Lessons from karate expert

One of the biggest names in the world of karate, Sensei Frank Brennan, demonstrated the skills which helped the Great Britain squad claim the world championship in 1990, in a special appearance at Whitcliffe Mount Sports Centre, Cleckheaton on Monday night.

Sensei Brennan who is only 34 and lives in Liverpool, has been National Champion 13 times and has a black belt 5th Dan. As captain of a team that won the World Championship, he has gained a reputation for taking on and beating the Japanese at their own discipline.
Mike Cowburn, who organised the event at Whitcliffe, said: "It's a great priviledge to have a man of the calibre of Sensei Brennan here and as a result we have people coming from as far away as Worksop, Leeds and Bradford coming to the evening.

TRAINING
During the course of the evening, Mr. Brennan took a training session for about 50-60 juniors from the Cleckheaton Karate Club, followed by a demonstration session with 30-40 black belt holders and was described as an invaluable learning experience by Mr. Cowburn.

"Despite retiring 18 months ago after a virtually undefeated record, he is a very dynamic karate expert who has such speed, power and agility."

At the present time, Mr. Brennan is training under the auspices of 7th Dan, Andy Sherry who is the chief instructor with the Karate Union of Great Britain.
SPUR
Mr. Cowburn went on to describe how the appearance by Sensei Brennan will hopefully be a spur to the many enthusiastic youngsters in the Spen Valley.
He said: "Cleckheaton Karate Club is doing extremely well at the moment when overall other clubs are shutting down. The junior section is especially strong and this is a healthy situation as I place great emphasis on the juniors who are the future of the club."