A KARATE club in Romsey is celebrating after having been in operation for more than 40 years.

Romsey Kyushindo Karate, which currently meets in the Ganger Farm Sports Park Pavilion, was founded in 1984.

Founded and run by Sensei Ron Hancock, the club was initially started to offer classes to children with special learning needs at Stanbridge Earls School, before offering classes to the wider community.

Ron, who is a Eighth-level Dan instructor, said: “We’ve been going all the way through, as a community club, in Romsey, to the present.

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Ron Hancock receiving his eighth dan certificationRon Hancock receiving his eighth dan certification (Image: Ron Hancock) “My initial background is that I’m ex-army and I learnt all my basic martial arts skills, which brought me into this, from the army itself.

“The whole idea of the club is bringing families together. We’ve done school events, school displays, school presentations. The idea is to bring people together; it’s not for personal profit, we make enough to survive, but we’re not part of a big pyramid chain. We want to bring people together of different backgrounds to interact and integrate.”

Ron said that the club has had its ups and downs, especially with the Covid-19 pandemic, but that the group has been helped by families “giving a little bit back.”

He continued: “They’ve helped support it and keep it moving, but the club is self-sufficient, self-survival.”

Ron, who now instructs the group alongside fellow sensei Russell Keep and Paul Chapelhow, said: “My heart is always in martial arts. It is helping anyone really, but mainly young people and families develop. Whatever their needs are, whether it is physical, mental, or spiritual, we cater for it.

“We talk to the families, and they come in and watch, and they’re able to participate as well.”

When asked how he felt about running Romsey Kyushindo Karate for 40 years, Ron said: “I have to look back on the families that I have worked with, and having seen those families grow up and have children, who have come back to the club; that, to me, is a reward that whatever we did, in the beginning, has worked.

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“And I have people who I have taught who have told me that, what I’ve taught them, they have carried into their lives, and they’ve taught their children. It’s a pattern, if you want to call it that; I’m still talking to people from Stanbridge Earls. I have families who, the parents came to karate themselves and they’ve brought their children. Russell, his daughter is a member and I taught his sone as well.

“So, the reward is seeing those families, who I’m still in contact with, over the many years. They see me around Romsey and they say, ‘Hi Ron!’.

“Some have gone to become solicitors, doctors, some have gone into the army or into the prison service, and I’m still in touch with them.”

More information about Romsey Kyushindo Karate can be found by visiting romseykyushindo.org.uk/.