History

London Bulls Kickboxing was first established in 1995 by 4th dan black belt Dave Gentry.

Dave has trained under PKA American Kickboxing for the last 10 years and is currently the joint regional instructor in the London area under this organisation and is working within their syllabus.

He has been a major part of building up the PKA in the London area and has also been seen in combat magazine, on TV's fat nation teaching kickboxing, he has modelled kickboxing techniques in The Kickboxing Handbook by John Ritschel and is currently writing a monthly article called ask the expert in Fighters magazine.

Kickboxings true roots date back to Asia around 2,000 years ago, but modern competitive kickboxing actually started in August 1974 in Los Angeles, America by karate experts who arranged competitions that allowed full-contact kicks and punches that had been banned in Karate. The first championships were held on matted areas and attracted enormous worldwide media attention, and some of the champions crowned at this event are now martial arts legends; amongst them Joe Lewis, Jeff Smith and Bill Superfoot Wallace. Latter stars being such as Don The Dragon Wilson and Benny The Jet Urquidez. These events became regular events and thus the PKA (Professional Karate Organization) was formed, and from fights on matted areas became fights in the ring. The first competition in Europe was in England within months of the American event, and was promoted by Mike Haig principal of the PKA in Great Britain. This event was a milestone for kickboxing, because it was the first time a roped boxing ring and boxing gloves were used.

These days because of health and safety concerns full padded equipment such as gloves, shin-guards, groin-guards, protective boots, mouth-guards and head-guards are used. Safety rules have been introduced into the sport over many years that have led to various forms of competitive kickboxing being practiced, such as light continuous and full contact fighting. They differ in the techniques used and with the amount of physical contact that is allowed between competitors.Martial arts were originally created in order to preserve life through self- defence. In today's world people attend classes from many different backgrounds of life, each with their own individual reason for wanting to participate in this great sport. Some to learn how to defend themselves, some to improve fitness, some to gain confidence, some to enjoy the competitive aspect whilst many attend just to have fun.