It was an emotional weekend of highs and lows, for the members from Kuk Sool Won™ of Yeovil martial arts who travelled up to Norwich in November 2021 to take part in the WKSA national testing.

Those testing towards various grades were school owner, SBN Stephen Runnacles, KSNs Sally Runnacles and Charlie Ferris, JKN Amy Horwood and DBNs Oscar Cummins, Ieuan Edwards, Josh Horwood, Auden Nation, Arthur Thurston.

For Arthur Thurston it was his final testing towards first dahn black belt. The road to black belt has not been smooth for Arthur. On joining Kuk Sool Won™ of Yeovil martial arts, Arthur had a short gap in training between his coloured belts. However, this short break proved beneficial as he came back with a mature attitude to progress his training. On starting his black belt gradings, the country went into lockdown, so Arthur spent a year training and grading on zoom, which is no easy feat! On returning to the mats, Arthur unfortunately dislocated his knee during training. Not to be stopped on getting his black belt, following approval from his doctors, Arthur continued training with moves adapted to prevent any further injury.

School owner, SBN Stephen Runnacles says “Arthur has shown continued determination over the years on his road to black belt. Perseverance is one of the black belt mindsets. It was a pleasure to see him achieve his first dahn.”

Arthur was promoted to first dahn black belt during promotions and Masters demo held at Norwich. It was an emotional event, happiness not only for Arthur’s promotion but for the first time in two years that members of WKSA could come together. The event was tinged with sadness as WKSA mourned the loss of JDKJN Alison Ducker, the highest-ranking female in Europe within WKSA.