USA-based Saint Lucian martial artist Michael Young is now the proud recipient of his sixth black belt, this time in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. This prestigious honour was awarded to the veteran practitioner after over a decade of dedicated training in the art.
In an exclusive interview with St Lucia Times, Young reflected on his martial arts journey, which began by observing his brother and later blossomed into a passion for Brazilian jiu-jitsu, thanks to the influence of a fellow Saint Lucian.
“I became interested in martial arts after watching my older brother, George Edward, who trained in Shotokan karate under Sensei Errol Weekes, and my uncle, who was also a brown belt in Shotokan karate. My brother would playfully practise on me, and that sparked my interest—I was hooked forever,” Young shared.
“My most recent black belt is in the art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. It’s an art that focuses on leverage and technique rather than brute force. I began learning this art with one of Saint Lucia’s own, Mervyn Steele. After years of training in standing and striking arts, he was the one who introduced me to the importance of having a ground game or a strategy for fighting if ever taken to the ground.”
Guided by the Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi’s philosophy that “it is better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war”, Young has devoted his life to martial arts. His expertise spans multiple disciplines as his black belts in different styles range from Japanese forms like karate to a Korean tae kwon do. His highest rank is in Japanese jiu-jitsu in which he is a seventh-degree black belt.
Now the owner and operator of a martial arts school in Florida, Young continues to contribute significantly to martial arts education and its promotion. He emphasised that his journey to success was far from easy, attributing his achievements to hard work and unwavering determination.
“It’s hard to make a name in martial arts if you don’t put in the work. You have to get up and show up to your training sessions. Look at Julien Alfred—everyone saw the few seconds it took her to win her race, but she had been putting in the work for years before that,” Young noted.
“My advice is to never give up on your dream and commit to the effort. As I tell my students, hard work beats talent when talent refuses to work hard. No one becomes successful by sitting on the couch scrolling through their phones or on social media. It’s all about putting in the groundwork and, most importantly, being consistent because every day counts.”
Young also encouraged fellow Saint Lucians, especially youth, to embrace martial arts as a tool not only for self-defence but also for overall personal development.
“Saint Lucia faces the same challenges as the rest of the world. Increased growth brings more technology, and with it, more crime, but these create two major issues,” he explained. “Firstly, young people are more focused on being on their phones and social media than getting up to train and exercise, which fosters a culture of laziness. Martial arts, at its core, is about movement, and movement is life. At the very least, martial arts get your body moving, which stimulates healthy cell growth.
“Secondly, with the rise in crime, I’d rather know how to defend myself and my family and never need to use it than to be in a situation where I need to but can’t.”
