Jack Green (karateka) explained

Jack Green
Birth Place:Blackpool
Nationality:British
Style:Shotokan Karate
Trainer:Keinosuke Enoeda, Hirokazu Kanazawa
Rank:2nd Dan
Club:Liverpool Red Triangle

Jack Green was one of the first three men in the UK to be graded to black belt in Shotokan karate, was an original member of the KUGB, and was their first national kumite champion.[1]

Biography

Jack Green trained at the Red Triangle karate club in Liverpool, and studied under Hirokazu Kanazawa and Keinosuke Enoeda. In 1966, Green became the third person to pass a grading in the UK for a black belt in Shotokan karate,[2] following Red Triangle clubmates Andy Sherry and Joseph Chialton.[3] Green, alongside Sherry and Eddie Whitcher, was also one of the first to be graded to 2nd Dan in the UK, attaining the rank in 1967 at Crystal Palace.[3]

In 1967, Green won the inaugural KUGB kumite championships.

In 1969, he founded the Blackpool School of Karate affiliated to the British Karate Federation.[4] After Green left the club, Ian Smith took over at Revoe Gymnasium. The club then joined Shotokan Karate International under Asano Shiro, and later Kanazawa's 'Kodokai' under Kato Sadashige. Kato later affiliated with the International Japan Karate Association, under Tetsuhiko Asai.

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: www.theshotokanway.com . www.theshotokanway.com . 1943-07-09 . 2013-08-02.
  2. Two other individuals from the United Kingdom had already been awarded their blackbelts by the Japan Karate Association before 1966: Charles Mack was graded 1st Dan Shotokan by Masatoshi Nakayama on March 4, 1962 in Japan; and Vernon Bell was ratified as a JKA blackbelt on February 5, 1964 having corresponded with the JKA in Tokyo and relinquished his Yoseikan grade.
  3. http://www.bushinkai.org.uk/page47.htm UK Karate history
  4. http://wyrekarateijka.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/club-history.html Club History of Blackpool and Wyre Karate