Your first visit to the dojo....

One of the biggest steps in martial arts or any activity is the very scary first visit. What do you wear? What will I have to do? Will it be difficult? Do I need skills or abilities already? Will help be on hand? Will everyone be nice to me? What if I make a mistake? But I won’t know anyone and I’m not great with new people. Will I get injured, hit, thrown?

At the Stoke on Trent dojo we offer a meet and greet at the door on your fist lesson if you think it would help. We can show you around, pair you up with a partner and ensure you know where to be and what to do from the very start.

We hire a really nice Dojo for the class which has bathrooms, mats, pads, punchbags, training equipment, a kamidana / kamiza and a great atmosphere. We have a short chat and payment is taken for the class at the start. If people need to change into other clothing for the class, this is done at the start. For a first class then sports style clothing works best, t shirt, tracksuit bottoms, socks, (no trainers or shoes, just leave them at the side with your keys, phone and belongings).

For the first half an hour an optional class which we call “Pad and bag” (6:30pm til 7) where you can practice strikes against pads and focus mitts, this class also involves exercise for people who are looking for fitness training. Then we do an hour or so of traditional jujutsu (7pm til 8pm), so learning about wrist lock for example – or working on one of the kata (groups of techniques). Finally for the very keen once the class had ended and the dojo lights switched off some like to go for a short run to complete their training.

We expect nothing with regards to skill or ability on day one, we just need you to be safe and keep everyone safe.

We offer full tuition and please ask if you need more explanation, or something needs repeating – that’s what we do – we help you learn.

Everyone will be nice and respectful to you – we expect the same in return

Mistakes are a part of learning, if you aren’t making mistakes you aren’t learning – no one will shout at you.

You can only be a beginner for one night, once we meet you, you are a student and a part of what we do, you will be one of the team and our newer members are very important to us.

We will keep you very busy so not knowing anyone isn’t a problem, although we are all very social, your first class is about learning, so no time to worry about being new and not knowing everyone.

You should never be intentionally injured during training. In 30 years, I might have picked up the odd bruise, knock and twist but it’s a martial art and all in all that’s not a bad record. Its safer than most contact sports, in fact my only recollection of a sports injury was badminton not jujutsu, but that’s another story…ask me when you are in the dojo.