FOUNDER

U. Santhosh kumar, the chief instructor of Black Dragon Martial Arts Academy, Ayyanthole, has been practicing the art for the past (39) odd years.

He started his Martial Arts by way of ‘Kalari’ – a self defensive Martial Art form belonging to the ancient traditional Kerala self defense Art form. He is also Swayam Sevak since 1976 of the Ayyanthole Karthiayani Temple Unit.

Sri. Santhosh started taking Martial Art form as his career from 1976 starting with Karate classes at Banerjee Memorial Club, Thrissur under the Grand Master Sri. Narasimhan Master of Chennai. Due to a quirk of fate, he was not able to continue with his karate classes in Thrissur and he along with some like – minded mew, trained young trainees in Karate and he was under the trilleague of Sensei Tony Ponniah of Malaysia. His next guru was Sensei Kuppusamy of Malaysia and was able to procure his Brown Belt.

The turning point is his life came as he was trained by Sri. Desikam of Malaysia under whom he was able to procure the prestigious Black Belt in 1980. The same year, he was able to organize the Black Dragon Martial Arts Academy and started his classes in 3 main centers – Ayyanthole (which was his head quarters), Wadakanchery and also Chavakkad – all in Trichur Dist. Now, he has ten karate instruction centers. Also, his training in kalari in the Main Dojo at Ayyanthole (Trichur) continued. His training in kalari was simultaneously done under Sukumaran Gurukkal from Aluva (Ernakulam Dist.), Madhavanunni Gurukkal from Malappuram and also Padmanabha Gurukkal from Tirur.

The next attraction to his training centers was his Boxing classes. Nearly 90% of his student fraternity won State Championship in the first place and also they participate in the National Championship Competitions.

Sri. Santhosh’s ultimate aim is to start a Multipurpose Martial Arts Center eventually. His classes continue in Judo and Kurash and in Other Martial Art forms. He is now appointed as the President of Gymnastic Association in Thrissur. His other accolades include the Secretary ship of the Boxing Association, Thrissur for 3 years and this continued for 3 terms.