Your First Class at Samson: What to Expect

You'll find us at Centre Park House, Centre Park Road, Ballintemple, Cork City. It's worth messaging ahead through our enquiry form or on Instagram before your first visit, so a coach knows you're coming, can point you to the class that suits your level, and can answer anything you're unsure about before you set foot in the building.

Aim to arrive around 15 minutes early. That gives you time to meet your coach, get your bearings in the space, and settle in before the group warm-up starts, rather than walking in cold and trying to catch up mid-session.

Comfortable sportswear is all you need — something you can move freely in, that you don't mind sweating in. Bring a water bottle and a towel; sessions are active from the warm-up onward, and you'll want both close by.

Different disciplines use different kit further down the line, but none of that matters for a first session. Ask us what you'll need for your discipline when you book — for your first session, sportswear and water are enough, and there's nothing to buy in advance.

Every class opens with a group warm-up, the same one everyone does regardless of experience. From there, your coach breaks a technique down step by step — stance, footwork, a strike or a position — explaining the why as much as the how, before you drill it with a partner at a pace matched to where you're at.

Nobody is thrown into sparring or live rolling on day one. On the 6-Week Course, you start alongside other beginners, technique comes first, and anything more resistant is introduced gradually, only once the fundamentals are holding up under gentle pressure.

Everyone currently training here had a first class once, including the coaches. Turning up nervous is the norm, not the exception — and it's exactly why the 6-week beginner course exists, so newcomers train alongside other newcomers rather than being dropped into a group with years of experience already behind them.

Most people find the room friendlier than they expected. The focus in a beginner class is on learning, not being judged, and that holds true from your very first warm-up right through to the last drill of the session.

The 6-Week Course is the structured way in — a set path for complete beginners that takes you from zero without assuming any prior experience, in a group of people starting at the same point as you. Head to the Start Here page for the details, or message us through the enquiry form and we'll get you booked onto the next one.

It's normal to feel it in your muscles the next day, especially if training is new to you — that soreness fades fast, and most people find the second class easier than the first simply because the room and the routine are no longer unfamiliar.