In 1990 I moved to Gloucestershire and after much searching found Ippon Karate Club. The club's Chief Instructor was Sensei Anderson (now 4th Dan), who ran the Scottish clubs, and my new instructor Sensei Jones (now 2nd Dan) who ran the English clubs. At this time Sensei Jones re-graded me to 1st Kyu under Ippon standards. After 3 happy years training under Sensei Jones I had to retire due to back problems.

At this time my black belt seemed very faraway, but after several years of treatment I was able to return to Ippon only to find there had been big changes with Sensei Jones going his own way and establishing the Fudoshin Karate Club. Sensei Watkins (now 2nd Dan) was now Ippon UK's Sensei with Sensei Anderson still in overall charge. After a year of intensive training with Sensei Watkins I was ready to take my black belt (if you are ever really ready!). I decided to go to Scotland to grade under Sensei Anderson as I felt this would be the hardest test. I passed and was awarded my black belt. For anyone who hasn't yet achieved this I must say it's worth all that blood, sweat and gi washing.
I continued training under Sensei Watkins until the year 2000 when a serious training accident caused me to have to retire again and reconsider my training. At this time a chance meeting with Sensei Jones made me think about training again. Sensei Jones had split from Ippon and started his own club, he explained his changes to the Ippon system and it made a lot of sense, so I joined him at Fudoshin and am now enjoying my training again.

I would like to finish by saying I have loved every minute of my training over the years and would recommend Karate to anyone who would like to keep fit and learn self-defence. Also thanks to Senseis Jones & Sensei Louise, to Sempais Rod Goodman, Chris Verry & Barbara Hedges, to Jess Pearce and not forgetting Little Pete and Mr. Embling for helping me after my accident to overcome my disabilities and to enjoy training again.