Douglas Adamson founded Adamson’s Karate Studio (AKS) in 1977, and he said the studio is a family affair. Adamson’s legacy includes his extended family, all of whom are black belts. The studio was initially founded with the purpose of relieving the financial stress that a child would bring to the Adamsons.

Faith and Hope Adamson, grandchildren of founder Douglas Adamson and juniors, said they have extended his legacy by achieving high levels of karate themselves.

“My grandfather decided to start AKS because he had been training with a man named John Deneggris and he needed someone to teach his students, and my grandfather had just quit his factory job. My grandfather decided to take the job. A few years passed and he decided to branch off and start his own studio. At this point, the low wages he was getting from his friend’s studio wasn’t (enough for him to be financially stable) and a few months passed, and AKS was born,” Faith said.

Both Faith and Hope were born into competitive martial arts. The family business has been something they have embraced since the beginning, as they said they both believe it represents a bond that cannot be broken.

Paul Adamson, father of Hope and Faith and a sixth-degree black belt, has been a part of AKS ever since he was born. He said he believes being part of AKS has made him closer to his family because of the different virtues a family business presents.

He also said he believes that Hope and Faith learn a lot about martial arts from each other.

“Being twins, Hope and Faith compete against each other a lot, and they learn how to win or lose graciously. In turn, (their competitiveness) pushes them and gives them the competitive drive to get better,” Mr. Adamson said.

Faith said, “I believe growing up and seeing my family work in business well together has really impacted me through the ability to see what it’s like to be a hard working team. When owning a business, my family knows if it fails, then everyone in the family goes down with it. Understanding this from a young age taught me that I must make things work, keep myself busy, never stop improving and lastly, working as a team gets things done a lot quicker with the right leader.”

Hope, on the other hand, said she believes growing up in the business through the years has helped develop her as a person.

“Because I have grown up in the karate business for so long, I have learned several different leadership skills,” Hope said.

With both Hope and Faith being so competitive and practicing over nine hours a week, their bodies have taken a toll as the rigor of their training has continued to increase. Still, they said, it was worth it.

“I get burnt out when training nine-plus hours a week, especially when it feels like I’m doing the same things over and over.  However, when I go back to competition, it completely ramps me up—the rush you get when fighting someone is the best feeling in the world,” Faith said.

Both Faith and Hope said the karate lifestyle has helped them in other facets of life as well and they now understand what it takes to run a business like AKS. The leadership skills and the virtues they have learned have helped them throughout their lives.

They said patience, responsibility and humility are some of the most important skills they have learned while training and competing in karate for most of their lives.

“Not only have I learned leadership skills, but I have learned a lot about how some other things, such as patience and being humble, take you further in life than building bad habits,” Hope said.

Hope and Faith both believe that it is to their advantage to have mentors who are part of their own family.

“Having mentors who are from my own family gives me an advantage because my family feels very comfortable about being honest, which helps me fix my mistakes easily,” Hope said.

They said they will both continue to compete for the rest of their high school careers while being affiliated with AKS, and both said they hope to use what they have learned at AKS for the rest of their lives.