Sensei Faye demonstrating for a junior group

After watching the film “The Karate kid” I became one of the big influx of beginners to take up Karate and joined the Portchester Karate club which met at my school - Castle Primary. This was in August 1985 when I was eight years old. Up till that time I had been very rebellious and often in trouble both at school and at home. I remember that the training was very disciplined but very different to school and parental discipline. The instructors were always emphasising the importance of self discipline and the training really helped me to develop it. 

From an early age I liked to enter the various competitions and was fortunate to start collecting various medals and trophies.

When I was 2^nd Kyu in 1991 I was asked by Sensei Merv if I would like to be part of a SEKU kata team at the BFK championships in Cardiff. This was with two members of the Chichester club run at the time by Sensei Evelyn Gibbs. Sensei Merv organised a lot of extra training and it paid off and we came first. I was very proud because I felt that I’d represented the club and SEKU at national level with two dan grades and had showed the rest of the club that competition wasn’t to be shied away from. I have always tried to promote students to enter competition. I know that competition karate is only another area of training and not the be all and end all. Sometimes I think that there is too much emphasis on this and this I think can put students off because if they come back with nothing, they feel that they have failed. At the club we do a lot of work on positive attitudes and understanding that what really matters is doing your best.

Training for my Shodan (First Dan) grade was hard graft. Sensei and the assistant instructors really built us up for the grading and if any of us didn’t put the effort in we would have to do it over and over again. On the day of my Shodan Grading, I realised how fit we had actually become. We all went for the exam with maximum effort and successfully passed in 1992. After three more years training I took my  Nidan (Second Dan grading in 1995.

When going for various jobs I have always found that my doing Karate has been a real asset and at every interview for employment it has been a real talking point. It showed the interviewers that I had a positive attitude and even when things got difficult I would keep going.

My Sandan (3rd Dan) grading exam was in 2001 and Yondan (Fourth Dan) was achieved in 2008 have now been a member of Portchester Karate Club for 25 years and still get a real buzz out of  training and of course passing on what I have learnt to the more junior members is a great source of fullfilment.