The Black Hawks Martial Arts Management Network Association was founded by Grand Master Professor Christopher Francis (SOKE) on 13th October 1980 and focused on training young people in the art form of Kana Ju-Jitsu Ryu System of Martial Arts.  It was found that those who participated in the Martial Arts programme, tended to be more disciplined in all facets of their lives, even academically.

Over the years this programme has been in operation it has become apparent that young persons who are recommended to us have had to face more and more social problems in their lives, they are also asked to cope with absentee parents, unemployed parents, drug addiction in and out of their families, incest, and physical abuse.  They attend schools where they lack the social skills to cope with the discipline, which they perceive as being imposed on them.  They also find themselves unable to cope with the syllabus that they are required to follow.

These young persons who comprise a significant percentage of the school aged population grow resentful of the adult world and demonstrate their inability to cope through delinquent behaviour such as gang fighting, drug taking and selling, petty theft and a general defiance of authority. Their academic performance suffers proportionately.

Keeping this in mind, in 1996 Professor Christopher Francis (SOKE) formulated a plan to host an Inter-school Martial Arts Youth Training Programme that targets schools and communities that offers Marital Arts as a co-curricular and extra-curricular activity.  This programme includes physical martial arts training as well as educational types of testing of the history if the martial arts.  The participants are expected to show their individual academic improvement as evidenced by their End of Term examination reports.  Academic assistance is also available to these Martial Artists.  Counselling is also provided for both parents and children.

Martial Arts has a proven history as being an art form, which promotes self-discipline, self-confidence, self-control, and anger management as well as stressing the respect for authority.  Our constant training stressed on the moral, spiritual, educational, intellectual, and by all means the physical which will enable the holistic growth of the child.  The policy of this programme generally disallows the use of alcohol, tobacco and other mind-altering substances which lead to abuse of body and mind.

In essence, the National Inter-School Martial Arts Youth Training Programme promotes self-confidence and self-discipline, self- esteem, and anger management.  It allows for respect for self and others, both peers and authority figures.  It promotes a sense of achievement at the highest level where the participants can match their skill against others who have undergone a similar style of training.  That sense of achievement is also realized during grading exercises, which are an integral part of the programme.  It gives the student something to look forward to in an environment that is disciplined and caring and focusing on overall excellence.

The programme is seen as an essential element in the quest to assist the school population to regain its self-respect.  It promotes healthy lifestyles as a viable prevention strategy, which will ultimately benefit the wider community as well as school communities to which it is targeted.