Editorial feature Q&A with local martial arts self-defence coach Ronnie Brown:
Ronnie discussed how he first started teaching martial arts karate classes because it gave him the ability to continue doing what he loved and to even get paid for it. “I still had my job as an electrician but every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday I would teach these classes to young kids and teenagers and feel so fulfilled”.
The feeling of being part of a community is so important and that’s what teaching karate gave to Ronnie. He was able to feel like he was part of something and had a good support network of people around him doing the same thing. Ronnie agrees that “this campaign will allow teenagers to connect to other teenagers who they’ve never met before and could go on to potentially help change their lives, helping each-other through this and be part of community that they may not have ever felt part of before.”
Growing up in big cities we become exposed to dangerous people participating in dangerous things. “You can be walking down the street, minding your own business and someone could just want to come and mess with you, so wouldn’t you want to know how to defend yourself for the just in case something happens”. Representing how important this campaign is for the 13–19-year-olds as they will be going out on their own with their friends and they can be exposed to all sorts so knowing how to defend yourself is better for you to feel safer when being out as you know you can handle yourself. Helping you to also feel mentally safer as you can walk around knowing you can protect yourself giving yourself some mental peace.
Ronnie recounts a story of when he was younger that made him make his father take him to karate classes. “I remember hearing a story from one of my friends when I was around eleven and he tells me how he was just minding his business waiting for his dad to come out of the bathroom outside a train station and two older boys just come up to him and start pushing him around for no reason other than the fact that they knew they could push him around and they only ran away when his dad came out and that story worried me because at the time I was this small skinny kid and I lived in an area in London that wasn’t the nicest so I knew from then I wanted to learn how to defend myself”.
Ronnie really gravitated to the idea of having these classes outdoors. “Having this campaign in summer in the outdoors is brilliant as it helps you be able to calm yourself when you’re outside in a park among trees and grass it just has a calming energy and effect on you.” This is purposely why we’ve chosen to do this campaign in the summer so you can make the most of the outdoors with hopefully no bad weather.
A big part of this campaign centres around mental health as it’s getting teens outside doing something physical to hopefully improve their mental health. “Self-defence I believe helps you mentally especially karate as you learn to discipline yourself mentally and physically. Learning and practising self-defence is a different way to help yourself get your mind off what’s bothering you and potentially help you cope through it; it might not work for everyone and that’s understandable however I do believe it can really help you if you go into this experience and embrace it. I’ve been teaching karate self-defence for almost 15 years now and when I tell you the way you can see it shape people’s lives is wonderful if you truly embrace it.”
There are endless benefits to learning self-defence improving your physical health, your self-confidence and allowing you to learn valuable skills for life. “A campaign like this will be so beneficial and I believe successful, it’s allowing you to improve so many aspects of your life becoming mentally and physically stronger during the process.”