I became involved in training in oct 1996 for gkr as I wanted to follow in my dads foot steps as for the competitions we became involved when gkr fist started doing them in the uk and have been involved ever since.

I started training when I was 13 years old in Tae Kwon Do for about a year or two. Then at 17 and started training once again, this time in karate. Again for a year or two. At 22 years old I decided to train again, this time I had the bug and I was hooked, I knew then I would never leave.




Mark White - 2007 NAS Champion of champions

I first got started into martial arts at 16 years of age when I experienced bullying at school. I decided to take up kickboxing as I felt this was a great all round martial art and believed it would be a good art to use if I needed to defend myself. At school I was a bit soft spoken and often the bullies would have a go at me, so my passion for martial arts was a necessity. Kickboxing is full contact and tough and by starting with kickboxing it will get me tougher and for this reason I started my martial arts with kick boxing.

I started Karate thanks to my Brother, Paul, he joined GKR after someone knocked on his door and after his first class he told me about it, I'd always wanted to do a Martial art but had never done anything beyond the thought so it was the opportunity I needed to start. 
I never thought of myself as competitive and didn't know much about competition but my instructor encouraged me to enter tournament as part of my Karate journey and to test myself, and so as an orange belt...

I started training in Shotokan karate in 1990. My only reason was to support the neighbour’s kids as they were being bullied at school, but I loved it and stuck with it for 6 years. Unfortunately, I was forced out through injury in 1995. In 1999, the opportunity arose to join Go-Kan-Ryu (GKR) Karate. I have trained with GKR ever since and love every minute of it I’m currently training 4 times per week.

My brother Paul had someone knock on his door, he joined and attended his first class, when he got home he was buzzing and phoned me to tell me how great it was, I had always thought about doing a Martial Art but had never got round to actually doing something about it, so when he said I should go along I thought ‘why not’. At my first class, I had so much fun and the instructor praised me on my round kick, which was such an encouragement, I was hooked and immediately started training twice a week.