Our first Spotlight brings you British girl Lauren, a 2nd Dan Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. Picked for two reasons: she is an outstanding athlete, and we felt that she needed cheering up somewhat. Back in mid August she had a painful injury that put her out of training for a few months. She tore ligaments in her ankle which forced her to cancel almost everything in her calendar. We know she is disappointed so we thought we would show her some love.
One of the cancellations was her 3rd Dan grading in October. At 17, she had the chance of becoming the youngest female to ever earn a 3rd Dan in the UK. She is now taking the grading in April. Incidentally, she achieved 2nd Dan at the age of 13!
Being a 2nd Dan at age 17 is impressive, but take a seat for what we are about to tell you. Lauren is 3x World Champion, 6x British Champion, 7x English Champion, 12 x Welsh Champion, 4x Scottish Champion and 41x Regional Champion. That’s no typing error! She hasn’t lost a fight in over six years. South West UK and indeed the UK itself should be extremely proud to have such gem. She is currently strongly considering a 2016 Olympic offer. The only reason she hasn’t signed on the dotted line yet is a logistics issue. It would require hundreds of miles of traveling each week, and we all know that there is not enough (if any) financial backing for female martial artists. The way Awakening see it is that the UK government needs to pull it’s finger out. There is all this talk of “inspiring a generation”, but it’s no good if one of the country’s brightest athletes is not supported by the very government that wants gold medals. Rant over!
We had the honor of meeting Lauren at one of her training sessions, we were totally taken back by her speed and aggression. To talk to, she’s very sweet indeed but she has a reputation of being fearless in competition. Her style isnto attack, attack, attack and smother her opponent with a barrage of well placed kicks. Although her nickname is Lollypop, she’s likened to fire when she has her game face on.
The last thing to mention is that Lauren finds time to travel the UK performing Extreme Martial Arts routines with her sister Sian. They perform under the name The Edmunds Sistas and are a regular feature at The Martial Arts Show Live in Birmingham, England. Some might turn their nose up at choreographed routines and see them as some kind of dilution of martial arts. In our view this is simply snobbery. We can all agree that martial arts is a wonderful thing for anyone to be involved in, Lauren and her sister have inspired many people with their numerous television and seminar appearances.
I know, a glowing report right? She’s pretty exceptional. There are actually three Edmunds sisters, Lauren is the eldest followed by Sian and then Lara. All of which are black belts with similarly impressive records. Watch this space.
• Lauren Edmunds Awakening Profile
• Sian Edmunds Awakening Profile
• The Edmunds Sistas Website
