Newton Abbot martial arts school is one of the oldest in Devon first started by the late great Master Johnny Black VIII Degree, when he introduced Taekwon-Do to Devon in 1976.

Newton Abbot has been lucky enough to have many great Instructors, and Mr Colman-Roberts feels truly honoured to be taking over this famous Martial Arts school, especially as one of the oldest members of the school. Newton Abbot Martial Arts has something for everyone (all abilities and ages), whether that be Taekwon-Do, Boxing, Kickboxing, NAMA Ninjas for the 4-7 year olds or NAMA Nippers for 2-3 year olds.

Martial arts has been proven to improve confidence, motor function as well as having an amazing effect on practitioners’ moral code and conduct.

All of these classes are Instructed by Mr Ed Colman-Roberts, IV Degree Black Belt in Taekwon-Do and 2nd Dan Black Belt in Kickboxing. Ed has been training since the age of four and has been a member of the ITF and Captain of the PUMA England team, so has experienced training at every level of participation/involvement. He is also a graduate of the University of Bath, where he studied sport and social science, and specialised in sport pedagogy (the study of learning and teaching within sport).

Some of Ed’s training highlights to include training Taekwon-Do in Seoul, S. Korea while he studied the Korean language and training with a pioneer of Kickboxing the Undefeated Middleweight World Champion Bill "Superfoot" Wallace.

Despite his age; he has a number of years in experience behind him, starting at the age of 4, before the incorporation of a junior syllabus into martial arts. Ed knows first-hand the importance of a highly adaptive and patient Instructor and the effect they can have on every martial artist journey.

Since gaining his first black belt at the age of 10 Ed has gone on to have great success and after gaining his second degree black belt in Taekwon-Do he was invited to become a member of the junior national demonstration team “The Flowering Youth” which is headed up by the chairman of PUMA, Master Raymond Gayle VIII Degree and also began to compete internationally as part of both the PUMA and ITF England team, where he won a great deal of titles as both and junior and an adult.

Ed is highly motivated to improve as an instructor and studied a 3 year BA Hons degree in sport and social sciences at the University of Bath, focusing in sport pedagogy (the study of teaching and learning in sport) to improve his teaching ability. as well as completing a Level 2 Fitness Instructor course, Level 3 Personal Trainer course, Level 3 Sports massage course and is fully DBS checked. Ed is also a qualified martial arts umpire, first aider and is child safeguarding qualified. He also holds valid insurance and attends regular refresh courses to improve his skills.

Ed has been lucky enough to have trained with and under some great martial artist both here and around the world and hopes to be able to pass on his experience and knowledge to the next generation of martial artists.