What an inspiring man
Meet Jack Hearn, a war veteran, great granddad, and Britain’s oldest judo sensei master.
Demonstrating his knowledge of the art, he has been awarded his ninth Dan black belt – an instructor who is nine degrees above a standard black belt – and is hoping to achieve the 10th Dan, the highest you can get, next year.He said: ‘I fell in love with judo right away, I just took to it like a duck to water and now I’ve been doing it for 68 years. I would say it is the secret to a long life.
Jack has taught so many people judo he’s lost track of how many students he’s seen, but can say he’s coached kids who have gone on to compete at an international level. ‘My brother Bob went to a judo club so I decided to look at doing that instead and I just took to it.‘I was really curious because it was man-to-man rather than a team game. You would just crash land until you learned how to fall properly.‘We couldn’t afford a lot of the equipment, so we would make our own judo mats out of sawdust and old army canvas, or material taken from lifebelts.
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