In 1974, when I was 12, my parents took me to my first martial arts lesson. I had no idea at the time that it would end up shaping the entire rest of my life. I can't really remember that first lesson, but I'm pretty sure I was more than a little nervous , not really knowing what to expect.

What I found there changed me.

I trained for years before I got anywhere near a black belt.

There were gradings I wasn't ready for, techniques I couldn't quite get right, and plenty of moments where I doubted whether I'd get there at all. But I kept showing up. I kept practising. And slowly, without really noticing it happening, something in me was being built, not just physical skill, but belief in myself.

Seven years after that first lesson, aged nineteen, I passed my black belt. (Outside of becoming a father) it's the proudest day of my life.

Not because of the belt itself, but because of what it meant to me, what it proved to me: that if I worked hard, pushed through setbacks, and refused to give up, I could achieve things I once thought were out of reach.

That's not a small lesson to learn at nineteen. It's one I've carried with me every single day since.

Those foundations and that confidence didn't stay on the mat.

It walked out into the wide world with me and never left.

At the age of 25, I started and built a recruitment agency, from almost nothing (£60 a desk, a phone, and the yellow pages (ask your mum)) and grew it into a business turning over five million pounds (back when five million was a lot of money) a year.

I won't pretend that was easy. There were plenty of problems along the way, plenty of moments that tested me. But I already knew from the lessons I had learned in the dojo, that problems are things you overcome, not things that stop you.

Looking back, I can trace every bit of that success to the day I was twelve years old, standing nervously in a dojo for the first time. That's what strong foundations do, they hold everything else up, often for decades, long after you've forgotten they were ever laid.

It wasn't just confidence I gained, either. It was friendship. Some of the closest friendships of my life came from training alongside other kids my age and the mentors whom I looked up to so much, all working toward the same goals, all picking each other up when we fell short.

Just this morning, four of my black belts sent me a photo, all of whom started Team Black Belt before the age of 7, all on completely different paths, two at university one on a scholarship, another in full-time employment, all heading off on holiday together. Friendships built on the mat as children, still going strong as adults. I know exactly how that feels, because the same thing happened to me.

On the day I started Team Black Belt in 2006, I made myself a promise.

I wanted every child who walked through my door to have the chance to feel what I felt that day I passed my black belt. Not just to learn karate, not even just to be able to protect themselves, but to build the same foundations that had become the bedrock of my life: confidence, discipline, resilience, the belief that hard work pays off.

That promise is still what I aim for every day at Team Black Belt.

You see my mission has never really changed.

I want to inspire confidence in the children who train with us. I want to give them determination to strive for their dreams and goals. I want to give them the fortitude to overcome whatever life puts in front of them, because I know, from my own life, exactly what that's worth.

We take children from the age of three, and we build our classes so they genuinely love coming. Fun, hard work, real learning, and great foundations for life, all rolled into one.

Along the way they build fitness, self-protection skills, and friendships that, if my own experience is anything to go by, might just last them a lifetime.

We're enrolling now for new starters.

If you're interested, you'll find us at teamblackbelt.com.

And who knows, maybe in fifty years' time, your child will look back and realise the day they joined Team Black Belt was the day it all started for them too.

Sensei Mike