18/08/2026
**47 Students — One Dojo**
Reaching 47 students feels like a milestone worth marking.
Not simply because of the number, but because of what sits behind it.
Back in 2005, Andrew, Chris, and I started the club. At the time, I don't think any of us could have imagined that more than twenty years later I would be writing about a dojo with 47 students.
I am incredibly proud of what the club has become.
Not simply because it has grown, but because, despite that growth, I can still recognise the values on which we built it.
The Kenshinkan has never been about becoming the biggest club we can. For me, it has always been about building the *right* kind of dojo — one rooted in tradition, committed to good practice, and somewhere people genuinely feel they belong.
Our roots matter.
They run through Andrew and Chris, through everyone who has helped build the club over the years, through the teachers who have guided us, and through the relationship we continue to maintain with our teachers and the source of our art in Japan.
I take that responsibility seriously. What we practise has been entrusted to us. Our job is to study it properly, preserve it honestly, and, when the time comes, pass it on with the same care with which it was given to us.
That takes dedication.
It means turning up week after week. Repeating the same movement hundreds of times. Accepting correction. Helping the person beside you. Travelling to train. Asking questions. And discovering that the more you learn, the more there is still to understand.
But perhaps the thing I am proudest of is the culture that has grown around that training.
We have students of different ages, backgrounds, abilities, and levels of experience, but when we step into the dojo, we train together. Senior students help newer students. People encourage one another. Knowledge is shared freely. Success is something we celebrate together.
Somewhere along the way, a collection of people who came together to learn swordsmanship became something more.
It became a family.
And no club reaches a milestone like this through the efforts of one person.
I want to particularly thank **Dan and Ethan**, our current instructors. The time, effort, and commitment they give to the dojo goes far beyond simply turning up and teaching a class. They help carry the responsibility for maintaining our standards, supporting our students, and ensuring that the values on which the club was founded continue into the next generation.
Seeing others take on that responsibility, and care about the future of the Kenshinkan as much as I do, is something that makes me enormously proud.
Forty-seven students is a wonderful milestone, but I hope we never measure the success of the Kenshinkan simply by how many names are on the register.
I measure it by the people who keep walking through the door. By the friendships that have formed. By the students who become seniors and then help the next person beginning their journey. By the standards we maintain and the way we treat one another.
From those first days with Andrew and Chris in 2005 to the 47 people who now call the Kenshinkan their dojo, it has been quite a journey.
And I couldn't be prouder of what we have built together.
To everyone who trains with us, teaches with us, supports us, or has been part of the journey along the way:
**Thank you.**
**47 students. One dojo. One family.**
And we keep training.
