11 year old green belt Connor Kennedy is an honour roll student and has been studying Go Ju Karate for three short years under Sensei Ryan Labranche of the Sudbury School of Martial Arts in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Connor decided to start studying martial arts after being targeted repeatedly by school bullies.

Over the past two years, he has competed in tournaments throughout Ontario, Quebec and Michigan, earning numerous trophies and medals, most of these awarded for point sparring.

In the spring of 2007, Connor tried out for the World Karate Association’s Canadian karate team. Connor made the team and qualified to compete at the WKA World Championships in Karlsruhe, Germany in August in the Boys 12 and under heavy weight division.

After an intense summer of training and the direction of Sensei Ryan, he was able to use his stronger fighting skills and win a bronze medal against black belts in his category at the world championships. He attributes this medal to the strength, dedication and encouragement of his Sensei, who also won a bronze medal at the tournament in sparring.

Although sparring is his specialty, he recently became avidly interested in weapons forms, specifically the bo-staff. Under the direction of Casey Marks he has gained confidence and valuable skills handling the bo-staff.