I first started karate when I was 7 years old in January 2013. My brother had attended a few training sessions at Cedars with Renshi Kidby, and I knew I wanted to try a sport like karate, so I went to a training session with my brother. At first, I thought karate was only about being tough and doing “cool moves” that I saw in movies, but the more I trained the more I realised that this was not the case!
My first karate grading was very intimidating, but as I faced the black belts opposite me, I knew I wanted to be one. This made me train hard for my grading. I was so happy when I got my blue belt (my 10th kyu) and I remember how excited I was to go to my next session with my new belt.
Many of my friends joined me at Cedars to do karate. However, most of them left in the end, including one of my best friends who I had trained with for years. There were also many times where I was thinking about leaving. Luckily, I was encouraged to keep going by my parents and Renshi Kidby who had supported me throughout my whole karate journey.
When Cedars shutdown I trained at Newport Pagnell under Renshi Kidby, and more recently under Sensei Wilson.
In October 2019, I achieved Shodan. This was a great achievement, and was also the most nervous I had ever been in my life! It is safe to say that it was definitely a lot harder that any test or previous grading I had done. The moment I received my black belt I realised that I still had so many more years of training ahead of me.
Now I will continue my training and help lower grades if they need any help wherever possible. I will also attend courses and gradings as often as I can, and I look forward to the rest of my karate journey!
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