The chief instructor of the club, Sensei Ken Whittington, passed away in April 2022. Ken was one of the most experienced, respected and knowledgable Karate instructors in Wales. Ken did some Judo training in the late 60s and then began training in Karate in 1970, traveling to Cardiff to train with Sensei Mike O Brien ( the first person in Wales to achieve a black belt in Shotokan Karate ). Throughout the 70s, Ken trained extensively with Sensei Enoeda and other leading instructors. He also trained with the Welsh squad and made trips to Liverpool to train with the elite British squad. Ken graded to black belt 1st Dan in 1977 and to 2nd Dan in 1979. In 1981 he captained the Welsh squad at the European championships. He retired from competitions soon afterwards and concentrated on running the Abergavenny Karate Club and so passing on his extremely high level of ability and knowledge. Ken joined the JKAE group at its inception in 2003 and graded to 3rd Dan in 2005. He never lost his infectious enthusiasm for karate and continued to attend JKA courses in Guildford and then Crawley. The eternal student.
He will be sorely missed by all who knew him. The instructors at Abergavenny SKC will endeavour to continue his legacy by striving to both learn and to teach high quality shotokan karate.
He will be sorely missed by all who knew him. The instructors at Abergavenny SKC will endeavour to continue his legacy by striving to both learn and to teach high quality shotokan karate.