26/07/2026
We got the pleasure to award our 1st Black Belts in the club last week when Richard Littlejohn & Steph Littlejohn both got awarded their Black Belt 1st Dan's.
Both have had a long journey to getting to this, Black Belts are given, they're earned & the W.U.M.A Black Belt weekend is the perfect way to earn it.
The weekend is a marathon of Martial Arts, not just your own. Which as a Black Belt is essential, you're tested in not just your own style of Martial Arts but the others you're shown over the weekend to show you can take in knowledge and successfully pass it on. As you are required to do the following day, not just the learning aspect but the physical and emotional tests you go through over the weekend take you to breaking point & force you to push yourself. The friends you make over the weekend become family & through that bond the support is there at the end of the grading when you're the closest to giving up.
Both of them absolutely smashed it & this is a well deserved achievement for them.
A black belt grading shouldn't be a physical test that favours the youth, a true black belt will have put their time in & gained valuable experience that they can pass on.
So while some clubs favour the CrossFit still extreme workout before the actual grading itself. The pacing of a grading weekend filled with learning new things & testing the old things seems a to produce a much stronger Black Belt certified by the oldest organisation in the country.
Welcome to the W.U.M.A. Black Belt Family Richie & Steph 💙🥷💪🥋
