Karl gets a kick out of students’ jiu-jitsu success in Oswestry

Franks is the founder of Oswestry Jiu-jitsu Academy where he rents a space inside Activ8 gym for his classes.

And after successful sessions in the gym, Franks has reaped the rewards seeing his coaching go to good use.

“Since setting up the academy I’ve put all of my focus into building up beginners from nothing to something, it’s really rewarding to see them competing after now knowing much about the sport to begin with.”

Starting in 2020 just before the pandemic, Franks explained how it all started.

He said: “I used to live in Cardiff and trained in the local area, moved to Liverpool where I helped coach a class then realised I could make a go of it myself and set this up in Oswestry.”

During the pandemic, the club managed to survive due to renting a space in Activ8 gym which they were able to temporarily stop paying for.

But thankfully, the club came back better than ever once lockdown was finally over.

Franks said: “A rush of people joined as many were keen to pick up a new sport after not doing much for months.”

The academy currently has 40 members who are all rapidly improving.

He explained: “I’ve taken them from total beginners to competitions, they’re all doing really well and travelling to competitions in places like Liverpool, Stoke and Manchester.”

In particular, star fighter Gavin Chapman had some recent success where he won double gold in a local competition called Roll Models while fellow fighter Josh Bates took silver.

More recently, the club went to an event in Liverpool where all fighters were able to get involved.

“We went to a recent competition which was a special submission event in Liverpool, any weight got to compete against each other, no real winners and losers, more for the experience of competing and honing skills.”

Originally a kickboxer, Franks used to compete at a high level himself before getting into jiu-jitsu.

He stated, “The kickboxing gym has an after class in jiu-jitsu so I got into that, really enjoyed it then became a black belt.”

And after having success with his men’s academy, the black belt has recently started a kids academy.

The members have the choice of paying a monthly fee to take part or they can pay per session they go to, more details can be found on their Instagram @oswjja.

The academy itself can be found at Mile Oak Industrial Estate, Oswestry, SY10 8GA.