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

With leaving school, starting college and getting my first engineering job, it was something in the back of my mind to try again but it wasn’t until 1992 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. We did stuff from piston rods to complex military stealth tech. In the Spring of 91 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 the trip never came off.

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

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

Summer of 1992 started a new foundry job and then around 1996, my Instructor at the time decided to quit. Given the opportunity to take the club over I jumped at the chance. This entailed travelling to the New Malden club on a Friday night to train directly with Washinkai’s Chief Instructor, Chris Thompson. 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 the time due to my Karate teaching. Unbeknown to them, after putting me on garden leave and paying a sum of money for me not to take them to tribunal, as I’d done nothing wrong, I was planning to hand in my notice in August as during this time I had been offered a coaching position with Millfield School teaching their Karate squad. Sherborne Girls quickly followed and state school King Arthurs were also onboard. Suddenly I was working for myself, a full-time Karate Instructor, basically my dream job.

Just before all this happened, 2001, we moved the club from King Arthurs into 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 we grew 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 and do my grading out there. It was an exciting time, and I was fully absorbed in my Karate.

2007 saw another massive opportunity, opening our own dojo. Securing a small business loan, we moved the club in June 2007 and officially opened in September 2007. It was not all plain sailing. In September 2008, on the eve of 1st Anniversary we were subject to an arson attack. Luckily, the fire put itself out but caused some major damage before it did. We still to this day do not know who or why.

The club continued to grow, I and other students continued to climb the grading 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 some groundwork. January 2018, we started to seriously discuss whether Washinkai was still the right fit for us and our students, students who were beginning to press us for more practical, realistic Karate. We’d already done two courses with Iain Abernethy and big question marks over our training.

Easter 2018 and it was with a heavy heart that we decided our future lay in different direction to that of Washinkai. It is never easy to leave an organisation you’ve been with for so many years but we felt it was the right decision for our students.

Nishikan Martial Arts was born, we have been through a pandemic and moving the dojo to a new unit, which is bigger and better than before. Our numbers are growing all the time.

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