The Integrated Martial Art System  is a vehicle for the mastery of martial arts.

Whilst we teach the necessary fighting  techniques essential for self defence, we teach a set  of principles and concepts that are underpinned by an understanding of biomechanics and the nature of the human body. These are re-enforced by a series of specialised drills and exercises that link this theoretical knowledge with efficient, effective and economic body movement. This allows you to defend yourself almost instictively, free from the restriction of having to think about how to apply specific techniques under pressure.

Instead of concentrating on making you the best you can be within a specific martial art, we provide the means to equip yourself to be the best you can be in ANY martial art, inside IMAS or not.

We turn martial art into martial science.

People who say that martial arts do not need strength have been misled.  But it is not brute strength that is required, it is core strength.

Many martial arts preach that they do not require strength to master their system, and recommend against significant strength training in the gym.  

At IMAS we believe that strength is important, but not in the way promoted by most modern gyms in recent years. The training methods employed by most trainers employ muscle isolation and strengthening techniques using resistance machines.  

Whilst this focuses the efforts of an individual  onto a specific muscle or muscle group, it does not necessarily develop the other muscles required for a particular 'whole body movement'.  The result is that an imbalance between muscles can develop, leading to injury and decreased martial performance.

The joints and muscles of the body combine into holistic movements to perform a repeatable set of patterns.

By applying the science of biomechanics to the principles of the martial arts, we have created a curriculum that trains the body as a whole.  This understanding of how we move not only allows us to analyse and refine how we move, it also allows us to predict how our opponents will move under specific fighting conditions, thus further increasing the effectiveness of the IMAS system.

We do not, however, expect all our students to become musclebound fighting machines.  While some of our members choose to adopt an extreme strength regime, the focus of IMAS training is not to build outsize muscles, but to develop all of the muscles necessary for controlled, explosive movement as a whole.