A lifelong Marlow resident is ‘excited’ to unveil one of the country’s biggest jiu-jitsu schools in the town, nearly three decades since launching his club.
Following a seven-figure investment, the Roger Gracie Academy is due to open next month in Globe Business Park, offering Brazilian jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, Muay Thai and mixed martial arts.
After running his club in school halls from 1996 and moving to its current industrial unit in 2011, founder Paul Busby decided to ‘take a massive risk and gamble and take it big time’.
The 46-year-old had been eyeing the new unit for nearly a decade, as it’s the ‘absolute perfect space’ for his 500-strong student cohort of four to 64-year-olds.
Aside from big corporations, he said no one had risked ‘this kind of money on sport anywhere around here for a very long time’.
“We used to teach for £2 cash just because we wanted to pay the hall rent, and we’ve never done this as a profit-making empire,” Paul told the Advertiser.
“We think martial arts deserves more than a squash court or more than a badminton court or more than a scout hut.”
Inspired by the martial arts films of Bruce Lee and Jean-Claude Van Damme, Paul began learning martial arts at the age of five and started competing internationally at 17.
“I was coming back to the UK – in a squash court trying to push the mats together – and it was frustrating me that martial arts didn’t have the facilities to train in that other sports do,” he said.
“That’s why I started the full-time academy. I’ve always thought martial arts deserved more and deserved the facilities that mainstream sports get.”
He said martial arts helps ‘a huge range of people from all walks of life and all ages’.
“I’ve got people who’ve been through all manner of stress in their lives that come and use this place like a church or as a safe space for mental health reasons,” he added.
“It’s one of the last feral things you can still do. You can turn up at lunchtime, chuck someone around, and go back to work again, which is just crazy, but it’s fun.
“The by-products are getting fit, learning self-defence, but you end up having real friendship groups and real links with people that last a lifetime.”
Paul said some types of martial arts have been ‘watered down over the years’, allowing people to reach a black belt in less than two years when it should take decades.
“It’s a long, hard slog, but through that, we get people that are resilient, mentally tough because they’ve been able to stick with something,” he said.
The school is linked to the Gracie family – famous for UFC and Brazilian jiu-jitsu – and Roger Gracie, described as ‘the Roger Federer or the Michael Jordan of the sport’, will present belts to students.
“This is his Academy – a team of guys that he trusts to teach,” said Paul.
“You’ve got a lineage to the family that created the art – people want to keep that connection.”
The £1million build began in January, and the site – deemed the largest combat sports centre in the South East – opens in a soft launch on August 10.
It will open seven days a week from 7am to 9pm on weekdays and 8am to 2pm on weekends.
“I’ve been in martial arts for 30 years, and I’ve been all around the world doing it.
“I’ve never seen an academy on that scale – the energy is unbelievable,” said Paul.
“It’s a big undertaking and therefore it’s a big risk because no one else has dared to do this before, so it’s a template that no one’s got.
“We’re bursting at the seams – we’ve also been in Marlow for nearly 30 years, so the kids that were four years old back in 1996 are parents that bring their kids here.
“We’ve been slow burning this for three decades, so if there was ever a time to risk building the biggest thing that’s ever been done, it’s now.”
Visit www.rgamarlow.com for more information.
