Peterborough martial arts centre offers specialist self-defence courses for women and children

On December 3, Immortal 365 Family Martial Arts Centre in Woodston will offer specially designed self-defence seminars to help women and children deal with unpleasant or threatening situations.

Immortal 365’s co-founder Peter Homes was keen to tell the Peterborough Telegraph that the training he and his fellow instructors are offering is not martial arts - it is practical self-defence with immediate real world benefits.

“What we’re trying to do is bring in a real self-defence course,” he said. “Martial arts is okay as a discipline and can help. But, as a self-defence, it’s not a lot of good as it takes years and years to learn, and years and years to perfect.”

Peter believes that many self defence courses are too “linear”- “they’re trying to teach techniques rather than teach skill.”

“Self defence is self-preservation,” he explained: “it’s about being safe, and 99% of being safe is being aware of what’s going on.”

While the two-hour long course gives hands-on advice about how to physically counter an assailant, the seminar also emphasises the value of using a proactive outlook to stop potentially unpleasant situations from arising.

He used the example of getting into a taxi to illustrate his point. “Take a quick photo of the taxi,” he advised: “if the driver’s okay then he’s not going to mind - then that’s got his number in it, his face, the registration, and then send it to one of your friends or family.”

So why is this course being offered now?

“There’s [been] a lot of things in the press recently about ladies’ safety,” Peter said. “This is the time - we’ve got to do it.”

The 53-year-old – who also works as a bodyguard – said he was keen to offer the course before the city was engulfed by Christmas parties, adding: ”we’ll push for it before the party season really kicks in.”

Immortal 365’s real world approach is also at the forefront of the hour-long self-defence training course being offered to children. “We’ve got a few techniques which we show them, self-defence wise, that actually do work for children,” Peter said.

He explained how important it is to ensure children, like adults, are taught to be aware and proactive, actively encouraging them to consider “what is wrong before it happens.”

“If they [a stranger] come and ask the time,” Peter says, then a child should ideally be thinking “why would an adult come ask the time from a child?”

First established in 2013, Immortal 365 now has 230 members learning multi-discipline martial arts. Peter and co-founder Steve Lloyd have trained private military groups, British Transport Police, and even ex-special forces personnel. In addition, they have also run similar courses to support organisations like Refuge and Rape Crisis.

Peter noted that all funds raised from this course will be donated to a former Immortal 365 student who has suffered a significant spinal injury while playing rugby. He is currently in critical care in Addenbrookes Hospital, where he has been for the past seven weeks. Peter believes his former student has “over a year of heavy rehabilitation” in front of him, so he and his fellow instructors are keen to “raise some money for Christmas for him and his kids.”