Liam Beilby

I first started karate in late 2018, when I was 6, as some of my other friends were training at the time and I fell out of love with football at the time. I started in Tiny Tigerz, the junior club run by Senseis to give young, new karatekas (like me at the time!) an introduction to the martial art, and later started attending the junior beginners sessions before passing my first grading in March of 2019. I grew to love karate more and more from this point, and then graded under Renshi Kidby for the coming months, each time learning and growing with every belt as well!

As I was a junior I went through the tags system, the idea being that it gives younger children more time to learn their syllabus properly, however this was all halted when Covid hit, and we all resorted to zoom calls and moving the furniture around our living rooms so we had somewhere to train and practice, which in itself I think shows the resilience of the club and its students through the strange time that lockdown was.

After Covid normal service was slowly resumed, and I continued steadily working my way up through the grades. Unfortunately around this time, both of my friends left the club; one falling out of love with the martial art and the other moving away. Nevertheless, I still stayed focussed and in March 2023, I was awarded 3rd kyu. Later that year the first course since the pandemic took place, and it was so different but also wonderful to see the majority of the club training all together. Along with this I attended the first competition day in 2024, and while not winning any medals, was a good event and makes you realise how hard performing in front of everyone is!

In July of 2025 I graded for 1st kyu, but also around this time, I was awarded the Matt Eagles Shield for my attitude and dedication towards the art, which I am still honored by to this day. This was an incredible achievement, but one that reminded me to stay humble and retain my sense of humility. After this I then turned my full attention to training for shodan, now attending 6 hours worth of sessions every week.

I was invited to grade in January 2026, and from this point on the final push was well and truly ‘on’. On the day of the grading I was incredibly nervous, as anybody would be, and I would describe the day as one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. The most tantalising part of the grading was not the content itself, but the long wait afterwards. But, my hours of rigorous training paid off, as did everyone else who graded on the same day that I did, as we were all successful.

Obviously achieving shodan is a brilliant achievement to have, but now all eyes turn to my future, as I know that I still have so much more to learn about the art.