The founder of Bermuda's Jujitsu Academy stressed the importance of keeping fit and personal protection, when he spoke to the weekly Hamilton Rotary meeting.

Sensei Shawn Harvey, of the Bermuda Small Circle Jujitsu Academy, talked about 'The relevance of Personal Protection in Today's Times'. He focused on the importance of encouraging and educating young people, protecting ourselves and keeping our body fit, trim and healthy through martial arts.

Mr. Harvey noted that athletes and people who exercise regularly are known to live longer, better, are physically stronger, are more disciplined and earn 40 percent more than people who are not disciplined.

"By exercising a minimum of three times a week, you could cut death by disease in half," he said.

He encouraged individuals to get involved in fitness kickboxing classes which give better cardio, toning of the body, loss of weight as well as personal protection.

Mr. Harvey noted that 60 percent of his students are women, but he said it was important for everyone to learn how to protect themselves.

Mr. Harvey reminded Rotarians of crime statistics in America and said: "In America one out of every two people will be mugged or robbed. Every five minutes a rape occurs, every four minutes a murder occurs, every three seconds a robbery occurs.

"In Bermuda, there were 132 robberies reported, compared to 89 in 2006. A total of 867 homes were burgled in 2007, compared to 494 in 2006 — a rise of 75 percent. The media has stated in past weeks that burglary and robbery have now increased by over 400 percent and around 300 percent respectively since the decade began," said the Sensei.

Mr. Harvey also encouraged people to have their children enrol in a martial arts programme saying that it encourages discipline and good behaviour.

"We have helped parents improve their child's behaviour at home and in school. We have also seen better grades in school from those children who have participated in our programme through learned life skills. These same children will go on to university to become our future leaders," said the Sensei. "We are in the business of saving lives. How do you ask? If we help guide a child in the right direction after possibly heading down a road of crime and failure we saved his life.

"If we help motivate a person who is obese to lose weight and stay focused on their health we have saved their life. If we help a senior citizen learn how to protect herself from being mugged we saved that person's life. When we help a family raise their child to the best that they can be, we are helping to save lives and motivate a country."

Mr. Harvey was asked if Jujitsu teaches an individual how to disarm someone. He responded: "We do teach that, however, we do not advertise or focus on teaching that technique. When a person decides to join our programme there is a screening process as we don't want to attract the wrong type of people."

Sensei Shawn Harvey is the founder of the Bermuda Small Circle Jujitsu Academy and is Bermuda's first Small Circle Jujitsu black belt. Small Circle Jujitsu is a free flowing system that can be encompassed in any system to make it more effective.