The school was originally founded by Sijo Ross Whitby with a group of friends in 1990. The group all trained in different disciplines including Kung Fu, Kick Boxing, Judo, Taekwondo, Aikido, Karate & Jiu Jitsu and without even realising it, they were doing MMA, 3 years before the entrance of UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championships)
In 1990 the classes were on Tuesdays for 2 hours but by the time Sijo Ross went travelling in 1997 they ran from 17:30 – 23:30 and involved body conditioning, gymnastics, trips & throws, ground work, pad work and sparring.
In 1999 classes started at St Crispin's in Wokingham and Loddon Valley in Lower Earley, teaching Kung Fu, Kick Boxing and MMA. Each year more classes were added to the timetable and in 2005 Coma Gym at Reading Rugby Club was opened. This venue now boasts a 16ft MMA cage.
The TMAS philosophy is training SPORT martial arts to help with the street situations. Being used to weekly stepping into the cage to box, kick box and grapple means being one step closer to being more capable in dealing with a street attack. Traditional martial arts were designed for street attacks and are pressure tested in the cage. TMAS covers Western, Chinese and Japanese Martial Arts with the ability to fight standing and from the floor back to standing against 1-on-1 and multiple attackers, unarmed and armed.
The other side of our training is building confidence, through peer to peer learning in class and helping lead warm ups and cool downs.
A confident (not cocky!) person is less of an easy target.
Feedback from our kids classes tell us that our students perform better in school as their ability to pay attention increases and their confidence grows. Our kids are first to put their hands up and join in with opportunities given to them.
Martial Arts submission technique - Arm Bar from Guard Henka
