
When I first met Joy and Gerard we got on great from the start. I found them both really friendly and very easy to talk to. Gerard took the time to get to know my business and understand the challenges I faced with changing my hobby ‘Club’ of about 20 members at the time, into a professional ‘School’ with 280 members today.
Gerard was very helpful in arranging for me to visit other NEST schools in the UK, who were already achieving the results that I wanted for my own martial arts school. They all took the time to offer advice and shared great information from their own journeys. I visited Tom Beardsley’s Central Dojo in Hereford, Lee Matthews Black Belt Academy in Telford and Jon Jepson’s Black Belt Academy in Burton-on-Trent.
I have found NEST to provide great customer service. They are head and shoulders above the other billing companies out there. They really take the time to look after their customers and provide the personal touch which I really like, and they provide great business advice and systems, seminars and on-going support.
As a business owner, it is great to have a business mentor like Gerard to talk to and offer solutions when you have a challenge, or are thinking of trying something new in your business. In this industry, someone will have probably faced the same challenges that you will face, whether it is dealing with complaints, advice on marketing, how much to charge or how to get planning permission for a change of use on premises.
Nest also provide the key important statistics you need to know in this business on student numbers, retention and attrition rates, average student value and school growth rates.
Joy and Gerard are now more than just business associates, they are now good friends and I would not hesitate in recommending NEST to anyone who is serious about operating a more professional martial arts school.
(Interview from April 2013 )
