British Combat Karate Association
Holistic Karate is proud to be a member of the British Combat Karate Association for several reasons. Apart from its exceptional administrative efficiency, it is headed up by some of the UK’s top Karate instructors, who are widely respected on the World stage for their pioneering work in developing Karate and Reality Based Martial Arts.
These senior instructors include (but are not limited too):-
Peter Consterdine (9th Dan) & Geoff Thompson (7th Dan)
The Joint Chief Instructors of the BCKA, Peter Consterdine and Geoff Thompson have both had many years of experience as doormen in the some of the UK’s roughest nightclubs as well as body-guarding some high-profile business people and celebrities.
They both felt that the UK Martial Arts scene lacked a credible organisation which specifically dealt with the issues of practical martial arts and self-defence and which was run by people who had years of street experience, as well as being traditional martial artists; not just people who had a theoretical and erroneous belief about how traditional martial arts would work for self-defence. So together they founded the British Combat Association in 1993 (which the British Combat Karate Association is an off-shoot from).
Together they have pioneered many new training methods to cross the gap between traditional martial arts and street functional self-defence, including leading the field of Reality Based Martial Arts.
Both have taught all over the world, produced a number of books/DVD’s and Geoff Thompson has won a BAFTA for a short film he wrote.
John Johnston 7th Dan
Having done plenty of door work in younger days as well as high level competition, Sensei John Johnston knows what works in the real World and what works in a sports arena (and it is very important to know the difference). He is one of the best teachers around today for practical application of Karate and the main man in the BCKA for the Shotokan style of Karate.
Iain Abernethy 6th Dan
Karate has a number of Kata (patterns of movemets). Many movements in these Kata are not really understood, or are given simplistic explanations which simply wouldn’t work under Pressure. Iain Abernethy is a leading expert in teaching realistic and practical applications to these Kata. He teaches seminars all over the world, has a following in many other martial arts (not just Karate), as well as being an author of numerous books and DVD’s.
Russell Stutely 6th Dan
Like Iain, Russell Stutely has a keen interest in applications to Kata, except he specialises in Pressure Point applications and is widely recognised as the Number 1 Pressure Point expert in Europe. He too has produced a number of DVD’s. He also teaches all over the world, including teaching defensive tactics to some US police forces.