Leeds Shaolin

Leeds Private School of Shaolin-Tsu Kempo traces its roots in Leeds back to 1936, making it one of the region's longest established martial arts clubs. Our focus is on self-defence not combat sport. We train a variety of movements (including strikes, throws, locks and chokes) mostly as a response to sudden attack in a self-defence situation, including against weapons.

Shaolin-Tsu Kempo is a self-defence martial art descended from Chinese forms of fighting. Kempo roughly translates as boxing, while the prefix Shaolin Tsu (Shaolin Temple) indicates that the martial art has Chinese roots. The techniques in our traditional training incorporate the so-called "hard" and "soft" disciplines and include not only strikes but a variety of effective takedowns and joint breaking techniques applied in self-defence.

To our knowledge our Leeds-based martial arts club does not have any direct links to other schools of kempo (or kenpo) and the precise history of our martial art, and the influences on it, remain quite uncertain. We can trace our history in Leeds as far back as 1936, to merchant navy seamen who had travelled throughout the Far East. The Club has existed in its present form, teaching martial arts for self defence in Leeds, for at least 60 years. Follow this link for our current location.

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