Just a few months after launching a local martial arts school, care-leaver Ryan Blake is already changing young lives.
Drawing on his own journey through foster care and the confidence martial arts gave him as a child, the 25-year-old is building much more than a business – he is helping young people to truly believe in themselves.
Step inside one of Ryan’s classes and it’s easy to see why his approach is resonating with young people.
It’s a role that comes naturally to him – but it wasn’t always this way.
As a child growing up in foster care, Ryan knows first-hand how life-changing the right support can be.
And today, he is giving that same encouragement to others.
“My students are not just coming to a class to learn martial arts,” he says. “They’re learning confidence, discipline, self-belief and life skills. The end game isn’t a black belt. The end game is to change lives.”
It’s a philosophy rooted in his own childhood.
At the age of just six, he entered foster care after raising concerns about his home environment.
Despite being so young, Ryan remembers understanding that he needed help.
“I knew I wasn’t in the right space and I knew it wasn’t safe,” he says. “My experience moving into foster care was really positive. I wanted to be there.”
Ryan moved in with a local foster carer – someone he still considers to be his mum today.
“We’ve got such a bond,” he says. “She taught me the right values when I basically wanted to rebel against everything. She is one of the major factors that built me up to be the adult I am today.”
Looking back, Ryan believes the stability, guidance and encouragement he received through foster care gave him the foundations he needed to build a future.
“When I allowed the system to help me, I found there were so many benefits,” he says. “I never thought I’d go to university. I never thought I’d do any of this, but I did because I allowed the carers I was with, the fostering team, social workers and everyone around me to help me.”
Like many young people, Ryan faced challenges growing up and periods where he struggled to see what the future might hold.
“There was doubt in my mind up until maybe the last three years that I would do anything with my life,” he says. “I used to think I wouldn’t make it past 30. Now I can’t bear not to live past 70 because I need to see everything come to fruition.”
One of the things that helped him most was martial arts. He first stepped into a class at the age of eight when he was struggling with confidence.
“I needed something to make me feel more self-assured, more aware of who I was and more confident in myself,” he recalls.
What started as a way of building confidence gradually became a lifelong passion. Over the years, Ryan developed as both a martial artist and a coach, progressing through the ranks to become a senior instructor with Savage Martial Arts in Sheffield.
When he later returned to North East Lincolnshire, he was given the opportunity to launch his own classes in Grimsby and Cleethorpes.
Earlier this year, he opened schools at venues including Humberston Academy, Grimsby Leisure Centre and Centre4, bringing a programme that combines martial arts training with life skills development to children and young people across the area.
While he is proud of what he has achieved professionally, Ryan sees his success as about much more than running a business.
“The whole point isn’t just to make them black belts in martial arts,” he says. “It’s to make them black belts in life.”
Today, the same confidence, support and belief that helped shape Ryan’s future are the values he now works to pass on to the next generation.
As his business continues to grow, Ryan remains focused on the same goal that first brought him into martial arts as a child: helping others believe in themselves.
Standing at the front of the class, watching another group of young people grow in confidence, he smiles.
“The risk of failing is always there,” he says. “But it’s always better than the risk of never trying.”
Ann-Marie Matson, Director of Children’s Services at North East Lincolnshire Council, said: “Ryan’s journey is a fantastic example of what can happen when young people are given the right support, encouragement and opportunities to thrive. The positive relationships he developed with his foster family and those around him helped him build the confidence to pursue his ambitions, and today he is using those experiences to support and inspire other young people. His story highlights the lasting impact that fostering can have and why we need more people to consider becoming foster carers.”
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