Mania sportfighting techniques were developed by trainer John Brotchie, and are a combination of Judo, Jujitsu, Akido and Wrestling. All of which he holds high merit in.

John developed this form of fighting because he wanted a style of self defense to teach his wife and other women. He felt most existing forms were not practical and were based too much on philosophy.

Mania’s techniques includes armbars, choke holds pressure points, take downs and one hundred and fifty other extra moves that are not legal in orthodox wrestling. Although the gym has a history of teaching WWF style wrestling and weapons fighting, none of these were ever as popular as reality fighting is now proving to be.

The club is situated on the corner of Sandringham and St Lukes Road, has approximately 180 members, 90 of which fight 3 times a week. The gym takes new members all the time so if you are just starting (or taking a break) there is always someone to spar with. For those who are in the advanced teams, John has new moves and higher level of fitness for you to aspire to (advanced fighters have longer fighting bouts.)

When looking for competitors the main attributes the trainers look for are the desire for competing and a willingness to fight. Interviewing the fighters I heard over and over again about how being part of the team has improved the women’s confidence and self esteem. Another common quote is that the women are all good mates outside of the ring and not a bit aggressive in their every-day lives.

What makes the gym successful is that it creates a healthy supportive, unpretentious environment, where the fighters all help even those they compete against to improve. This is also why membership is so high, as a lot of fighting gyms lack the sense of camaraderie.
The club has a team night every Thursday. This is because the rest of the week the girls train any time between 3pm and 9pm, depending on their work schedules. These nights are a chance for the fighters to compete against each other, and come together as a group. The gym has a policy of no audience or media may attend but regularly arranges interviews and display bouts.

Recently Mania has been moving into the public arena, fighting at such events as “The Big Day Out” the audiences are giving the fighters some idea of exactly how exciting and encouraging the public can be. Since being profiled on channel three’s Sunday Night Sports News, and more recently fighting at “Fight for life”

Miada & Mania Sportfighting organised a series of “one-on-one” and “tag team” fights held on Saturday 14th August at the ASB Stadium, Kohimaramara, Auckland. The event was called “Miada Wrestle-Mania 2004” and was a high profile exhibition of Women’s Sportfighting – the first of it’s kind ever seen in New Zealand.

Belinda Dunne

Public Relations

0274-326 504 (Mobile)

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