{"id":367489,"date":"2025-12-25T06:09:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T06:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/367489\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T06:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T06:09:10","slug":"belfast-mma-gym-bringing-children-together-from-across-the-divide-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/367489\/","title":{"rendered":"Belfast MMA gym bringing children together from across the divide \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Belfast<\/a> man who delivers a mixed martial arts<\/a> (MMA) programme to more than 400 children across the city has described how the contact sport is instilling respect and bringing communities together.<\/p>\n

Jordan Smith, from Savage Martial Arts in north Belfast<\/a>, was recently awarded a global recognition prize for his work in community development.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old delivers a \u2018Life Skills Programme\u2019 through primary schools across the city \u2013 including in interface areas. <\/p>\n

Read more: Cross-community sports camp celebrates legacy of Co Tyrone boys after their untimely deaths<\/a><\/p>\n

\"‘At<\/a>\"Emma<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking to The Irish News, Mr Smith said that the classes were helping to overcome divisions within communities. <\/p>\n

\"JordanJordan Smith of Savage Martial Arts PICTURE: BRIAN LINCOLN <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of cross-community factors as we work mainly in east Belfast, south Belfast and the Short Strand as well,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is actually interlocking all the communities together. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some of the Indian communities, we have also Catholic and Protestant and they\u2019re all coming to train in our gym, where there is no religion.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all a team and we\u2019re all family \u2013 which is absolutely amazing and that\u2019s breaking down barriers within the communities as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the focus was on the children being taught values of respect, discipline and confidence.<\/p>\n

\"JordanJordan with his Global Recognition Award PICTURE: BRIAN LINCOLN <\/p>\n

\u201cWe teach life skills,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cA main teaching point in our classes is self-discipline; that whenever you\u2019re acting out in anger, that\u2019s not the right way to do it and there\u2019s better ways to deal with it. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe really find that brings the best out in the children at home, school and all aspects of their life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Smith said there is a noticeable difference in the confidence the children have within a matter of months. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had parents cry to me,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some kids who come in who are just so underconfident but then within the space of two, three months with our classes, they\u2019re up leading classes,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The former boxer said he hoped to replicate the sense of community that he felt at boxing clubs growing up and that the children will carry those values with them into adult life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been boxing for a long time, since the age of seven,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really was one of the best things that I ever done; it kind of broke me away from running about the streets with a bad crowd. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to replicate with the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that parents ask him \u201con a weekly basis\u201d if MMA is dangerous. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverything can be dangerous, but all our classes are controlled, safe environments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about building them up not knocking them down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Belfast man who delivers a mixed martial arts (MMA) programme to more than 400 children across the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[29427,49,48,1050,641,638,139996,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-367489","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-community","12":"tag-fighting","13":"tag-mma","14":"tag-north-belfast","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}