Paul Hacker

My path into Martial Arts was unusual.I'd tried Karate at school and whilst I was fascinated by the Martial Arts Ididn't like the Instructor.

With leaving school, starting college and getting my first engineeringjob, it was something in the back of my mind to try again but it wasn't until1992 that I had the opportunity.

During 1991, my job was in advanced materials, namely metal matrix composites(MMC). At the time it was going to be the next important thing in materials. Wedid stuff from piston rods to complex military stealth tech. In the Spring of91 we did some test castings for the Japanese who subsequently bought the tech.I was due to go to Japan in the Autumn of 91 to commission their machines,exciting. However, in the Summer of 91 many of us were made redundant so thetrip never came off.

Fast forward to that Christmas a leaflet dropped through the door, 'LearnWashinkai Karate'. I knew this was a different style to school so January 1992saw my first Karate session, and I loved it. My time with 'Wincanton WashinkaiKarate Club' started.

At the time, being unemployed, it gave me some focus, I went back tocollege one day a week to further my engineering studies. Working on gettinghome as quickly as I could due to night school clashing with training!

Summer of 1992 started a new foundry job and then around 1996, myInstructor at the time decided to quit. Given the opportunity to take the clubover I jumped at the chance. This entailed travelling to the New Malden club ona Friday night to train directly with Washinkai's Chief Instructor, ChrisThompson. It was a very enjoyable time and I loved the training.

The Summer of 1997 I was given the chance to take my 1st Dan (Shodan)which I passed, 2nd Dan followed a few years later.

Easter 2002 saw a falling out between the company I worked for at thetime due to my Karate teaching. Unbeknown to them, after putting me on gardenleave and paying a sum of money for me not to take them to tribunal, as I'ddone nothing wrong, I was planning to hand in my notice in August as duringthis time I had been offered a coaching position with Millfield School teachingtheir Karate squad. Sherborne Girls quickly followed and state school KingArthurs were also onboard. Suddenly I was working for myself, a full-timeKarate Instructor, basically my dream job.

Just before all this happened, 2001, we moved the club from King Arthursinto the newly built sport centre. There was a massive explosion of interest.In 18 months, we went from 12 students to around 50. Over the next few years wegrew to around 100.

One of my Dan Gradings I remember with such fondness and clarity was my3rd Dan, in 2003 as I had the opportunity to travel to Spain with Washinkai anddo my grading out there. It was an exciting time, and I was fully absorbed inmy Karate.

2007 saw another massive opportunity, opening our own dojo. Securing asmall business loan, we moved the club in June 2007 and officially opened inSeptember 2007. It was not all plain sailing. In September 2008, on the eve of1st Anniversary we were subject to an arson attack. Luckily, the fire putitself out but caused some major damage before it did. We still to this day donot know who or why.

The club continued to grow, I and other students continued to climb thegrading ladder. In 2017 Brett, Steve and I started talking about what was next,just a tentative talk, sounding each other out but we started to lay somegroundwork. January 2018, we started to seriously discuss whether Washinkai wasstill the right fit for us and our students, students who were beginning topress us for more practical, realistic Karate. We'd already done two courseswith Iain Abernethy and big question marks over our training.

Easter 2018 and it was with a heavy heart that we decided our future layin different direction to that of Washinkai. It is never easy to leave anorganisation you've been with for so many years but we felt it was the rightdecision for our students.

Nishikan Martial Arts was born, we have been through a pandemic andmoving the dojo to a new unit, which is bigger and better than before. Ournumbers are growing and at the time of writing, if the growth continues at iscurrent rate, we'll hit 150 students during 2024.

I could not do all this without the team, whether they are in front ofstudents or helping behind the scenes, they all play an important role in whatwe do within Nishikan. So, take some time and check out the rest of them.

Currently I hold the rank of 6th Dan which was awarded in February 2017by Chris Thompson (9th Dan) of Washinkai Karate.

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