Do you know your sensei?
About Matt Price Sensei and why he is a regular visitor to CDMA, Part 2.
By 1999 Matt was captaining the then famous KUGB team and winning many national and international titles in the shotokan world.
Matt Sensei built a strong reputation in karate through his prolific fighting style but also his excellent kata skills, and in 2002 Matt became the fourth person in the history of the KUGB to become Grand Champion by winning both the kata and kumite at the National Championships at the same time.
Drawn deeper in to the world of Karate and having a huge thirst for knowledge about his art, Matt sought out the best in Karate both in the Shotokan world, but also looking outside of it too. During this time Matt started to compete under Sensei Ticky Donovan OBE as part of the English All-Style Karate team and added WKF International Medals to his collection. This gave Matt a unique insight to the larger world of competitive karate and the seemingly impossibly high standards that were being set.
Bringing to together his knowledge and experience gained from both his KUGB and EKF competition experience, Matt took to the stage in what would be one of his best individual performances ever, 2006 saw Matt taking the title of individual European Champion at the ESKA Championships in Lucerne, Switzerland the first British competitor to do this since 1989!
In the following year of 2007 Matt captained the KUGB Senior Mens team to Gold in team kumite at the World Shotokan Karate Association championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland. This would be Matt Sensei’s farewell as a competitor, leaving at the very top of his game.
As Matt Sensei’s competition career was drawing to a close, more and more Dojo Sensei, realised what an incredible talent they had on their door step and the demand for Matt’s knowledge and coaching skills started to rocket. Matt was fast becoming THE coach instructors of all styles wanted at their Dojo for both Kumite, Kata and Kihon training development. Matt now teaches all over the UK, Ireland and around the world.
We are so lucky to have access to such a coach, who now travels to our academy on a monthly basis, and it is the mission of Can Do Martial Arts to continually provide the best opportunities for its students, and their development and enjoyment of karate. We do hope everyone makes the most of Matt’s visits and their training each week.
More to follow!
Ossu