Instructors

Name : Ken Tucker

Rank  : 6th Dan Shotokan Karate 
              6th Dan Ao Denkou Jitsu

The chief instructor of the Okuden Shotokan club is Shihan Ken Tucker who started learning karate in 1973 under instruction from Peter Moore and Sid Nogan (both 2nd Dan) and got his 1st dan in 1979 in Japanese Karate Association (JKA) Shotokan karate. This was while he trained and graded under the instructors from the Karate Union of Great Britain (KUGB), which included Asano Shiro, Kato Sadashige, Enoeda Keinosuke, Billy Higgins, Andy Sherry, Bob Poyton and most of all the late Steve Cattle. When his instructors gave up karate, Ken took over the running of their club (Adult Education in Llanedyrn, Cardiff) and left the KUGB for the Welsh Karate Association (WKA). Later he became a member of the Amateur Martial Association (AMA) firstly through the Association of Karate and Allied Disciplines (AKAD) and then directly. He was also a founder member of the Ao Denkou Kai (ADK) under Professor Rick Clark. He did about 4 years study of aikido, aiki-jitsu, jujitsu, bo-jitsu, and ken-jitsu to broaden his knowledge of the martial arts in keeping with the ADK philosophy of cross training and bringing the lessons learned back into the core style. Ken has studied karate for almost 50 years and he is still learning every day.

Ken has always been open to new learning experiences as evidenced by his willingness to travel to study Aiki-jitsu under Soke Yamaue Keido, 10th dan, on his rare visits to the UK and also with Professor Rick Clark 9th dan from the USA who visited the club regularly for 20 years.

We hope that you will join us in our endeavours to further our study of the martial arts and find as much benefit in your training as we have in ours.