Dartford Shotokan Karate Centre - Instructor Profile

For over two and a half decades Paul Herbert has trained with many of the worlds finest instructors in both traditional and sports Karate. Above all, Paul is a very proud former student of the late Keinosuke Enoeda Sensei 9th Dan – the world renowned and legendary chief instructor to the Karate Union of Great Britain and JKA Europe.

Since the loss of Enoeda Sensei, Paul has continued his development in Karate-Do under the guidance and tutelage of another ‘Enoeda Protégé’, the highly respected and renowned Dave Hazard Sensei 7th Dan. Who was himself a personal student and close friend of Enoeda Sensei for over thirty years.

Paul first trained with Hazard Sensei in 2000 on the recommendation of Enoeda Sensei and highly impressed with what he experienced, he has trained regularly with him ever since.

As a prominent instructor in his own right, Paul has coached many of his own students to numerous grading and competition merits. These have included students achieving senior Dan grades, winning National championships and even gaining selection onto many of the leading association national squads where they have gone on to compete in European and World championships of their own.

Paul has also had the privilege and honour of having taught regular classes and squad training at Enoeda Sensei’s Marshall Street and Budokwai clubs. The Marshall Street dojo recognised at the time as not only the JKA European headquarters but also as a centre of World excellence. The historic Budokwai dojo is also famously renowned as being the oldest and most famous Japanese dojo in Europe, where some of the most distinguised figures in the history of martial arts have both trained and taught. As the holder of nationally recognised instructor and assessor qualifications, Paul is regularly invited to teach for various associations and individual dojos all around the UK and throughout Europe. Paul has also been fortunate to teach Karate in Africa and has recently been invited to instruct in Peru, South America

As a competitor, Paul was involved in tournament Karate for twenty years between 1985 and 2005. During this period, he competed in championships at club, open, regional, English, British, International, European and World level. This included the honour of representing both England and Great Britain at no more than eighteen major international competitions, amongst them were seven JKA European championships and the 2004 JKA World championship in Tokyo, Japan. Over those two decades, Paul competed all over the world in countries such as Belgium, Czech Republic, England, France, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Serbia, Spain, Wales and Yugoslavia. With over two hundred competition medals to his name including international honours, Paul was also a member at one time or another of the EKGB, KUGB and JKA English and Great Britain national senior squads.

During his time with the KUGB, Paul was the individual Southern Region kumite champion on two occasions, southern region team kumite champion on five occasions and southern region team kata champion twice. He was seeded in the last 16 of the men's senior kumite at the National championships from 1999 to 2003 and ended his time with the KUGB winning the British team kumite title as part of Enoeda Sensei’s dojo team. Despite having made a reputation for himself over the year's predominately through success in kumite, Paul became the individual kata champion at the 2004 JKA English championships. Paul's chosen kata in the final was Sochin, a personal favourite of Enoeda Sensei.

Paul has twice made the long journey over to Japan for both Karate training and international competition. In 2000, he spent an extended period training daily at the old JKA Honbu in Ebisu-Nishi with many of the JKA senior instructors. His second visit to the land of the rising sun came in 2004 where he represented England at the 9th JKA Shoto World Cup at the famous Budokan arena. During this visit, Paul had the honour of training at the renowned Takushoku University with Tsuyama Sensei and also at the newer JKA honbu in Idabashi, Tokyo. During his time practising Shotokan, Paul has trained with many of the great Sensei from the Japanese ‘Golden Era’. Just a few of the names amongst them include Enoeda, Kanazawa, Abe, Yahara, Tanaka, Osaka, Ueki, Mori, Tsuyama and Tabata.

Over the years, Paul has appeared in numerous publications including Traditional Karate Magazine, Combat magazine, Shotokan Karate Magazine, many local newspapers and even Boxing Monthly. In July 2006, Paul was featured on the cover of the renowned publication ‘Traditional Karate’ as the magazine showcased a candid interview and article on him. Following on from this he has also been the subject of numerous online interviews. In October 2007, Hazard Sensei asked Paul to take on the role of PR officer for the Academy of Shotokan Karate. A job that Paul has done proudly ever since.

In this day and age, a genuine question mark can easily be placed over the relevance of tracing ones Karate lineage but Paul is pleased to be able to link his own training history directly back to the source of Shotokan. Not from sole meetings with visiting masters on crowded courses but from regular training with instructors at the centre of its evolution and growth.

However, despite Karate's eastern origins, Paul feels that it is now essentially western Karate-ka who are taking the Shotokan system forward. He believes that it is essential for Shotokan continues to develop its concepts and avoids becoming stagnated. In an era where many associations are sacrificing the function of Karate to simply clone form and aestheticism, Paul feels that the effectiveness of the art should always be at the forefront of its application. The modern day enemy has changed, the environment has changed and therefore the Karate being practised must also change.

With a structured development towards his personal training and to that of his own students, it has become one of Paul's objectives to contribute to the advancement of Shotokan Karate by adding his own personal knowledge of contemporary coaching methods to the already thorough teachings of both Enoeda and Hazard Sensei’s. Paul feels that it is vital for karate-ka to apply all the fundamentals principles of Shotokan to their training, but also that it is essential for them to modify them to suite their own body-type

'To enable us to take Shotokan forward, we need to look back at where it has come from. Only then can we begin a constructive and intelligent evolution that will personalise the Karate experience for each of us. For me, the basic techniques and principles of Shotokan are like the letters of the alphabet. Writers use single letters to create words, sentences and eventually an entire novel. Similarly, a successful karate-ka takes the individual elements of Shotokan along with their own body-type and character, to create a unique and personal form.' ~ Sensei Paul Herbert 2007.