KenZenIchi Kase-Ha Academy

Sensei Alan Armstrong (7th Dan)

 

Sensei Alan Armstrong 7th Dan started training in Shotokan Karate in 1970 and has never looked back. His Karate experience has taken him all over the world, both training and teaching. 

Alan trained in sport oriented karate until he met the late Sensei Steve Cattle who introduced him to the teachings of Sensei Taiji Kase. From that day he has been dedicated to Kase-Ha Shotokan, growing and improving day by day, proof that training never stops and karate is a way of life.

In the 1990’s he became a member of Kase Sensei's WKSA, an academy dedicated to the further development of senior instructors. He remained a member until the organisation closed in 2000 because of Kase’s illness.

In 2002 Alan was invited to become a founder member of the new Kase-Ha Academy which after a name change became the KSKA. He served on the Executive as Treasurer until 2016

After Kase Sensei's death in 2004 in Alan sought someone to help further study of the Kase-Ha system and in 2007 became a personal student of Sensei Velibor Dimitrijevic 7th Dan a close friend and colleague in the KSKA. In 2017 he cooperated with Sensei Dimitrijevic in the preparation of the English language version of his book “Kase-Ha Karate-do – The Way Beyond”

​Over the years Alan has participated in around 600 training courses with JKA Sensei’s, Nakayama, Enoeda, Shirai, Kawasoe, Naito, Ochi, Osaka, Miyazaki, Morei, Otah, Yahara, Hashiguchi, Tabata, Tomita & Asano. Also with KUGB instructors Andy Sherry, Bob Rhodes, Bob Poynton, Terry O’Neill, Billy Higgins, Bill Crystall, and Kase-Ha sensei’s Taiji Kase, Steve Cattle, Dirk Heene, Velibor Dimitrijevic, Pascal Lecourt & Jim Martin. In addition he has studied Ryu Kyu Kobujutsu with Sensei Julian Mead, Shito Ryu Karate with Sensei Keiji Tomiyama and even dabbled in Capoeira with Master Gato.

In 1973 Alan started teaching in Morpeth, Northumberland and by 1977 he was running four clubs in the area. He then relocated to Scotland and taught at the Barrhead Club near Glasgow until 1982 when he moved again and joined Cheltenham Shotokan Karate Academy, opening the Tewkesbury Dojo in 2012. Romania, Sweden and Serbia are countries where he has been invited to teach.

As a result he has a unique well anchored knowledge and experience-based insight into what the practice of Kase-Ha Karate can provide. This paired with a strong pedagogical approach further enables him to give clear and precise instructions to assist every student to reach far beyond their previously perceived limits, mentally and physically.

 

Karate History:

- 1970 Started Karate
- 1974 1st Dan; 1980 2nd Dan; 1990 3rd Dan - Sensei K Enoeda
- 1996 4th Dan; 2002 5th Dan - Sensei T Kase
- 2011 6th Dan - KSKA Shihankai

- 7th Dan Kase Ha Budo Academy

- Founder Member of the English Shotokan Academy (ESA)

- Treasurer of the English Shotokan Academy (ESA) (1990-2015)

- ESA Technical Committee Member and Grading Examiner

- Member of WKSA (1995 – 2000)

- Founder Member of Kase-Ha Shotokan Ryu Karate Academy (KSKA)

- Treasurer of KSKA (2002 - 2016)

- Joined the Cheltenham Club in 1982 after teaching in Northumberland and Glasgow for a number of years