A club within Dubai Silicon Oasis teaching Karate and Self Defence and Confidence. Most importantly it’s about having fun.
I first trained in Karate at University of Stirling in 1982 under Sensei Clark. The club was subsequently named sen-no-kai 先の会 karate( www.sen-no-kai.org/ )
After leaving University I remained in Stirling for some time and continued training under Sensei Clark and also Sensei Marshall who later formed Makotokai Karate Do. (
Both clubs had a strong association with Sensei Billy Coyle, whose Aiki
do input had a long standing influence on the styles development. Sen-No-Kai and Makotokai karate are not 'sport’ form styles but rather a soft ‘internal’ style combining aspects of Aikido into Karate and focuses on personal development and self defence rather than competitive sports. We do use the Jo and Bokken (training weapons) to facilitate the learning of ‘Ki’ projection, timing and awareness. I later joined the Metropolitan police in London and spent around 14 years as a front line police officer. Obviously in Dubai there is a large ex-pat community from all around the world and I wanted to provide a local ‘club’ environment where I could teach things learnt from Karate, Life and the 14 years as a Police Officer dealing. It is all about developing confidence, self respect and the confidence to say NO, along with self defence and hopefully spark a desire or interest in further learning of martial arts. I wanted to reflect the fact that Dubai Silicon Oasis has such a diverse, multi national and religious group of people from all over the world and approached a Japanese friend and colleague Natsuko Mineghishi to name the club. She runs another extremely good club in Melbourne, Australia called Karyukai Karate Melbourne http://www.karyukaikarate.com/ provided the following;
Senbukan "先武館"
Sen 先 comes from my old club, also meaning ahead, or before. Which also indicates self defence (Sen no Sen - ahead of being attacked)
Bu 武 comes from martial arts, Budo. (way of Bu jyutsu) Which indicates studies of mixture of many styles of martial arts
Kan 館 means House, where you gather together and study martial arts. In Japanese the characters have 31 strike numbers and has the following meanings.
My sincere thanks and gratitude to Sensei Natsuko Mineghishi for all her help and time. I am also deeply grateful for having chosen Stirling University to go and study. Undoubtably this choice was the cause of my journey into Martial Arts and the privilege of meeting and studying under such fantastic people like the 'wee man' Sensei Clark, Sensei Marshall, Sensei Coyle, Sensei McBurnie to name but a few. The path has been a long one, with many side roads. As one would say it is not the destination that is important but the journey. I have taken many detours, often stopping but have embraced and enjoyed every one. I am indebted to all that I have met and helped me along the "Way"
I hope and trust that all of my own Sensei's are proud of the distance I have come, yet still to go. Moreover I hope that I can also show the "Way" to the young students dipping their toes into the ocean. We welcome anyone, regardless of past training and experience.
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