Andy Sherry was born on July 9th 1943, near to
Liverpool City Centre. While still at school, he became interested in
Japanese martial arts and started to train at Judo. In 1956 he also took
up Ju-Jitsu and it was while he was studying this he first started to
become interested in Karate. Along with
several others, he helped found the Liverpool Karate club under the
auspices of the British Karate Federation. He studied karate with T.
Murakami, H. Mochizuki, and Kanazawa Hirokazu
in the early '60s and received his Shodan in 1966, the first person in
Great Britain to be awarded such a rank in Shotokan karate.
He was the KUGB's
first Kata champion in 1967, and the next year, 1968, he became the
first grand Champion by winning both the Kata and Kumite events. This
was the start of a now legendary run of successes in National and
International Championships. He first won the EAKF European Kumite title
in 1968, and then went on to win other Individual European Championship
titles and countless team events as a member of British and England
teams.
In his competition Kumite, he was a fast and skilful fighter, noted for
his stunningly fast Gyaku Tsuki which he combined with a very rapid
Yori-Ashi (foot movement) to make him one of the most respected fighters
on the International scene.
He was also a master of timing and tactics, skills that he now uses,
along with Sensei Enoeda, to coach the
KUGB
international squad. Although recognised internationally as a fighter,
it should not be forgotten that he dominated the Kata event in the first
four KUGB
National Championships, and that he achieved many successes in Kata in
European and National Championships until his retirement from
competition in 1977.
It was in 1966 that he, along with a small group of representatives from
other UK Karate clubs, helped form the Karate Union of Great Britain.
Although very busy as a competitor and as an instructor, he immediately
too an active part in the KUGB
administration from its inception, and in 1973 he was elected as
Chairman of the KUGB.
He has had many firsts in his long Karate career - he was Britain's
first Shotokan Black Belt, the first 3rd Dan, the first qualified
British Shotokan International Referee, and he now holds the highest
rank ever awarded by the Japan Karate Association to a European - 8th
Dan of the JKA.
His coaching and management of the KUGB
National Squad reached its peak at Sunderland in 1990, when the KUGB
British Team defeated Japan to win the World Shotokan Karate
Championships. Since then, the KUGB
has taken first, third and second place Team titles at the 1991, 1993,
and 1995 WSKA championships respectively.
Quiet by nature, he is totally dedicated to Karate and the KUGB
- he serves both with a passionate dedication that is an inspiration to
others, and there can be no doubt that he will continue to dedicate
himself to the KUGB
to ensure that its remains the largest, most professional and one of the
most respected Karate organisations in the World.
He features along with other British Karate
Greats in the
Shotokan Karate Videos.
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