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Simon O'Brien started Imperial Karate Club in August 1995 in a small church hall with just 7 students! Simon came to Bristol from Cardiff some years earlier and continued to train Karate in Bristol where he met Peter Jefferies. Soon Peter joined Simon's club, Peter had been training since 1988 and Simon since 1979 and was still fighting for Wales at that time. They had both trained under Allan Flook 7th Dan and decided to enroll the club within the same association. The aim was to provide quality Karate tuition with the lowest possible training fees thus making it available to everyone. Thursday was the only training night and as the club was located in the Brislington area of Bristol the club was known as Brislington Karate Club. Our association was called Higashi and was based up on the Wado Ryu style.
Click here for more info on Wado Ryu Karate
The club soon grew and became too big for the small church hall so training was moved to Brislington School and a Monday night session was also added. In 1997 Bristol City Council offered to part fund the rent and the club was relocated to Wicklea Youth Centre and Broomhill Youth Centre in a joint venture with Bristol Youth Services. The next few years saw the club grow in to one of the biggest within the association and several of the initial students obtained their Black Belts. Dave Cockram 2nd Dan was promoted to assistant instructor to help with the ever growing class sizes. Simon graded 4th Dan in 1998 soon followed by Peter with his 3rd Dan.
In October 2001 following the success in Brislington, Bristol City Council asked the Instructors to open a new Dojo in the Hartcliffe area that drastically needed more y community activity. The club's name was changed to Imperial Karate Club to reflect the local influence of the Imperial Tobacco Company and bring the three Dojo's of Brislington, Broomhill and Hartcliffe together.
In January 2003 as a result of the Council closing one Youth Centre and overcrowding in sessions we moved all training to our central and largest Dojo at Wicklea. This is now the home of all Imperial Karate training and unites all our students from Brislington, Broomhill and Hartcliffe together under one roof!
The Club has a strong membership of over 150 students with age ranges of 6 years to 50 years and several club members are National champions and many are part of the England Squad.
In October 2003 IKC we were delighted to be joined by Adrian Williams 4th Dan who left his club to join us. Adrian took his 4th Dan with Simon in 1998 and is a qualified Kumite Referee and also acts as child protection officer. Adrian soon joined our Instruction team and brings with him a wealth of experience.
Also late 2003 Mark Elliott 1st Dan and Kumite Referee joined our team of Instuctors. This gave us a broad knowledge base of Karate, 5 Instructors with over 100 years of Karate training between them! Not many Dojo's can offer this level of instruction! click here for instructor details.
In 2004 in order to progress our top level fighters we formed the Imperial Elite Squad. This squad now enters high level European and World tournaments and bring vital experience back to our Dojo. As a result we now have a European Gold medalist in our squad!
Our Instruction team still push themselves hard and December 2004 saw Peter Jefferies successfully grading to 4th Dan and Mark Elliott to 2nd Dan. January 2005 saw the long overdue promotion of Adrian Williams and Simon O'Brien to 5th Dan.
In March 2005 after 10 years as a club we decided to leave Higashi and stand on our own. We are proud to have been part of the Higashi family and still keep in close contact with our friends there. We affiliated to the Amateur Martial Association (AMA) to keep our link to the Karate England. The AMA have one of the best Squads in the country and Simon was offered the roll of head coach on the AMA National Squad along with Pete as senior squad coach.
Due to her commitment in training and input into the club, Melanie Phillips was offered a place on our instruction team proving that Women are as good at instructing as Men and is now an invaluable part of our team. In October 2006 we started our Imperial Imps session following a many requests. This is a training program designed especially for 4, 5 and 6 year old's and is run by Melanie and her team of assistants.
The club now boasts a Senior Instruction team of two 5th Dan's and a 4th Dan which is virtually unheard of in this country.
Imperial Instructors are in full control of the future and direction of the club and all decisions are made in house. Simon, Peter, Adrian, Dave and Mel still train with other senior Instructors and the club continues to grow in both numbers and standard.
At Imperial Karate Club new students of any age who are willing to give 100% effort are always welcome.
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