Leadership Martial Arts - Melksham

Finishing the school year visits with Forest and Sandridge School Melksham today! ☀️

Teaching the children in years 4 & 5 here about what we do in class and going over some of the basics! 👊

You were fantastic and good to see so many familiar faces in the school too, don’t worry we’ll be back in the new school year to meet everyone! 😁

Thanks to Mrs Coxhead for assisting today as a proud parent and student of ours! 🥋👏

Well done to Miss Bush for placing 3rd in her board breaking heat!

And to Melody for competing and representing Melksham!

Sadly the timing was the same as the carnival this year.. but bring on interschool in October!!! 🙌

🏆 Julys Indomitable Spirit Award Winners! 🏆

Archie in our beginners class has been continuously putting in his best efforts since joining only this phase. He’s always focussed and determined in class and does his best to say all the words of the techniques too! He’s always happy and smiling too which we love to see! 🎉

Adélie has been working tirelessly hard to get her patterns and sajos to where they need to be in class, she’s been with us since the young age of FOUR and has always been full of energy and confidence, as she grows older this hasn’t changed but we can see that focus refine and effort towards the technical side of martial art grow! We look forward to you continuing your journey and working forwards to your black belt! 🙌

Congratulations to you both! 👏

A BIG shout out also to Caitlin and Bobby who got their first ever belt in last nights class, a terrific effort by you both in your first ever grading, congratulations! 🥳 🥋

🏆 BEST OF THE BEST COMPETITION 🏆

Well done to EVERYONE who entered our High Kick & Breaking competition today! 💪

It was one of our busiest EVER! It was great to see so many competing for the first time and experiencing the fun and pride of representing us, you all did fantastic! 😁

Full results coming soon but well done to all those who came along from Melksham and represented us! 🙌

A big well done to Jack from our sister school (Leadership Martial Arts - Calne) for being the Best of the Best winner for High Kick! 🏆

Some amazing results today, congratulations to everyone who entered! 👏

🎉 🥋 NEW BELTS POST 🥋🎉

Congratulations to all of our students who passed their latest Colour Belt Grading last night! 👏

It was a tough physical testing with lots of hard work and sweat, the best sessions to have especially before having to show your technical ability too! 😥

As always not everyone passes, and to those who didn’t we know you’ll come back stronger next time! Always remember your perseverance and indomitable spirit to never give up! 👊

We still have some belts to give out next week and our two indomitable spirit awards as sadly both were not up to collect them. 🥋

Onto our next grading and new phase starting Monday! 💥

Tina has only trained a couple of weeks and had some of the best turning kicks we’ve seen in class!

Great balance! 👌
Great power! 💥
Great speed! 💨
Great foot shape! 🦶

Well done Tina! 👏

Some fantastic board breaking and high kick practise in Mondays class, some real medal winning performances… 👊

Remember to save the date to compete though to show off your skills! 🗓️

Best of the Best Board Breaking & High Kick is on Saturday 13th July. Can pre register in class using the paper forms on come along on the day too! 1pm at Espirit Centre, Headlands Grove, Swindon. 🥋

Don’t miss out! 👀

Last night we tested the advanced class to reach new heights and practise their flying side kicks!

There was some amazing kicks, dives and other strikes by everyone!

Some videos to follow…

News just in… 🗞️

Our new table cloth has arrived ready for events this summer! ☀️

We can’t wait to be part of so many fetes and events this summer, including the mighty Melksham Carnival! 🎉

Congratulations and well done to everyone at the competition today! 👊👏🥋

Some snapshots from Mondays sessions!

Evie performing a beautiful turning kick, Mr H taking the warm up for the adults and the adults being beasted as normal on a Monday!

Well done folks! 😎

We got ourselves out of our comfort zone on Monday with some grappling, for some it can be scary at first, just like your first ever class (which for some it was!). 🙌

However once we got into the flow, got shown some techniques and Mr Butler went in the ring and got beat, the class was full of laughter and smiles! 😆

Well done to everyone who tried something different on Monday and overcame the fear as sometimes that’s all that stands in your way to be your best self! 🥋

See you next week 👋

In class we think it’s so incredibly important to explain and show our students what the techniques they learn are for and what they can do when used correctly! 👊

Alfie ‘willingly’ offered himself to be the pad after showing the students on Mr Butler what an inward knife hand strike was! 🙌

Well done Alfie and great to see so many focused little faces too! 👀

Positive mental health allows all of us to work to our full potential, cope with the everyday stresses of life and make positive contributions in and outside of the classroom.

We're committed to our students mental health and to support whenever and wherever we can!

Moving our bodies is so important for our mental health - Yet research by shows that more than a third of UK adults find it challenging to find the time for movement.

Find out what's stopping us from moving more 👇

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/public-engagement/mental-health-awareness-week/movement-research

Mental Health Awareness Week Day 3!

The chosen theme this year is moving more for mental health!

Why movement?

One of the most important things we can do to help protect our mental health is regular movement.

Our bodies and our minds are connected, so looking after ourselves physically also helps us prevent problems with our mental health. Exercise releases “feel good” hormones, that reduce feelings of stress and anger. It also helps us feel better about our bodies. It can improve our sleep too. If it involves other people, like being part of a team, a class or group we see regularly, that can also boost our mental health.

Come along to a session together for FREE and get moving!

Anxiety in the UK

Many people across the UK told that they feel anxious some or all of the time.

We’re proud to support to help raise awareness of anxiety and share ways we can all help manage feelings of anxiety.

