Roy Currie

I first trained in Shotokan Karate when I was living in Brighton in the late 80s/early 90s. I spend nearly two years training under Sensei David Hazard and reached the grade of 6th kyu. I then moved back to Edinburgh, where I continued training, albeit more intermittently owning to work and study commitments. However, I did succeed in taking a further grading during the year to reach 5th kyu. Unfortunately, a further move and career change brought that particular chapter of my involvement in martial arts to a close.

I moved to Bedford in the late 90s, I was keen to resume some form of martial arts training. My other half, Sarah, was also keen to try a martial art. At the time we chose Tae Kwon Do as we thought it would be good to try something that we could both start fresh from the beginning. So began two years of TKD training during which I reached 5th Kup. Once again, other interests and life pressures took me away from martial arts.

On reaching my early 50s, I came to the conclusion that I was aging far from gracefully and really had to do something about it! In the autumn of that year, I found myself watching a karate class and realised that this was the only sort of exercise that I had every really enjoyed and how much I missed it. There was a poster for a CFTS karate club with website details on the wall and as a result, I turned up at our Kempston club on a Monday evening and asked Renshi Kidby if I could join his class. I survived that first session, returned for more on the Wednesday and started training at Brickhill on the following Saturday with Sensei Young and have trained regularly at both clubs ever since.

My expectations and ambitions were modest. When I started, I thought it would be good if I could somehow see my way to getting back to the level I had achieved before and that would probably be as far as I could get. I certainly didn’t entertain the possibility that I could achieve a brown belt let alone a black one. I trained as a white belt for five months before taking an assessment, as a result of which I was graded back to 5th Kyu. From then on, I managed to grade fairly regularly, and with each step I found myself setting my goals a little higher.

Thanks to a great network of friendly and welcoming clubs, an excellent bunch of fellow students and constant access to high-quality instructors all of whom have provided me with a wealth of advice and encouragement; I was invited to attempt a Shodan grading in March 2017.

I felt as nervous walking back into the dojo to train wearing a black belt as I did walking into the dojo to undertake my Shodan grading and I remained keenly aware of how much more there was for me to learn and improve upon. I looked upon achieving Shodan as passing a milestone; a pretty important milestone but still only a marker along a journey.

I continued to train regularly across both the Kempston and Brickhill clubs and through the encouragement of Sensei Young, participated in external training events with the likes of Ian Abernethy and John Titchen which broadened my understanding and appreciation of karate particularly with respect to kata applications. I also took full advantage of the regular courses with guest instructors offered by CFTS.

In March 2019, I completed my portfolio to become a qualified instructor and successfully passed my Nidan grading. However, around this time some distinctly odd health issues began to emerge. These became markedly more severe towards the end of the year and in January 2020, I found myself unable to train. I still attended all classes as an observer. My daughter, Jen was a 1^st kyu at that time and was preparing for her own Shodan grading.

Two months later, COVID lockdown came into play at about the same time as my condition was diagnosed and brought under control. During lockdown, I regularly walked through kata and kumite sets to keep them fresh although I was still in very rough physical condition. By the time socially distanced, in-person training resumed, I had recovered enough to rejoin the class.

I do believe that my level of fitness from karate played an important role in protecting me from even worse impact on my health. On resuming regular training, karate became central to recovering my fitness. At that time, I was even struggling to make basic stances but I was determined to recover as much of my karate performance skills as possible. In addition to training at Kempston and Brickhill, I became a fairly regular visitor at the Newport Pagnell dojo and built up to training five days most weeks.

I was invited to attempt my Sandan grading in March 2024 – a gruelling but successful experience! – and now serve as a member of the CFTS Instructors’ Committee.

Looking back, I’ve benefitted tremendously from my Karate training; in terms of health, mental stimulus and self-discipline. A particularly special aspect has been training with my family, especially my daughter Jen who shares my interest and enthusiasm and achieved Nidan last autumn. Looking forward… there is still so much more to learn and refine.

After all, “the study of karate is a lifetime pursuit”!