Although the Torenai Dojo was already an established organisation, it was October 1997 when the club officially took up residence at Kirkstall Brewery. Originally begun by a group of bar staff, after pestering one of the bar security to train them in some sort of defence technique the club has grown from being staff only to allow attendance by any Kirkstall Brewery residents. Membership fluctuated in the beginning and has eventually settled to an average of 10 per class.
Rob Cook, our instructor and experienced martial artist, guided the first of us skillfully to our first grading on 21st Feb 1998 where we all gained our White belt (9th kyu) and 3 or us gained our Yellow belt (8th Kyu). The first grading was a chance for Rob to show off his new club to his own instructors and boy did we make an impression. The examiners were apparently very impressed with our performance for both White and Yellow belt grading.
The club meets in the Muti Purpose hall within the Kirkstall Brewery site on a Sunday at 3:00PM. The class usually includes a 15 to 30 minute warm up and then the rest of the time is spent on various fighting techniques. The class generally is split into stagnant work such as punches, kicks and combinations and then partnered work such as defence, locks, throws, combinations and other one step fighting exercises.
For anyone interested in the club we can be contacted by the following methods: