Profile of Rob Manning

Rob Manning 4th Dan is a qualified Black Belt Karate coach and established the club in 1985 at the age of 20. His introduction to karate competition was in 1980 at the age of 15 when he won the Central Region junior kumite event as a purple belt; later the same year he came third in this category at the Shotokan Cup, the national individual championship. Rob’s proudest competitive achievement came in 1987 when at the age of 22 he became the National Students’ Champion by winning the senior men’s kumite event and taking 3^rd place in the kata. The following year in 1988 Rob spent a month training at the headquarters of the Japan Karate Asssociation in Tokyo, Japan. On his return from Japan he was runner-up in the Central Region senior men’s kumite where he fought former World Kumite Champion Dean Hodgkin in the final.

 For many years Rob was a member of the successful Trent SKC kumite team and along with team mates Graham Millward and John Dornan won numerous tournaments. Rob has also been a member of the Central Region Squad under the direct tutelage of Sensei Frank Brennan 7^th dan for many years. In 1988 Rob was privileged to be selected by Sensei Brennan to join a representative kumite team which travelled to Gent, Belgium to fight the Belgian National Team at their Annual Championships; Rob won both his fights with Ippon using his favourite leg sweep/punch combination defeating a well known Belgian international fighter in the process. Around this time Rob was invited by Sensei Andy Sherry 8^th dan to train with the British team captained by Frank Brennan and including Ronnie Christopher, Elwyn Hall, and Dean Hodgkin amongst other notables, and was at the height of its World dominance. Rob trained with the National squad at the famous Liverpool Red Triangle Dojo and at Crystal Palace.

In 1996 Rob placed 2^nd in the London Shotokan Open men’s kumite, and in 1999 he was 3^rd in the Central Region men’s kumite. Rob retired from competitive karate in 2000 at the age of 35.

Rob now devotes his time to developing the club and attends specialist courses in areas such as first aid and coaching. He still regularly trains on advanced karate courses with top instructors in order to maintain a high standard of tuition at the club. He is enormously proud of the achievements of club members many of whom have enjoyed success in competitions, achieved high dan grades, and been selected for the Regional and National Squads.