Ben began training in Tuam Karate Club with former chief instructor Celine King at age 8. Originally brought to Karate by parents who were anxious for him to learn self defence and to improve his confidence and strength, he has trained continuously since then and feels he owes a huge debt to Karate for the enormous benefits its has given him. Over the years, he has travelled to both Japan and China for training as well as to many European countries. An avid reader (particularly of Karate books!), he tries to read at least one book a week. He cites Karate as being one of the things he loves most of all in life, and just wants to train and learn as much as possible. He dislikes politics and power struggles in the martial arts and those who dupe an unaware public by teaching them substandard “Karate” and self defence techniques as a deceitful way to make money fast. He is also very interested in political theory and moral philosophy, as well as Hardcore punk! He tries to live by the following line from Funakoshi Sensei’s book Karate-Do Nyumon: “When I train with others, I try to learn from them all that I can, I note their good points and try to adopt them, their bad points and try to avoid them”: an open mind is key to personal development. Ben passed his second dan in March 2011 under Kato Sensei.
[*Sempai is a Japanese title meaning “senior”. It is the opposite of “Kohai”, or junior.]
Ben's mawashi geri jodan (roundhouse kick) in action!
