Association History.

In 1972, Ged Tumman went along with his 8 year old son John to watch a local Karate club in Barnsley.

The club was run by Sensei Edgar Auckland, the style was Wado Ryu. After watching the session both decided to join up and give it a go. Some 40 years later Ged & John are still training and run the Shindo kai karate association with 25 clubs and around 1,000 members. After gaining their Dan grades in 1976, both carried on training until 1978 when they opened they first karate Dojo, Kingstone Karate club (pictured bottom right), (can you see Sensei Ged & John, Back line), this club grew year on year to a point where we opening more karate clubs in Barnsley and soon were coaching every night of the week in every sport centre, working mens club or church hall they could find.

Around 1979 we joined the IBA under Sensei Phil Milner who we respected very much and later we too took on sponsored challenges that his group did every year to raise money for charities. We carry on this tradition with sponsored events and have raised over £50,000 over the years.

We soon grew to a point where clubs were joining our Barnsley group and we decided to join FEKO, after a short time we moved to BASKA around 1982 under Sensei Greg Wallace, Dicky Wu, Mike Dinsdale & Harvey Barker and had many happy years competing and traveling the land gaining experience in Competitions and refereeing. At this time we were both still working down the local pits on 3 shifts & running clubs 7 days a week, something had to change.

In 1987 we were at a point where we thought we could run our own association with around 150 students,

SHINDO KAI KARATE ASSOCIATION was the name we came up with (Way of the Spirit). We then joined the EKGB & things went from strength to strength, gaining clubs and members each year. Around this time we were both made redundant from the mines, so we pumped our redundancy money into our own Dojo and named it THE BARNSLEY KARATE CENTRE and coached Karate full time. ''Living the dream'' & loving every minute.

We are at a point where we have 20 clubs in the association who are part of the EKF from Coventry, Leicester, Halifax, Bradford, Harrogate, Hull and others in the North with around 800 members & growing every year.

The association has always had a family feel to it, his children and now grand children, (Sensei Geds Great Grand children) all train.

Sensei Ged Tumman; 7th Dan coach.

Ged started training in 1972. Qualified as a Full English referee and has officiated across Europe, national & international championships but has now retired from refereeing.

Currently hold the rank of 7th Dan in the EKF in Wado Ryu and is the joint chief instructor of Shindo kai.

Sensei John Tumman; 7th Dan Coach.

John also started training in 1972, won the all England school boys championships in 1976 at the age of 12, gained his Dan grade in the same year. Has been lucky to travel all over the UK competing in both kata & Kumite. Has competed in Europe in Italy, Germany, Finland and northern and southern Ireland.

While competing in Germany in 1992 john tore his knee ligaments and had to retire from kumite, but in 2004 & again in 2011 came back for one last blast & Won the master EKF English kata title.

Over the years we have done many sponsored events for charities and to date have raised £47,000.

The first event was demolishing a barn in karate suits with hands and feet in Bradford which was on the local television,

from then on we have;

Walked from John O Groats to lands end in karate suits. (North to south)

Walked from Newcastle to Gretna Green in Gi's (East to west)

Cycled from Barnsley to Edinburgh castle, down to Cardiff Millennium Stadium, across to Buckingham Palace then back to Barnsley.

24 hour training sessions, 12 hour sessions. Countless press up and sit up sponsors.

Dan Grading dates;

Started training; 1972

1st dan; 1976 IBA

2nd Dan; 1982; IBA

3rd Dan; 1986; BASKA

4th Dan; 1994; EKGB approved / Shindo Kai

5th Dan; 1999; EKGB approved / Shindo Kai

6th Dan; 2005; EKF EKGB approved / Shindo Kai

7th Dan; 2014; EKF approved / Shindo kai