Instructor Damien McLaughlin 7th Dan

I have continually trained in the Shukokai style since 1972, I am not a ‘Jack of all styles’ but I am a MASTER in Shukokai, I attained my 7th Dan in June 2005.

In 1972, the SKU was known as the S.W.K.U (the ‘W’ stood for World). I trained at the YMCA in Manchester town centre under Steve Powell. I would describe Steve as an excellent Martial Artist, who could turn his hand to any style. In the lessons he would switch from Traditional karate to Kung-fu to Nunchaku (weapon - flails). He was good at them all; he even trained & competed in full contact. Steve worked part-time as a doorman so he brought reality to the lessons & when teaching self defence he was the best instructor I have ever trained with.

In 1977 I attained my Black belt under Sensei Kimura, it was my third go as I had failed the 2 previous occasions under him. This was hard to take for me because the first time I went for it, which was 1976, I was the current SKU brown Kata champion, unfortunately for me Sensei Kimura had recently drastically changed the Shukokai style & all 20 of us, who were going for the Black belt, failed. Even on the second occasion a large amount of Karate’ka failed. I’m not making excuses but I struggled to get rid of the “Double hip” action, which was a strong feature in the previous Shukokai techniques.

I was always good at Kata & could pick-up new Kata’s easily, unlike today (I put it down to age). My fighting (Kumite) wasn’t too bad either & I soon became a regular Senior member of the S.K.U. England squad, which was coached by Sensei Eddie Daniels & managed by Sensei Stan Knighton. In 1979 I reached the dizzy heights of being a member of the National squad, coached & managed by Ticky Donovan & I became a member of the National squad that took part in the European Championships in Geneva.

In that same year, I was a member of the S.K.U. 1st team that beat all-comers in the E.K.B. Championships at Crystal Palace, plus I was a finalist in the E.K.B. individual Championships in 1979 & 1980 (Kumite).

I reached a high level in Kata events resulting in some memorable wins, including beating Terry Pottage and Tommy Kwan many years ago to become the S.K.U. National Kata champion (for those of you who don’t know  Terry & Tommy are then all I can say is they were pretty good – and still are!)

In 1978, I became an instructor at Middleton Karate club & taught 2 nights a week. Denis Casey was the other instructor who taught the other nights. We had a strong club & won numerous competitions throughout the country.

Around that same time (1978), I opened a Karate club in Stalybridge & after some research called it ‘TOKKOTAI’, which means ‘Special or Secret Attack’. This became a strong club which bore many a good Karate’ka. While a 2nd Dan I became a grading officer & I would regularly grade students from various clubs.

In the early 80’s, I gained the qualification of E.K.B. referee. I officiated at the highest level for many years and worked as a Senior Match Area Controller at a number of the E.K.B. Championships. After many years as a National Official I retired but continued officiating at association level.

I am currently the SKU Chief Referee & hold regular courses each year to educate the SKU Karate’ka with regards to the Kumite & Kata rules & hopefully increase the already strong membership of SKU Officials.

About 1994 I retired from teaching Karate & handed the club over to my senior student, Craig Murphy. Craig still runs the club & has done a great job as it still has a very good reputation. Throughout, I continued to train Karate & for many years I dabbled with Judo, which I love, but struggled to get a grip of (pardon the pun).

It was while training Judo at Rochdale Judo club that I was drawn back into teaching, thanks to Warren Schofield who is the Senior Judo instructor. He talked me into thinking about running a Karate club from the premises & the more I thought about it the more I wanted to do it, hence ROCHDALE WARRIORS.

Damien McLaughlin