Ben Slater 3rd Dan Instructor

Ben has been training in Karate since 1999 and has held the rank of 4th Dan since July 2016.

I first started training at the age of 5 in the West Midlands at Central Karate Schools under Sensei Steve Moore. The club taught Wado-Ryu karate and for many years I focussed on gradings and developing as a student.

I began competing at the age of 12, initially focussing on Kata before starting to compete in Kumite events a few years later. The club was a part of England Wado-Kai and I was fortunate to be selected to compete at European Wado-Kai Championships numerous times. I have won several European titles and medals in both Kata and Kumite disciplines in individual and team events.

As I became more serious about Kumite I began training with Wayne Otto on a weekly basis along with other athletes in the Midlands, many of whom were on the England team at Junior and Senior level. Training with national team members on a regular basis was very challenging but also rewarding; developing me as a fighter, leading to numerous medals at English and British Championships.

I continued training alongside my studies at the University of Birmingham and received a Sports Scholarship for my final 2 years, giving me a glimpse of what the life of a professional athlete was like. At this time I also began coaching and ran weekly Kumite classes at Central Karate Schools, developing the fighters within the association and helping them achieve their own Karate goals. Over the course of 4 years I medalled 7 times at the British University & College Sport (BUCS) Championships, including individual and team Kumite titles, and was selected twice to represent Team GB at the World University Championships and also for the England Karate team to compete at European Championships at both U21 and Senior level.

I joined Sale Dojo and Sensei Ian Swain in 2017 after moving to Manchester for my career. In this short amount of time I have seen fist hand the quality of coaching and students developed at Sale Dojo and Yanagi-kai. I thoroughly enjoy training and coaching here and love the team atmosphere that has been established. I still continue to compete in Kumite and recently won my first individual British title, something that had been a goal of mine for many years.

Karate has been a massive part of my life so far and has taught me essential skills including work ethic, perseverance and always to challenge myself, all of which can be applied outside of the dojo.