My early experiences were in 1974 when inspired by Bruce Lee to find a martial arts class I trained in Judo for about 2 ½ years under Sensei's Keith Sandercock and Chris Hunt.

I then progressed to Bujinkai Karate in 1975 where I eventually graded to 1st brown belt whilst continuing with the Judo training. This I enjoyed very much as not only was it fun, it was physically demanding developing fitness but it increased my self-confidence and awareness.

After training in various places I started at Sensei Kevin Davey's Ashiita Kai Karate (we saw things in a similar way as he had also started in Bujinkai) in January of 1997 and quickly progressed through the syllabus until achieving my 1st Dan in July of 2000. Followed by my 2nd Dan in December 2004. It was here that my interests turned towards the competition format as it gave me opportunity to test skills against others I wouldn't normally meet and developed the attitude of being the best one can be, something I like to encourage in my students. This environment is a great means of developing your skills across the various fighting ranges and showing your skills in choosing what range of fighting is suitable for the situation you are in.

During this period I have competed many times in different competitions including Battle of the Celts. I continue to compete with success as this enables me to help the students to learn current fighting skill and needs to win, plus of course I enjoy it.

I started teaching in the Bodmin class at the end of 2000 and formally took over the class from Sensei Russell Becker. I moved the class to Lanivet in the spring of 2005 and shortly after started a new class in Fowey and in December 2006 I took over the Blisland class from Sensie Russell Becker who now runs a class in St. Austell.

My hopes and aims are to coach and see my students develop new skills whilst learning something practical that may one day save their life or be of some significant use or perhaps even become national champions. Also to develop respect for fellow martial artists through the discipline and ethic of our etiquette and code of honour. For me personally my Christian faith doesn't allow the teaching or pursuance of many of the Buddhist theories often found at the core of martial arts etiquette such as bowing to the dojo (though we do bow to one another out of mutual respect) yin and yang, chi etc. Whilst I am happy to talk about this, the class is not a platform to preach my faith.

I look forward to seeing you join my classes on a Wednesday in Fowey or Monday and Thursday in Lanivet or Friday in Blisland. Come and have fun, get fit and learn something practical and useful.