Contact info available upon request
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Mr. Arthur Hayashibara
2xxxxx Caroldale Avenue
Carson, CA 90745
(310) 738-xxxx
To whom it may concern:
I have been a law enforcement deputy for nearly 30 years and have been involved with and commended for my involvement in sheriff department youth activities. I am writing in reference to Mr. Les Heri regarding his martial arts experience, ability to instruct, and most importantly his moral character. I have known Mr. Heri for 9 years. All three of my children attended his karate and self defense class for several years. And, my wife and I found his instruction had a very positive impact on our children. Besides learning elements of karate and physical fitness, they also learned discipline, self confidence, self awareness and situational awareness.
Mr. Heri also spent time teaching the students in his class valuable life lessons from his own personal experience or from the experience of others. He also scheduled and organized family friendly activities outside the classroom for his students to participate in. He has always shown a sincere interest in the development of his students beyond the classroom. And, over the years, I personally saw many of his students achieve accolades and develop into fine young adults.
I believe Mr. Heri has been involved with martial arts for over 40 years. He started training in martial arts in 1972. And, I believe he has been a chief instructor for about 30 years. He holds black belts in karate, aiki-jitsu, and iaido. He and his students have competed in many tournaments. And, both he and his students have been very successful in these tournaments. Mr. Heri placed in the top position for weapons and forms in the over 40 division at a tournament held during 2003 in Los Angeles. But, besides his skill and experience Mr. Heri has a passion for the history and development of martial arts. And, one can tell that he has spent a great deal of time, effort and study in that regard. He is also very involved with the martial arts community as a whole and across other related eastern disciplines. And, one can find that he has interacted and has good relations with many instructors in many different locations.
But, lastly and most importantly, I have found Mr. Heri to have excellent moral character which the parents of all his students placed the utmost and complete trust in. Parents can leave their children in his care free from worry. He genuinely has the well being, development, and safety of his students at heart. I hope you will take all these positive things into consideration. And, contemplate favorably on his proposals.
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To whom it may concern,
My name is Erica Grassl and I am currently a security guard. I have known Les Heri for about 13 years, both as a student and as a friend. I studied martial arts under his instruction for about 7 years. During this time, I learned valuable self defense techniques that have helped me in my professional journey as a security guard. He challenged me to look into myself and find more. I found more energy, more confidence, more fire.
Sensei Heri is very knowledgeable in martial arts. He can tailor training for each individual student based on their skill level and their goals. He walked me through the basic steps, training me when I knew nothing about martial arts and helped me grow from there. He encouraged me to enter competitions where I was able to see how my training lined up with other students my age and rank. I was pleasantly surprised, and usually ended up with a medal. When I came back from college and expressed an interest in security, we practiced joint locks and breakaways as a refresher course.
Sensei Heri has a deep understanding of personal safety. While I was training with him, we would train for scenarios where a large man was attacking me from different angles. He taught me breakaway techniques and joint locks and pressure points that all helped me to succeed in the scenario. While I have not had an opportunity to use this yet, mastering these skills gave me the confidence to pursue jobs in Campus Safety and now in security. I would not have been confident in these jobs had I not been trained in self defense.
Along with the confidence to defend myself and others, Sensei Heri also gave me a stronger sense of morality. He teaches self defense, not fighting, and there are certain moral issues that naturally come up. I was taught from the beginning of my training to never start a fight. Joint locks and pressure points taught me to incapacitate an attacker as opposed to permanently injure them. Sensei Heri reminded us of the severity of breaking a bone and that this should not be taken lightly. He taught us to stand up against bullies when we were in school and to protect those who could not protect themselves.
I would highly recommend Sensei Heri to create this program. He has a solid moral compass, an expert knowledge level in self defense, and a passion and gift for teaching. He has added to my life in numerous ways, and I can only imagine what he will add to this program.
Thank You,
Erica Grassl
310-503-xxxx
1520 xxxxx Avenue Redondo Beach, CA 90278