Craig Long established the Academy in March 2003. Craig was formerly a Senior Instructor and Manager of (the now closed) York Martial Arts College. The college was highly successful on the competition circuits and produced a number of champions and Great Britain team members. Craig is now a six times British Champion (Most recent WKA 2007) and represented Great Britain on a number of occasions. Craig decided to leave the college and pursue his own venture; teaching not only the art of kickboxing but also life skills to junior students.  

Paul Graham joined the Academy team in March 2004. For many years Paul has trained and competed alongside Craig. Both Paul and Craig share the same commitment to teach more than just fighting skills. For this reason the Academy’s syllabus has been designed to incorporate life skills such as First Aid, “Stranger Danger”, and the “Bully Buster” system. All junior programs contain educational values and classes are taught in a nurturing environment.  

The York Martial Arts Academy uses the term black belt excellence as a metaphor for personal excellence. We strongly encourage our students to strive for black belt excellence in all aspects of life. For the junior students we especially encourage black belt excellence in their academic studies. Our adult programs are designed to be high energy and accessible to anybody regardless of ability. There are countless benefits to Martial Arts training. The most obvious are: weight loss, muscle strength and toning, cardiovascular fitness, concentration skills, self-discipline, stress management, confidence, competition skills, plus much more.

We look forward to seeing you in class and helping you achieve your goals.

Thank you for choosing our academy.