Gary E Swift 7th Dan Kyoshi
Gary Swift was born in Leigham Terrace, Plymouth, Devon, in 1956. He started his Martial Arts training at the early age of 10 at his junior school at Laira Green. His first taste of Martial Arts was learning the popular systems, at that time, of Ju-jutsu and Judo.
After a move to Prince Rock Senior School he was also introduced to the skills of Thai-boxing, known then as Kickboxing, by one of his gym teachers.
Upon his arrival to the South of England in 1972, from Liskeard, he started Wado-ryu Karate in Guildford and Bisley (Surrey), under his most influential Instructor Mick Rapley, in 1974 (affiliated to the United Kingdom Karate Federation, later to be known as the United Kingdom Karate-do Wadokai).
Regular Instructors at this time included Suzuki Tatsuo Hanshi, Maeda Tadayuki Sensei, Shiomitsu Hanshi and Kobayashi Katsumi Sensei.
From this day onwards he studied numerous other forms of Karate, as well as Shorinji-kempo, Muay-Thai, Malaysian Taekwondo (Thoi-kuen-do), Korean HoSin-sul Hapkido, various weapons systems, and a variety of other Japanese, Korean, and Chinese Martial Arts.
Today he is holder of numerous titles and ranks in Martial Arts including 7th Dan in Wado-ryu Karate, 2nd Dan in Korean HoSin-sul Hapkido, and 1st Dan in Malaysian Taekwondo. He has over 30 years teaching experience and over 40 years (including International) training experience.
He is the Chief Instructor to British Wadokai Karate (BWK) which was formerly known as Domei Kokusai Wadokai, (DKW) est. 1976.
Gary Swift Kyoshi has also had the honour of training and being graded under Ohtsuka Hironori Meijin 10th Dan (founder of Wado-ryu) in 1976.
Wado instructors include/d: Tatsuo Suzuki 8th Dan Hanshi, Katsumi Kobayashi, Masafumi Shiomitsu 8th Dan Hanshi, Yoshi Shinohara 8th Dan Shihan, Tadayuki Maeda, Masahiro Yanagawa 8th Dan, Kengo Sugiura 8th Dan, Toru Arakawa 9th Dan, Shingo Ohgami 7th Dan, Koji Okumachi 7th Dan, Katsumi Hakoishi 8th Dan, Mizuho Ashihara 8th Dan. Other instructors have also included the famous: Tomiyama Keiji 10th Dan Shihan (Shito-ryu), Hoi Hean Thow 7th Dan (Thoi-kuen-do, Tong-long, Bo-jutsu, Escrima), Dr. Julian S Lim 8th Dan (Hapkido, HoSin-sul).
website: www.wadokai.co.uk
