A Grimsby martial arts school is going from strength to strength, teaching ancient samurai traditions to new students aged just four.
“We teach a very ancient samurai martial art that is disappearing,” said Andy Abernethy, head instructor at Samurai Hearts Martial Arts Academy on Freeman Street. “By teaching kids, we're keeping this martial art alive, which is one of the main goals of Samurai Hearts.”
“We recently celebrated an important milestone in the history of our Academy. We were thrilled to award the Black Belt title to the first three students in our Black Belt Academy (BBA) program. This is especially special as two of these students have been with us since they were five years old and are now 13 and 14 years old.”
“In addition, we celebrated two of our adult students and instructors being promoted to Mokuroku, the prestigious level equivalent to third and fourth dan. Remarkably, one of these students is the only woman in the UK to have achieved this level.”
“My other son is also a keen student and is now 23. I have had the honour of teaching him since he was five years old. He also completed the same year and is the youngest student to complete that year in the UK.”
Andy founded Samurai Hearts in 2006 and after teaching at a primary school, the academy acquired its own premises on Freeman Street in 2012. The academy has just signed a further five-year lease there and Andy says the classes have been very popular.
“This is a really positive place,” he says. “We want to change people's lives.” Samurai Hearts caters to people “from age 4 to 104,” Andy says.
“We want everyone who comes to the academy to have a good experience, but of course that's not the case for everyone, so we're running two free trial sessions. We have a capacity of around 250 places and currently have just over 200 students.”
You can find Samurai Hearts on Instagram and Facebook and find more information on their website. Samurai Hearts
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