Aberdeen University All-Round Fighting Club

Aberdeen University All-Round Fighting Club (AUARFC) is a martial arts club with a difference. Our principle is: if it works in the real life, then it’s good. That’s why we don’t discriminate: striking, grappling, wrestling – we’ve got it all. More importantly though, we’ve got the people with the skills to teach it;

Piotr Widz - B.A. Ed.): Sensei - Wrestling Instructor. A freestyle wrestling gu

ru, who has placed 1st place in the Polish National Wrestling Team Championship 3 times! Hanshi Marc Howes – Head coach: Grades: 8th dan Kyokushin Budokai, 4th dan Ashihara karate, 3rd dan Tsuyoi Ryu karate and 1st dan Wado Ryu karate
Over forty years’ experience in teaching martial arts. Forty years. Hanshi taught his first batch of students when the Cold War was still on! Now name a martial art. Any martial art. Now, the likelihood that Hanshi has trained it is high. If not, he’s probably fought against people who have. And trust us, in the ring, experience matters a lot. Hanshi’s a direct pupil of Kaicho Jon Bluming, a legend of combat sports. Kaicho is all about budo. The English translation of ‘buda’ is honour, integrity and balls. Hanshi does things the same way. He’ll train you hard, he’ll train you well and he’ll also make sure you don’t turn into an arrogant numbskull along the way. He has fought in Knockdown Karate and represented his country fighting all over the world, including Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Spain and Greece. Hanshi has won two AKA British titles and also won his category in Scotland's first independent Knockdown Championships. In 1992 Hanshi completed his 40 man full-contact fights and then a year later in 1993 completed his 50 man fights, one of the few to do 90 fights in two years! He has also n behalf of Aberdeen University, he won all his fights and brought home the only Judo gold medal for the University. Hanshi also founded Team Jigoku, one of the first MMA teams in Scotland. And we, his students, are passionate about keeping the ball rolling. We started SMMART – the Scottish Mixed Martial Arts Rookie Tournament. It’s a bi-annual competition we host for entry-level fighters, which promotes safety, sportsmanship and friendship. It gives fighters a taste of fighting like they do in television, whilst keeping them safe and sound. Last year it was one of the largest MMA tournaments in Scotland, with forty- one fighters across four different weights. But guess what? In order to keep winning cups and medals we need fresh blood each and every year. And if you have read this article to this point, chances are it’s you. We’re a club suitable for all, whether you want to compete, learn self-defence or train for fun and fitness. If any of this sounds like your cup of tea, feel welcome to join us. You will not be disappointed.

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Regardless of what you want - be it stand-up, grappling or wrestling - we've got it covered. We are the first university-affiliated club in Scotland to train Mixed Martial Arts and we're damn good at it. Our head coach - Shihan Marc Howes - has got over 30 years of coaching experience under his belt (or four belts - if we're talking black belts) and his ambition is to make this one of the best martial art sport clubs in the UK. The new academic year is going to be quite exciting. The organizational framework is already there and so is the gear. There's quite a few big tournaments coming up. All we need is fighters. And this means that, if you think that you've got enough guts to train with us, all we need is YOU. No Olympic-level fitness or expensive equipment required. Come over and give it a go. First two training sessions are free. We challenge you to test your limits, in the fastest growing sport in the world. Hit hard, roll strong.