Ninja Black Belt for Michelle (From Penarth Times)

Ninja Black Belt for Michelle

MICHELLE Murray is the first female Ninjutsu student to be awarded the coveted Black Belt in the Cardiff area.

Michelle is a member of The Academy UK and trains twice a week with the Sleeping Dragon Dojo at the St Paul's Martial Arts Centre in Arcot Street, Penarth.

Michelle has been training for about 14 months but consistently trains about six days a week between Cardiff, Cheltenham and Swindon, as well as attending special training events in the UK and abroad.

Last year she trained with other members of The Academy UK and alongside about 900 students from 35 different countries in Madrid, where she got engaged to Marc Moor, the principal Academy UK instructor and ex-bodyguard to one of the world's wealthiest men.

Michelle, 36, was surprised and delighted with her Black Belt as she was lead to believe her grading would be next month.

Michelle is a regular instructor within The Academy UK and is a firm believer that this should be the primary Martial Art for all women, because of the confidence it brings to all aspects of your life and the very real ability to defend yourself.

The award to Michelle is extremely rare as there are relatively few Black Belt Ninjutsu students in the UK with only a small number of them doing their best to address this balance.

The male students get to be called Ninja while the females are called Kimoichi (which translates as 'nine to one').

Ninjutsu is the ultimate non sporting practical Martial Art. Since The Academy UK started almost two years ago, two students have hit local headlines as a direct result of using their training to protect themselves and others.

Another member of the Sleeping Dragon Dojo, Paul Grainger successfully defended himself against four would-be attackers in the early hours on the streets of Madrid last October.

More recently though, a student at the Gloucester Centre of Excellence foiled a robbery at a jewellers in Gloucester, then apprehended and restrained the robber when two burly security guards could not hold the man.

Then the would-be robber evidently burst into tears when he was held securely by the Gloucester Ninja.