Imperial Karate sent a small squad over to our friends at Port Talbot for the bi-annual Welsh Championships. Holly Phillips, Lydia Phillips, Kai Callaghan, Liam Harvey, Jordan Benjamin, Dale Woodman and Mel Phillips all competed in the one day event. First up was Liam and Jordan in the senior grade junior Kata and aginst some strong competition from Vale and EKK managed to get down to the the last eight marking a dramatic improvement at this level. Next was junior girls Kumite with both Holly and Lydia in the same large girls pool. Holly went out early but Lydia fought extreamly well but had to retire due to a foot injury in the quarter finals just missing a medal. Under 10's boys saw Kai in the biggest category of the day with 2 full pools to get through. With his speed, accuracy and determination he proceeded to win his way through the rounds eventually winning his pool and going throught o the finals. His opponant being much large was intimidating and Kai went down by 3 points only to score a jodan Mawashigeri in the dying seconds resulting in a draw! Enshosen and both fighters went in for the point and Kai was just beaten to the punch by a split second. Silver for Kai. Liam, Jordan and Dale were all in the under 16's boys and again a large talented pool lay before them. Newcomer Dale up agains an experienced black belt fought superbly and went through followed by both Liam and Jordan. The next round saw Jordan and Dale just loosing out leaving Liam to carry on. Liam fought right through to the semi finals and only just lost out after a spectacular fight against his AMA team mate. Bronze for Liam. Dale, Jordan and Liam were then back for the under 16's team event and after more battling saw them with the Bronze medal place.

Mel Phillips on her build up to the Senior Brittish Championships was back on form and soon found herself in the finals against her old friend from Scorpion Becky Hill. After a tense final Mel had to concede with Silver.

This was the first of it's kind, many had talked about but no one had done! Over 750 people packed into Portishead Leisure Centre for the 1st South West Open Championships. What a great day! Click here for the report, pictures and results.

Interview with Simon O'Brien in October 2006 Martial Arts Illustrated Magazine

Imperial Karate Club Chief Instructor and AMA National Coach Simon O'Brien was recently interviewed by Martial Arts Illustrated at the British Karate Championships and is published in the October 2006 edition. Read the interview below.

"I took some time to speak with AMA's Simon O'Brien, of Imperial Karate Club. Fifth Dan Simon affilliated Imperial to the AMA last year because he felt the association offered him "national exposure, and the oportunity to develop my fighters". He felt they needed a new challenge and had at that time no expectation of any personal promotion. Within a few months, however, his talents as a coach were recognised by AMA team manager Peter Allen and Simon was appointed National Kumite Coach.

Simon said his style is to work on specific training regimes and analysis of strategies, then to work on lots of repetitions of simple drills worked in sets. He runs seperate training and fitness sessions on Saturday morning with the emphasis on cross training.

Simon readily acknowledges the influences of others and particularly paid tribute to his coach of 30 years, Allan Flook who he said taught me "everything I know". Under Flook, Simon won British and English individual and team titles three years running, and his hard work appears to have paid off.

Simon is a pragmatic coach, and his aside to one of his charges, victorious, but dissapointed with the manner of her victory, was telling. "Although people have paid to come in you haven't got to put on a show for them", he advised, explaining that a win is a win, and that's what matters.

Following many requests over the past few years we are very excited to announce a new Karate session especially for children aged 4,5,& 6 starting on October 2nd 2006. This will also mean the starting age for our main junior club is now 7 years which will make the session less crowded. Imperial Imps is a special training program tailored to suit younger members and will consist of exercise, games as well as an introduction to Karate Training. Click on out new Imps page for full details. The session will be run by Club Instructor Mel Phillips who has many years experience in teaching young children. Click here for IMP's Page

What a great start to the new season! We gave our squad August off to rest and have some fun ready for a new start in September and this was the first competition to kick off our return to hard training. With this being our first competition for months a lesser performance should be expected but there was no sign of this as our squad put in a tremendous performance. Mitchell Fogg back on for to take Bronze in the boys -35Kg and our Boys team of Liam, Jordan and Luke along with our Girls team of Charlotte White, Charlotte Gale and Bianca Allison also took Bronze in the team event. Bianca Allison was unstoppable again winning Gold in the Girls +35 with a remarkable performance from Jaz Fry winning Bronze in the same event.

Jodie Hanham in action

The day really belonged to our Senior Squad, Mary Hanham back after her eye and knee op comfortably won Gold in the Senior Kyu grade Kata. Glyn Betty back out of retirement to take Bronze in the Male Open weight and Paul Jefferson back from injury and on top form taking Gold in the Male Open weight. Steve Ackland on his England selection build-up started off slow but soon picked up and blasted his way into the Male -75Kg final along with the impressive Paul Jefferson. It was fitting that these two Imperial Elite fighters were in the final together as it looked like the only people who going to stop them were each other! After assessing Paul's injured knee it was decided not to contest the final to allow him to fight in the Male team event. Gold for Steve and Silver for Paul. Mel Phillips was up next and she was also back on form winning Bronze in the Ladies Open weight and then outclassing all her opponents in the Ladies -60Kg then easily winning the final 5-0 for a Gold Medal. The last event was the Senior Male Team, even with Ross Dunsford and Jordan Spear unable to compete we had a strong line up of Paul, Steve and Glyn. Our opponents were our good friends and close rivals Afan Lido with the legend Ritchie Noblett coaching! A good first fight with Paul just loosing out by 2 points to Mark, Steve up next against Owen and this was the fight of the day with both experienced fighters putting on a show. Steve was just too fast for Owen and took a 5-0 lead but with only 30 seconds to go took a blow to the hand which dislocated his thumb and had to be taken off. Still a well deserved Bronze for our Team .

Saturday 2nd September and we held our annual late summer Fun Day at Wicklea Dojo. The day started at 1pm with a course split into 3 sessions taught by Sensei's Simon O'Brien, Peter Jefferies and Adrian Williams. The course covered subjects not usually taught in club sessions such as full take down's and pressure point application

I can officially announce that Imperial Karate Club are to organize the 1st South West Open Championships on October 7th 2006. This will be the first event of this kind in the area and will hopefully encompass Junior and Senior categories in both Kata and Kumite. The event is to attended and covered by Sport UK from HTV Television as well as reports from BBC "Eye" and Traditional Karate Magazine!

This year the England AMA National Squad took a smaller squad than last year at 27 Athletes but they put in a superb performance to finish 2nd in the oerall medal table. This was our best result ever.

Saturday 24th June and we took a squad of 30 by coach to our AMA Championships in Nottingham. Despite the Kata events being dominated by the Shotokan based clubs we certainly showed why Wado Ryu is the best style for Kumite by putting in some great fights! Highlights were winning 1st and 2nd in the Junior Team event, Abi and Mel winning the Cadet and Senior Ladies and Liam winning Gold in final with Mitchell.

Gold - Liam Harvey, Mel Phillips, Abi Friend, Imperial A Team (Jordan Benjamin, Luke Allison and Liam Harvey)

Silver - Holly Phillips, Mitchell Fogg, Mary Hanham, Steve Ackland, Abi Friend, Mel Phillips, Imperial B Team (Mitchell Fogg, Coel Pullin and Dale Woodman)

Bronze - Jodie Hanham, Mason Fogg, Charlotte White, Coel Pullin, Lydia Phillips, Mark Pullin, Katie Lane, Jordan Spear, Steve Ackland.

Saturday 17th June and a small grading by Imperial standards saw just over 30 members gather for the Summer grading. The candidates were mainly lower Kyu grades apart from Abi Friend who was taking 2nd Kyu after missing the last grading. The class was split into 5 groups starting with those taking White Belt. Those successful are as follows and were presented with their new belts in recognition of their efforts:-

New Yellow Belts - Lydia Phillips, Aimee Coombes, Kory Chapman, Daniel Bryant, Charlotte Woodman, Ryan Hope, Ashley Owen and Dale Woodman,

New Orange Belts - Kye Callaghan, Harry Pope, Charlotte White, Kate Bryant, Ella Edwards, Jasmine Fry, Charlotte Gale, Ray Gale, Kerri Perry and Mark Phillips.

New Purple Belts - Mason Fogg, Robin Courtney, Luke Allison, Mary Hanham and Mark Pullin.

Despite many of our squad have now turned 16 we still managed to enter a strong squad of over 50 young athletes including Bianca Allison, Liam Harvey, Jordan Benjamin as well as new AMA squad members Jack Friend and Luke Allison all from Imperial. The AMA finished 3rd in the medal table and 1st in the total medals taken. Well Done all AMA squad and Imperial members especially Bianca Allison who won Bronze.

I am please to announce that six members from our club have been selected as part of the England AMA National Squad to compete in the Budo Nord World Cup on Sweden on the 1st-2nd July 2006. All six have also managed to gain much needed sponsorship for this prestigious trip which reflects their standard and commitment. Well done all!

Mel Phillips, Sarah Beresford, Abi Friend, Bianca Allison, Liam Harvey and Jordan Benjamin.

Saturday and Sunday 13-14th May 2006 we sent 6 of our Elite Kumite squad and 2 of or Kata squad to the England Wado-Kai championships in Reading. We only sent a small Elite squad due to the previous years high standard. The event was attended by many Welsh and England International competitors all vying for medal positions. Despite this high level I was very pleased our squad came away with 6 Bronze and 1 Silver Medal from only 8 competitors!

Well done to Ross Dunsford - Silver. Mary Hanham, Abi Friend, Sarah Beresford, Liam Harvey, Mel Phillips and the Ladies Team all won Bronze.

It is with great pride that I can announce that following his superb performance in winning Gold in the AMA and Silver in the Karate England Championships, Steve Ackland has been selected for the 2006 Karate England Squad and will be training under Ticky Donovan O.B.E. The Karate England National Squad consists of around 30 of the very best in English Karate and is supported by Sport England and the Lottery

Saturday 30th April and we were invited by our friends at the WKU to attend their annual championships in Bristol. There were around 260 entries from all of the WKU clubs as well as invited associations and clubs. As our calendar is so packed at the moment we decided to rest our senior "Elite" squad as they are due to compete in 14 days time but we sent a very strong club side an our junior "Elite" members. We were very pleased to come away with 4 Gold - 5 Silver - 13 Bronze which took us well clear at the top of the medal table. A special mention to our Kata squad who trained especially hard and came away with many of the medals.

Silver - Mason Fogg, Jordan Benjamin, Lucy Courtney, Katie Lane, Mitchell Fogg

Bronze - Daniel Bryant, Robson Fry, Tom Nash, Dale Woodman, Charlotte White, Charlotte Gale, Tom Nash (again) Deanna Gould, Liam Harvey, Coel Pullin, Charlotte White (again) Bianca Allison and Jordan Benjamin.

	Club	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Club Scores
1	Imperial Karate Club	4	5	13	35
2	Shikon	7	2	3	28
3	Bristol Karate Club	1	5	10	23
4	Talbot Karate Club	5	2	3	22
5	Vale Karate	4	4	2	22
6	Celtic Karate Union	2	3	5	17
7	Oldmixon & Uphill Karate Club	1	4	5	16
8	Clevedon Karate Kai	2	2	3	13
9	Broadwell Karate Club	1	2	3	10
10	S. Gloucester Martial Arts	3			9
11	Chipping Sodbury Karate Club	1	1	4	9
12	SD School of Martial Arts	1	1	2	7
13	Burnham & Highbridge Karate Club		1	1	3
14	Nintai Ronin			2	2
15	Budo Juko Bridgewater			2	2
16	Llantwit Major				0

We took our Imperial Elite Squad to the Bushi Kai Welsh Open Championships in Port Talbot on Sunday 9th April and were delighted with the continuing excellent performance from our squad. The highlight was winning the Coveted Senior Male team Gold and congratulation go to Ross Dunsford, Steve Ackland and Jordan Spear. Also well done to our Senior Ladies team who only narrowly lost in the final due to a "dodgy" decision to disqualify our fighter for excess contact.

Bronze - Imperial "A" Junior Boys Team, Imperial "B" Junior Boys Team, Charlotte Gale, Ross Dunsford, Steve Ackland, Sarah Beresford and again Sarah in the Open Weight.

April 2nd and 3rd saw the Imperial Karate Club's 4th year at Woolacombe Bay. This course just gets bigger and better year after year with well over 100 club members and families attending. Click here for the full report and photo's

This was the BIG ONE! This was what everyone had been waiting for and had worked towards! This was the coming together of all Karate federations in England to form "Karate England", the new Governing Body for Karate and the only one recognised by Sport England and the International Olympic Commitee. This was the first tournament under the new structure and everyone was out to stake their claim on the medals available. We had worked hard for 3 months both in our club "Elite" sessions and at AMA National Squad sessions and were as ready as we could be!

We were very please when it was announced that six Imperial senior members were selected as part of the 30 person AMA squad for this tournament. After some truely great performances the AMA took 11 National Medals! 4 of which were won by Imperial members!

Mel Phillips took a well deserved bronze in the Ladies -60KG after several rounds and several hard knocks!

Abi Friend found great form and looked to be heading for gold until very narrowly loosing out in the semi finals and had to settle for Bronze.

Mel Phillips again but this time in the Veteran Ladies with one eye closed fought with flair and determination and was eventually stopped in the Final but had a Silver to add to her earlier Bronze medal.

Steve Ackland still buzzing from winning Gold at the AMA Open 2 weeks ago was determined to do a double and outclassed all apponants before meeting his old adversary and England international Daniel Broom in the Cadets and after a tight fight eventually lost 3-0. Silver for Steve who is going from strength to strength and seems to be on for a superb year ahead if he can keep this momentum going.

There were other fine performances from the rest of the squad especially Ross Dunsford who one "technique of the day" by sweeping his heavywieght opponant 3 feet in the air for 3 points and then straight in with a head kick for another 3 eventually winning 9-0 to a fighter who beat him last year! That's what you call a come back!

Jordan Spear and Sarah Beresford suffered a very rare lack of form but knowing these two it won't be for long!

Looking at the performance accross the squad it was clear that the coninuing high level of achievement is totally down to the hard work and commitment put in over the last 3 months and I was very proud both as their Instructor and as national Squad Head Coach.

This prestigious tournament attracts National level competitors from all over Europe and beyond. There were a reported 700 competitors and over 1000 entries over the 2 days of competition. As this was a very high level event we only sent our Elite Athletes and were very pleased with the results as follows:-

This was our first in the build up to the Karate England Championships in March. We sent a small Elite squad of Bianca Allison, Mitchell Fogg, Liam Harvey, Jordan Benjamin, Sarah Beresford, Mel Phillips and Ross Dunsford. this was our first test of new techniques we have been working on for months in our Elite sessions. A special mention goes to Ross Dunsford on his first time back for 12 months due to injury only narrowly loosing in the Final to the England International Joe Mungden.

As per usual our squad did not let us down and against some tough opposition and I am pleased to announce the following results:-

Well done to the following Imperial Students on their selection for the AMA National Squad for the British Junior Championships in Crystal Palace later this month. Congratulations also to those who have gained sponsorship from Opro.

Sarah Beresford, Abi Friend, Bianca Allison, Steve Ackland, Liam Harvey, Jordan Benjamin and Mitchell Fogg.

What a great session! This was our first session of the year and also the first in our new central location of Wolverhampton University. This will now give greater access to all AMA clubs and also save me from taking separate Northern and Southern Sessions! Being so close to Christmas and in a new venue I was expecting a smaller turn out but I was astounded to see over 100 of AMA's finest Kumite students raring to go! They travelled from as far away as Exeter, Newcastle and West Wales for the 3 hour training. Peter Allen gave an overview of the recent changes in England Karate and our future event calender both in the UK and our International events. After an extensive warm up including loads of sprint work we settled down to the main session.

I was ably assisted by Peter Jefferies and "Bungy" from Bushi-Kai and focussed on triggering defensive reactions before moving on to attacking techniques and sparring.

This was one of the largest and best squad sessions I have taken since being appointed as AMA National Squad Senior Coach and I would like to thank everyone who made the effort to attend. We have a very active year ahead both in the UK and Europe so keep a close eye on the calander. The British Championships in 2 weeks will be our first National event of the year.