About Us
Grandmaster Massan Ghorbani was born and reared in quite a tough area in Tehran and he began his road to black belt at the tender age of 11. His initial desire was to be able to defend himself as he witnessed many street fights that weren’t always a one-to-one confrontation. This spurred him on to learn how to take care of himself, he first got involved in Iran’s national sport of Olympic free style and Greco wrestling called Kushti, he stuck at Kushti for over a year during which time he competed in various school championships.
He was then introduced to an Iranian Kung fu style – known as Toa where he trained for four years but due to a hamstring injury he had to stop kicking but he joined the local American wrestling club as there was no kicking involved in this style for almost a year, so he could rest his leg and stay in shape at the same time, after almost a year when he was fully recovered from the injury he joined tae kwon do for a year until he was introduced to full contact knock down karate known as Kyokushin kai and Seishin kai karate where he achieved his 4 th and 6 th degree black belt respectively, he also competed in numerous national and international tournaments including British and European open and he received his 1 st dan black belt in Kyokushinkai in 1985 from shihan Shirzad the Iranian headmaster, he also marked this achievement by wining the All-Iran national knock down karate championships in a same year.
He then traveled to Ireland in January 1986 and began to study gym management and kick boxing where he did extremely well in his new style and he became a national champion for over 10 years and won world IAKSA bronze medal in light contact and WAKO bronze in semi contact sparring, world WPKA silver and European WAKO gold medals in weapons, national and international gold medal in WKA full contact kick boxing and also the WKA national championship belt in 1990. He founded Masters Temple in September 1997 with a hand full of students and since then the club has been going from strength to strength.
In 1992 Grandmaster Massan came across a very interesting style called Sin Moo Hapkido which was a great compliment to his karate and kickboxing style, as you know in karate and kickboxing you mainly learn striking where in Hapkido you mainly learn joint locks and pressure point techniques and its a style solely designed for self defense.He studied Sin Moo Hapkido under the founder of Hapkido grandmaster Ji Han Jae who also thought Hapkido to Bruce Lee and many other well known masters around the world.
He believes the secret in becoming one of the best in martial arts or anything else is to remain a good student regardless of your grade or your achievements, it’s a famous saying of all well known grandmasters that you must be a good student first then a good teacher or a good fighter, he is still studying martial arts and its teaching methods intensively through books, instructional videos, DVD’s and attending seminars held by higher grade and more experienced masters and grandmasters in Ireland or around the world, he loves sharing his martial arts techniques with others but more than that he loves to share the complete philosophy behind martial arts like discipline, respect, loyalty, etc.
Do: Always compliment your child after each class. (Find something they did well.) This is also a great time to give out a hug or a kiss (these are free so be generous)–High 5’s work great too! Kids should immediately associate Martial Arts with feelings of success and pride.
Don’t: Criticize your child during or immediately after class. Use the PCP (Praise/Correct/Praise) principle. “Honey, you had such strong punches, I would like to see you look at your teacher when you are in the class, you had the loudest kai’s of all the kids in the class!”
Do: Watch as many classes as possible. Get involved, be your child’s #1 fan and cheerleader.
Don’t: Be a drop off parent. We miss you when you are not here and so does your child! It’s a known fact that kids who dropout of Martial Arts typically has parents who don’t take the time to get involved.
Do: Tell your child how proud you are of them (any time is a great time), especially before and after class. No one ever gets tired of hearing sincere compliments.
Don’t: Complain about traffic, your busy schedule, or money in front of children, they can begin to feel guilty and selfish. Before you know it... your child will tell you that they want to quit.
Do: Get into a regular schedule as much as possible so children can mentally prepare for class. It’s a good idea for you too, so you can plan other chores around your trip. Pack your child’s uniform and gear the previous night so that it will be ready to go first thing in the morning.
Don’t : Threaten to take away Martial Arts when they’re misbehaving at home. This is a recipe for disaster. Martial Arts are where they learn to behave better and to always try their best. Taking away Martial Arts to improve behavior just doesn’t make sense. We are here to reinforce what you tell them at home. For example, “Ok kids, who made their bed today! Jake, I knew it must be you, because you always help me in class. I’m glad to see you also help at home.”
Do: Take advantage of the teams and the special classes we offer. Involvement leads to commitment. Our Black Belt Club offers classes that will keep your child excited and interested.
Do: Lead by example, eat healthy, drink water, have a positive attitude. Deal with stress and challenges the same way you would like your child to do. Our kids learn to respond to crisis and challenges by watching us.
Do: Give your child the thing he/she wants more than anything in the world, your time! Get involved and make earning a Black Belt a Team effort.
Working together as a team...Nothing can stop us!
We always say: “The team that won’t be beat, can’t be beat.”
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