The Nigerian Association of Shotokan Karate (NASK) has concluded arrangements to host the third edition of its “Training with the champions” karate training initiative which started in the year 2000.
To this effect, and as has come to be expected of NASK (i.e they spare no cost in ensuring that only the creme de la creme of karate’s best instructors come in to Nigeria to run this programme), two of the worlds finest and most accomplished non Japanese instructors in the persons of Sensei Andy Sherry (9th Dan) and Sensei Frank Brennan (8th Dan), will be in the country to conduct this four day international training event which holds in Victoria Island, Lagos from August 29th to September 1, 2017. Participants will be drawn from all across the country, Ghana as well as Franco phone West Africa.
The eager anticipation and very enthusiastic expectation of another unique experience and exposure of all Nigerian karateka to truly world class training has created such a palpable buzz within the nations Karate circles since NASK announced the dates for this event which is expected to equally afford any who qualify, the unique opportunity to test for black belt grades of first to as high as 6th degree.
SENSEI ANDY SHERRY (9TH DAN)
Born on July 1943, Sensei Andy Sherry started his karate training in the early ’60s under Senseis Murakami and Mochizuki and from 1965 with Sensei’s Kanazawa and Enoeda. He became a black belt in 1966, the very first person in Great Britain to be awarded such a rank in Shotokan karate. He was the KUGB’s first Kata champion in 1967, and the next year, 1968, he became the first grand Champion by winning both the Kata and Kumite events.
This was the start of a now legendary run of successes in National and International Championships. He first won the EAKF European Kumite title in 1968, and then went on to win other Individual European Championship titles and countless team events as a member of British and England teams.
He was equally one of the most respected fighters on the International scene in his competition days as he was a master of timing and tactics, skills that he now uses to coach the KUGB’s international squad. Although recognized internationally as a fighter, he dominated the Kata event in the first four KUGB National Championships and achieved many successes in Kata in European and National Championships until his retirement from competition in 1977.
It was in 1966 that he, along with a small group of representatives from other UK Karate clubs, helped form the Karate Union of Great Britain and became its chairman in 1973.He has been continuously elected to the post to this present day.
He has had many firsts in his long Karate career – he was Britain’s first Shotokan Black Belt, the first 3rd Dan, the first qualified British Shotokan International Referee, and he now holds the rank of 9th Dan. His coaching and management of the KUGB National Squad reached its peak at Sunderland in 1990, when the KUGB British Team defeated the JKA Japan team to win the JKA World Shotokan Karate Championships.
Quiet by nature, he is totally dedicated to Karate and the KUGB – he serves both with a passionate dedication that is an inspiration to others, and there can be no doubt that he will continue to dedicate himself to the KUGB to ensure that its remains the largest, most professional and one of the most respected Karate organizations in the World
SENSEI FRANK BRENNAN (8TH DAN)
Sensei Frank Brennan was born in 1960. He started his karate training in1973 under the tuition of Andy Sherry. His first international appearance was with the KUGB Squad in the European Championships in Sweden in 1978, where he came 2nd in the Senior Kata event. The next year, in Belgium, he won both the Senior Kumite and Kata events to become Grand Champion of Europe at the age of 19, a feat he achieved several times over his competitive career.
Frank Brennan is one of the most spectacular karate enigma’s to have been born outside of Japan and his uniqueness as a fighter and competitor saw him lead the KUGB International Squad to victory over Japan in the 1990 JKA World Shotokan Championships in Sunderland, England. In an interview at the World Championships, the Japanese team coach, Ex-World Champion Masahiko Tanaka said that the one man that the whole Japanese Team were specifically trained to beat was Frank Brennan.
Sensei Frank Brennan is held in very great awe and respect internationally and personifies the dedication, humility and ethos of karatedo. He is a staunch and loyal supporter of the KUGB, and works very hard to further the aims of the Association.
