From humble beginnings with 20 students at Telarah Public School hall to now 270 students at Guy's Karate School's new dojo at Rutherford.
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Guy's Karate School has officially unveiled their prestigious new dojo studio and the school's owner Lindsay Guy said it still hasn't sunk in yet.
"It's just remarkable," he said.
"Our new dojo will allow us to be able to give more personalised tuition for our students."
Their journey started at Telarah Public School hall in 2012 before relocating to a Rutherford building to take on a full-time centre.
The numbers of their students started to grow and that's when Lindsay decided to retire from his job and focus on the karate school full-time in 2020.
"When we reopened after COVID, we had a whole influx of new people come in," he said.
This year will mark Lindsay's 40th year in martial arts and he said he started teaching martial arts in the 80's.
"If you ask me to give up karate, you're pretty much asking me to give up my life because it is my life," he said.
It has been a team effort to get their new dojo ready and Lindsay said they've had a lot of parents and senior students helping out.
"The amount of 'well done's, great jobs and this looks absolutely amazing' that we've got from our students has been incredible," he said.
Their previous Rutherford dojo could become quite cramped with all the students and Lindsay said the new dojo offers them the ability to break students into different level groups.
"We can split students into their appropriate levels to go off on their own training so it gives us more room to be able to do that," he said.
Guy's Karate School also has a very successful competition team and last year took 14 students to the world championships in Japan, with two students coming home with world championships.
Lindsay's son Lachlan has grown up with martial arts and he is following in his dad's footsteps and will someday take over Guy's Karate School.
The 24-year-old said it's really exciting to put into vision the potential of expanding their brand in a contemporary space.
"It opens up a brand new platform for us to expand our brand and really grow and fill the shoes of the Hunter Valley's leading martial arts," he said.
For Lindsay, he's at the end of his martial arts career but said he still wants to teach karate until the day he can't.
"One of the reasons for purchasing this building was to help set Guy's Karate School up for Lachy in the future," he said.
"We've had big conversations with him about whether he really wants it."
For Lachlan, he loves the community that they've built.
"It's not just a group of people but we're working on a culture and that culture is really important for getting the recipe right to building young individuals," he said.
Guy's Karate School's new dojo is located at 7/321 New England Highway, Rutherford.
Laura Rumbel
Laura Rumbel is a journalist who has always called Maitland home. She has been with the Maitland Mercury since 2022, and is passionate about all areas of local news.
Laura Rumbel is a journalist who has always called Maitland home. She has been with the Maitland Mercury since 2022, and is passionate about all areas of local news.
