Get My Black Belt Associates
Alex Buxton has hand picked some of the leading martial artists in the UK to share their Black Belt secrets with you. To be a Get My Black Belt Associate, and to share their knowledge, a martial artist must be a leader in their field with a proven track record of extremely high achievement. They must also have a passion for teaching and passing on what they know to those who genuinely want to learn.
Sensei John Hurley 4th Dan
Sensei John Hurley started his karate training in South London in 1983 where he achieved his Brown belt in 1987. In addition to his Karate training, he was also training in Muay Thai as he thought it important to be conditioned against full contact kicks and punches. This also provided a different perspective to delivering kicks, punches and throws.
He then moved to Luton where he joined a Shotokan Karate club, attaining his first Black Belt. John then returned to his roots of Wado Ryu and in 1993 he achieved his 2nd Black Belt under Sensei Peter Spanton (8th Dan).
In 1994 John opened up Luton Higashi Karate Kai, which has flourished and has produces both world and national champions. John achieved his 4th Dan under Sensei Peter Spanton in 2005.
In 2007, John was introduced to Sensei Jo Biggs (7th Dan Ju Jutsu) and has been invited to teach over the last 4 years at the Lynmouth Martial Arts Festival. In 2009, John was honoured with an award for his pursuit of martial excellence. This is in recognition of his years of karate instruction as well as drive to bring different martial arts together and to learn from other masters.
John has worked as a pub/night club doorman for over a decade and uses this experience to keep his teaching simple and effective. Since 2008, John has been working with local government in their bid to combat obesity in schools by running breakfast, lunch and after school karate clubs.
As part of his continuous development, John attended Equity in Coaching, Child Protection and First Aid courses in 2009/10 and ensured that all the black belts teaching in his dojo have the Minimum Operating Standard (MOS) as part of the local government scheme and is also personal trainer.
Ayushi Sharma 1st Dan
- Former Member of National Higashi Kata A Squad
- 2004 WKC World Champion
- 2005 Carlow National & International Gold Medalist
Ayushi started learning Shotokan Karate at the age of eight in 1997. Upon achieving her 1st Kyu Brown Belt, she decided to switch to Wado Ryu Karate to add a different flavour to her training. She finds that her new style imposes its own challenges to her mental and physical abilities and helps improve patience and concentration.
In the July 2004 kata course in Forest Gate, Ayushi was promoted to the Kata A Squad and went on to represent Higashi all around the world. In 2005 she was awarded her Karate Black Belt.
Ayushi competed in the 2004 WKC Juniors & Children's World Cup held in Germany. This prestigious event was attended by well over 1,400 competitors from 42 federations from a total of 36 countries and of 5 different styles. Ayushi did herself and her instructors proud by winning the gold and becoming WKC World Kata Champion for her grade category.
In 2005, Ayushi was called upon to represent Higashi again at the Carlow National & International Championships held in Ireland. Ayushi again won the gold to retain her world championship crown.
Ayushi is now studying for her undergraduate degree at Cambridge University, no doubt benefitting from the discipline and high achievement she has found in Karate.
