Brief History of Ian Harrison

In 1977, Ian first started martial arts at the age of 19 studying Judo. At the time Ian didn’t have a car, and so had to rely on a work friend for a lift to the club. He practised Judo for nearly a year, obtaining a couple of grades before having to stop as his friend quit Judo and was no longer able to continue giving him a lift to the club. Ian then found a local Shotakan Karate club. While Ian was training in Karate he also started Scuba diving. Gradually the Scuba diving took over and Ian left the Karate a year later.

Ian has continued Scuba diving for over twenty years and still continues today. In that time Ian has qualified as a Supervisory Advanced Diver, and the qualification enables him to organise expeditions to the coast and teach others.

In late 2003 Ian’s daughter started training with Sil Lum Kune in the Little Tiger program. He would sit there watching the class and this rekindled the memories of his martial arts training. After a short period of time, in 2004 Ian decided to join in. Once he had started he soon caught the bug and was training most days of the week in Kung Fu as well as some Kickboxing and wrestling classes.

As Ian was training frequently he soon started to make rapid progress. In 2005 he also spent most of the year attending the monthly training days, which gave him a fuller understanding of the syllabus. During 2005 Ian qualified as a BCCMA Level 2 Coach. From late 2005 Ian has also helped out as an assistant instructor in the Bedworth Little Tiger classes and from 2006 in the beginners Kung Fu classes.

From early 2008, Ian has also been involved with several other of the instructors within the club in the White Tiger training with Master James Bedford-Stradling & Sifu Pete Smith. The self-defence side has really inspired Ian, and has advanced to a high level within this.

Ian practicing strikes in White Tiger training

In October 2008, Ian took over the Baddesley classes teaching the Kung Fu and Little Tigers.

On Sunday the 15th March 2009 after a grueliing 6 hour grading, Ian achieved his Black Sash in Sil Lum Hark Fu Mun. This was a very proud day for Ian and a great achievement being our oldest student to achieve this grade at the age of 50.

In December 2009 Ian received a certificate of achievement in his White Tiger training from Si-Gung James Bedford-Stradling.

Ian has since continued his studies and achieved his 1st Degree Black sash in September 2010.