On 20th October 2010 Treviglas College hosted the first martial arts festival of its kind in the UK. Primary schools from across the Newquay area came to this innovative and original festival.

Sean Wells School sports coordinator for Treviglas Community College said ‘we are very lucky at Treviglas Community College to have 5 British champions in different martial arts. Students we are finding are moving away from traditional games and looking at individual sports for their leisure activities. At Treviglas we try and move with the times and, like our indoor rowing hub which has gone out into the community, we hope to develop martial arts in curriculum time in college and be the centre of a martial arts hub for schools in the area’

We are finding Martial arts have all the disciplines that students of all ages need. Whether they are using martial arts as their main sport, for fitness or for fun, it has so much to offer the student.

We hope to develop Teamwork, Balance, Co-ordination, Focus, Memory Skills, Discipline, Control, and Fitness which are a core of multi skills development of all sportspeople.

The festival was initially designed to have a team from each primary school but due to overwhelming popularity we have found schools entering 3 or four teams from years 3 -6. The festival was  based on individual bouts using a shields and soft touch baton so that no martial art is advantaged.

We have found in College that a novice, if possessing the right skills of speed and reaction, can outwit a martial artist with many years experience.

We have worked in partnership to develop martial arts in the College with Ed Byrne of the Byrne Black Belt Academy. He and his instructors helped us run the festival providing many of the judges for the bouts.

Our own Treviglas Elite martial arts sports leaders helped judge some bouts. The scorers and timekeepers on the day were our year 11 sports leaders who as part of the leadership course help with running and organising our primary festivals.

Eden Benney year 10 elite martial arts leader and European champion said:

‘I really enjoy working with the young teams we have run a festival like this in college on a smaller scale, but this was amazing, with all the different schools and children. I hope that these experiences will help me become a top instructor one day’

The festival was a team event with all the scores from the individual bouts being added up to find the winners of the two pools we could not belive how close it was with two teams on exactly the same points before count back.. The final between the top two teams were a mixed team of Summercourt and Mawgan in Pydar and the St Columb Major D team. It was a close fought final with the final points 21 to Mawgan in Pydar and Summercourt, 19 to St. Columb Major.

All the bouts were held in a fantastic positive spirit with good sportsmanship also the winner on the day.

The whole festival was a sight to see with over 800 bouts taking place over the two and a half hours. The opening ceremony was The College samba band, during the bouts we had our GCSE dance group perform with our Cheerleading squad performing before the final. The Treviglas Sports dome is an ideal venue for this with the space to have so many martial artists enjoying the festival and with supporters given excellent vantage points.

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