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22
Mar
Elite Ripon karate coach celebrates 30 years of mentoring
A Ripon karate coach who has mentored some of the sport’s most talented competitors is celebrating the 30th year of his club.
Ady Gray launched The Karate Dojo Ripon in 1995, and since then it has attracted elite athletes and instructors from across the country.
The club previously held classes in the old YMCA hall before expanding to various venues around Thirsk and Bedale.
In 2010, Mr Gray decided to go full-time with his business and now operates in a top-floor studio on Queen Street in Ripon called Jion Studios.
The sixth-dan black belt was appointed England head coach in 2019 and coached the most successful English team in Commonwealth Games history in 2022, when England topped the table with 63 total medals, including 24 golds.
Sensei Gray began his karate journey in 1978, when he was seven years old. He was awarded his first-dan black belt in 1985 at just 14. After many years' training in Europe and Japan, he was awarded his sixth dan in 2017.
The Stray Ferret spoke to him about his experience as a coach. He explained how he became coach of the England national team:
I never went into karate to become a coach but it kind of just took me that way. You get noticed through your coaching methods and the students you teach.
The students you teach are a reflection of yourself. I had to work hard to make myself good at karate and that translates to my students.
That’s how I think I got to where I am. The more you put into your students in the present the more you get out later down the line.
Mr Gray coached competitive karate for England, but now coaches karate for the benefits of the martial art in Ripon.
He explained the difference between competitive karate and training for the benefits:
There’s lots of techniques you can’t use in the sport. Competitions are based on scoring points against your opponents, and there are certain areas of the body you have to strike to do so.
Winning a fight based on scoring points is very different to winning a fight in real life. That’s what I teach now. It’s all about self-defence.
If someone attacks you at a bus-stop, for example, trying to score points on them is going to be useless! What I teach is all about getting safely away from a conflict as quickly as possible.
Mr Gray teaches students from ages four to 77.
Mr Gray teaches the Shotokan form of karate. This form is made up of three disciplines: kihon (basic and fundamental movements), kata (forms and pre-arranged movement training), and kumite (sparring).
He talked about karate versus other martial arts forms at a time when they are becoming ever more popular:
Other martial arts like judo or jiu-jitsu are much more short-range focused. They put an emphasis on grappling and wrestling.
Karate is more medium to long-range focused. We look much more at striking and kicking.
But it’s not just about sparring. Karate is just as much about character development and discipline as it is about fighting.
Martial arts is one of the most popular sports and there’s a lot of clubs in the area. Karate is still the most practised in the country by quite a long way, thanks to people like Mr Gray.
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