Giroux Brothers Martial Arts just turned 15 years old this month! 

by Steve Giroux

If you are like me, when you hear about business’ anniversaries not much thought goes into it.

For me, however it brings up so many memories.  I started the studio when I was 22 and finishing up my last semester at Bentley College.  I had no money, no credit, and no business plan.  While in high school, my brother and I ran my instructor’s school (Champion Karate Center), eventually taking it over when he moved away.  But, the experience I had over those 3 years and then going off to college really made me miss teaching and that is when I realized that it was what I wanted to do for a career.

Going against everyone’s advice not to open a business, I somehow managed to convince my landlord that I would be successful.  I had recently won a tournament in Las Vegas and showed her the picture and write up about it in Black Belt magazine.  Luckily for me, she took a leap of faith in me and the rest is history…

The journey has been one with many ups and downs and constant transistions.  I’ve come to realize that growing pains never go away and different challenges will constantly present themselves.  What’s really worked though has been the idea of constant and never ending improvement.

I’ve never stopped trying to make the school better through our programs or environment.  We’ve made mistakes (and will continue to). But, we’ve always acted on them quickly and learned from them so that they didn’t happen again – and we’ve never stopped trying …That’s the main message I hope our students and instructors are learning in addition to the kicking and punching taught on the mat.

It gives me great pride to see so many of our students who started in Kindergarten now driving themselves to the studio as high ranking black belts teaching classes of their own.

We have some new improvements coming in the New Year, one being that we are implementing a Black Belt “Wall of Fame”.  We are going to have a display of all of our UFAF black belts (past, present, and room for future) with the names and their black belt # starting with my brother Jeff and I.  Right now,we have just under 50 names…

Again, thank you to everyone for making Giroux Bros. Martial Arts a reality all of these years.  We truly are part of the Newton community and I feel so fortunate to continue to be a part of you and your families lives.

Thanks again!

Steve Giroux

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