If you’re a child of the eighties, you will probably remember the classic cult hit Karate Kid. It’s alright, you can admit to pretending you were a professional black belt at the tender age of 10; we won’t tell a soul. There’s something about it that has never ceased to be cool. Bruce Lee is probably responsible for starting off the trend, even with his hilariously odd noises. Now we have Michelle Yeoh, Jet Li, Angela Mao, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Cynthia Rothrock to look up to and aspire to be just like.

Martial arts have a long and detailed history and though it might surprise some of you, it isn’t just an art form from Japan and China. You might be thinking of karate kicks and ninjas, but martial arts refers to many very, very different forms of artistic, calculated aggression. Myriad Asian cultures (though it’s definitely not exclusive to Asia) have their own representation. Even America has some U.S.A exclusive art forms.

So, when you’ve decided exactly what style you want to learn, you should probably get yourself the right kind of equipment, as well as some instructional books and DVDs to make sure you don’t do anything to injure yourself.