Out of the garage and school hall: boxing and martial arts school have a new joint home

Two stalwarts of the local combat sports scene have partnered to launch a new combined training facility in Orange. 

Earlier this month, Littlefield’s Boxing and long-running local Tae Kwon Do school, Advanced World Martial Arts, opened the doors of their new joint training facility in the former F45 gym at 66 Peisley Street.

Advanced World Martial Arts was founded in Orange in the early 90s but until now has never really had a place to call its own, said head instructor Lee Bargwanna.

“We've been sort of passed around between every school hall… at some point, someone will say, ‘Get out. We want to use it for another thing.’ And we'd have to find a new place,” Lee said.

“So it feels great! It changes everything. Having a dedicated place to be able to do everything gives a good feel to the students, and as an instructor, I've got so many assets and resources to work with and not feel like we're interloping on someone else's space.”

It was Lee, who approached Jack Littlefield with the idea of finding a location together. “Jack's always been running out of the garage and we thought, well, we’ve both got a decent student base. We've both got quite a lot of knowledge. Do you want to have a go and make it work?” Lee said.

Jack Littlefield had already been working with Lee’s students, helping with punching technique. Lee said that sharing of knowledge is sure to be beneficial for all their students.

“Tae Kwon Do is predominantly known for kicking and boxing has always had superior punching, so it’s been like, let's combine the boxing style punching with the Taekwondo kicking, make them work together,” he said.

For Littlefield’s Boxing, partnering with Advanced World Martial Arts and taking their training out of the home garage has been a great move, Jack Littlefield said.

“Gary Bargwanna, Lee’s dad, was actually my first sponsor when I was an amateur boxer,” Jack said.

“Very early on, he started sponsoring and helping me… he does Tae Kwon Do but is into boxing as well. Then Lee said he needed a shed and do you want to go in, rent a shed and start doing the boxing with me. I said, well actually it's a really good time to do that — and it's going awesome!”

It was 15 years ago that Jack Littlefield began training seriously under the instruction of his father, Dave Littlefield. From their backyard gym, Jack went on to win an Australian amateur title and six professional fights. But with health issues keeping him out of the ring for the time being, Jack has taken on the mantle of trainer, now cornering his father, brothers and other teammates when they step into the ring.

“I've got the experience of 60 fights and I want to share that knowledge because without Dad, I wouldn't have got the amateur titles and all the pro wins that I've got. So, especially while I'm not fighting yet, I'm going to try and do that for other people,” Jack said.
As well as training, Jack has been promoting local fight cards with two productions coming up this year: Battle in the Bush 10 in Cowra on November 9; and Battle in the Bush 11 in Orange on December 21.

“They’ve been going well, people have been really keen to get involved in it and as long as the town keeps supporting it, we'll keep doing it.”