Everyone is welcome at our classes and whether you want to come talk, watch or give it a go then you’re always welcome to pop in or contact us, we will always do our best to support and encourage everyone!

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/mhaw

❤️ Martial Arts & Mental Health 🖤

🫁🫀 Fitness & exercise – our brain produces serotonin promoting the feeling of happiness and stabilizing our mood, during exercise your focussed on the task at hand and not on any troubles you’re having. You get fitter and healthier, having fewer health concerns, less prone to illness and feeling happier and less insecure in the way you look. (however, don’t forget you’re perfect as you are!).

🫂 Friendship & community – joining a club is like joining a new family, they want you to do well in and out of martial arts. You’re all on different paths but all looking to improve yourself or achieve a goal and the martial art community means you’re surrounded by those who want to help you grow, and grow themselves, likely having similar goals to yourself. It is full of new faces from different ages, areas and cultures brought together by the joy of punching and kicking a set of pads, friendships that are made to last from achieving and grading together. These friendships can become your closest friends and the ones who stand by and support you in the hard times, as well as being part of a community that gives you that sense of belonging and reminder that you are loved, cared for, that pain is temporary and things will get better.

👀 Focus & goals – that good feeling of completing a task or getting a reward at the end of a challenge. Having goals in life or in martial arts then this gives you focus and the ability to achieve your goals by knowing how to get from point to point. Celebrating the small successes and achieving the little goals then it can help focus on the bigger goals and the ability to push through them. Things can still can go wrong, you may fail a grading but with the support from the above support, you can learn what is needed to make it right and improve. Having the humility to know that you aren’t perfect and mistakes happen is perfectly normal and okay, you’re human after all! Step back, get support if you need it, work out what to do next and smash it next time.

✅ Routine – routine is key for your mental health, classes being on set days and times, with the same team of instructors and structure can help many remain grounded and focussed. Change for some can be scary due to the unknown, but luckily when there is change you’ll find the community in martial arts will do its best to ease it.

🙌 Confidence – it builds confidence allowing you to get out of your own head and believe in yourself, this confidence might take many forms. This may include that you look better, are physically fitter, that you can defence yourself, you’re able to talk to new people (in or outside of class), you can try something different and that you can achieve goals because you believe in yourself to do so.

Mental health is extremely complex, it’s not easy with every person being affected in a different way.

You can always come give martial arts a try for free and see how you find it.

Extra support and information can be found –

🥋 If you want to read more on mental health, check Mind out. https://www.mind.org.uk/

🥋 If you are based in the UK and want to see what the NHS can do, check it out. Mental health support for children and young people - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

🥋 Lastly, if you’re ever in the lowest of places and you need someone to talk to, Samaritans is free and anonymous. Reach out, please. https://www.samaritans.org/

Siblings will always support and drag you to achieve in class, sometimes it can be very literal!

“I have the high ground”

Don’t underestimate Bella’s power!

To all STAR WARS fans…

May the Fourth be with you!

We don’t normally train on Wednesdays so we decided to try some creative ideas in the junior classes inbetween learning some new techniques in our new phase! 🙌

Incredible amount of laughter and the parents will likely never come back if they are going to be blindfolded and directed by their kids again! 💫

👏🙌🥋🥳 GRADING NIGHT! 🥳🥋🙌👏

What a fantastic grading, a tough grading of physical activity but Amazing effort throughout by everyone especially our newest students, you all smashed it out the park as always! 👏

Our Indomitable Spirit award winners this phase are …
Alfie in the beginners and Phenix in the advanced class! Both have worked incredibly hard this phase! 🏆

Was great seeing so many students pushing through testing and supporting each other, the sense of community is always present in class as well as showing how each have grown in their own abilities and confidence, it still blows us away! 🙌

For all those who were not quite ready to grade this time, don’t worry, come back next time and work hard with that dedication shown last night and you’ll smash the next one! You all have limitless potential to excel, we see it in each and every one of our students! 🚀

Again - Congratulations all who graded or endured testing last night, well done and keep going! 👊

We are immensely proud of all our students for successfully completing the final part of black belt testing with todays physical testing! 💪

One of the best and most inspiring gradings in recent years, leading the pad sections and seeing ALL students of LMA working so incredibly hard was fantastic. The effort throughout was spine chilling with so much noise, effort and enthusiasm. My congrats to you all especially for those that endured the torture (& my singing of ‘on your toes’ 🎵)

Each belt and journey is yours and you each have been smashing it and topped it with today’s grading!

Congratulations to Oliver, Evie, Dylan and Miss Bush for all getting their next requals at their retrospective grades! And a special shout out to Oliver for getting a special mention for the Indomitable spirit belt again! (Good luck with football this afternoon after that!) 👏

A special thanks for being nominated myself for the indomitable spirit belt for adults, very humbling but couldn’t agree more on who won it! Congrats to Alexis from all of us! ♥️🖤

I cannot wait to present another new black belt and grades retrospectively. 🥋

Well done all and enjoy what I’ve hoped is a long shower and relaxing evening, you all deserve it, next week we get back to it, ready for November! 👊

(A very proud!) Mr Butler & Team!

To 6 years ago when Mr Henderson & Miss Bush had passed their technical testings for 2nd Degree Black Belt! 🥋

As we know, since then Miss Bush has gotten her 3rd Degree Black Belt and become a full instructor at LMA 👊

And Mr Henderson has made a triumphant return this year to the mats and looking to catch up to get his own 3rd Degree in the ‘near’ future! 🔮

An amazing combined service between the pair of them - congratulations! 🥳