Hands of Life Martial Arts Academy

Welcome to Our Website!

Since 2005, Hands of Life Martial Arts has been providing Karate and the martial arts instruction in the Cranford, Garwood, and Westfield NJ area.

We believe you will find our website informative as it is designed to give you information about our facility, style of martial arts, staff and provide you with contact options as well.

The Hands of Life Martial Arts Academy, currently celebrating its 5th year anniversary, has just finished building its new, state of the art, beautiful and spacious facility. The new address is 508 North Avenue across from Shop Rite in Garwood. It is next to the Coffee Beanery near Rosie’s’ Wine Bar. There is plenty of free parking available with a convenient entrance from the parking lot.

The Hands of Life Martial Arts karate program is a fun and exciting way for children and adults of all ages to learn karate. The physical side of karate develops reaction time, reflexes, hand-eye coordination, agility, stress relief, strength and flexibility.

More importantly, we offer an actual character-building curriculum that puts an emphasis on character building life skills such as, focus, discipline, self-control, self-esteem, self-confidence, respect, teamwork, perseverance and honesty. These are what parents really seem to want from a martial arts program. Our character-building program was designed by, author and child psychologist, Dr. Robyn Silverman.

Karate if taught properly can help adults and children to perform better in sports, in the classroom, at home, at work and everyday life. “Our motto is, making you better at life! That is our job to make you better at life by preparing you in as many ways as possible for anything life may throw at you”, says the founder of the school, Sensei Arthur Hearns. “When a student comes to our Academy they will be given all of the tools they need to improve themselves as individuals both mentally and physically”. “A teachers job is to teach and guide their students. Whether in academics, martial arts or music, as teachers, we must find ways to make the students excited about their learning. We can help students to better themselves but the student has to be a willing participant. At our Academy the process of improvement is a joint effort between the student, the parents of the student, and our staff”, says Hearns Sensei.

The Hands of Life Martial Arts Academy is a family friendly environment. In addition to martial arts they offer fitness classes and women’s self defense classes. Families can also enjoy parent’s night out, movie night, family game night and board breaking seminars.

The type of karate taught at the Hands of Life Martial Arts is a unique classical style called Ryu-Te. It is comprised of the rare art forms of Tuite Jitsu and Kyusho Jitsu. Ryu-Te is a complete and intact style unchanged from the original. It is a true defensive art of life protection consisting of grappling, joint locks, a unique style of blocking and striking.

Hearns Sensei was born and raised in Cranford. He is glad to be able to work in and provide services to the communities he grew up in and around. The Hands of Life Martial Arts Academy also provides after-school programs in New Jersey and New York City. In addition, they also provide special needs programs both on and off location.

Sensei Arthur Hearns is the owner and head instructor at the Hands of Life Martial Arts Academy. The school offers classes for all ages. The school is open six days per week.

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