The reason I’m writing to you today is two fold. I wanted to let anyone considering taking up the martial arts and to attend your school, as I would highly recommend without hesitation. I also wanted to address you personally, for the impact you have had on my two boys in your BJJ Mini Monkeys program. I wanted to start by acknowledging your hard work and commitment to teaching martial arts, but going so much further by guiding, re enforcing, and being a true mentor in your classes. Each and every class you instilled confidence, structure, and diligently show through various ways in your class how to pass along to my young boys on how to be of strong moral character. This was evident in the personal example I wanted to share.
I wanted to make you aware of a situation that I came across just recently that was quite upsetting for both myself, my wife and impacted both of my two boys. Just the other day my oldest son got off his school bus and walked home as he does every school day afternoon. This day however was a little different, his head was lowered and he was walking very slowly. Once asked what happened, he teared up and stated he has been getting bullied on his school bus by a boy 4 years older than himself and it had been going on for a little while. This time today however was a little different. My boys outlined that when the bully approached not only my oldest but the younger one took it upon themselves to say “Stop that I don’t like that”, words they did not learn from me, words the learned from their professor in class. The boys had confidence to not only state this, they also now had the confidence to stand up for themselves and say something to my wife and I. The hurt, embarrassment, and fear the boys must have been going thru at the time would have been immense; as I remember being 6 years old myself on a bus and constantly bullied by a boy 5 years older than me. All that said, in speaking with my two little men, they mentioned you by name (“Professor Renshi”) lol, as you were a driving force for their actions, along with why the had the courage to report it to us. We as parents want to teach our children and believe we have done a great job in raising our two boys, but we cant thank you enough for paralleling our teachings in your own style and conveyance.
So to you, your school, and the entire Arashi Do family, I want to humbly thank you for being there for my boys in the background of their little minds during this event. Your teachings gave them the courage to not only act the way they did, but impacted how they dealt with the event after. We are very grateful that you are not only a highly trained and educated martial artist, you are also a wonderful teacher and person.