Three Valleys Karate is part of Three Valleys Water Sports & Social Club and trains in "The Old Mill" Club house at the companies Rickmansworth site. The club is not only open to Three Valleys Water employees and in fact very few members have any connection to the company

The club was started in 1991 by two Three Valleys Water employees: Graham Copperwhite who works in Production and Steve Johnson who works in Quality Assurance. Both were recently graded to 4th Dan Black Belt by the Sensei Tony Christian 7th Dan, the Chief Instructor of "The Academy of Karate-Do" of which Three Valleys Karate is a member

There are three different classes held at Three Valleys Karate:

The "Juniors" is taught by Sensei Johnson and is open too all students and grades aged 5 - 16. There are a lot of young members in this class and although there is an element of etiquette and discilpine, the emphasis is on fun and fitness

The "Seniors" is also taught by Sensei Johnson and is open to 6th Kyu (Green Belt) and above or any grade aged 12 - 16. In this class, students are expected to be of an age or grade where etiquette and discipline are of a much higher standard. The class is slightly tougher and more emphasis is placed on self defence and correct karate technique

I started in Goju Ryu Karate in May 1982, I had previously trained a few times at a Tae Kwon do school and loved the fitness element of it rather than anything else.

I went along to Grovehill Karate Club on a Sunday morning and was immediately made to run 5 miles, do numerous chin ups then spar with an Orange belt who seemed very expert to me…. Needless to say the next week left me in abject agony and it was lucky it was a bank holiday Monday or I would of needed to go sick.

I then commenced training with a real enthusiasm, training regularly 4 times a week, three times at the main club with Sensei Tom Hill and once a week with Sensei Roy Kirby.

I eventually graded for Shodan black belt in 1988 with Sensei Tom Hill. Around this time Sensei Tom had met Paul Perry (6th Dan JSK shotokan). As Tom had at that time never actually graded Shodan he asked Sensei Perry to ratify our black belts, consequently I did another Black Belt grading in front of Sensei Perry.

In April 1991 Graham Copperwhite and I decided to start our own club and the Three Valleys Karate Club was born. Soon after this Sensei Graham contacted Sensei Tony Christian and soon travelled up to Wigan to meet and train with the head of the Academy of Karate-do. Since this first visit all of our gradings (mine and Grahams) have been under Sensei Christian.

In 1998 I started the junior Karate club with classes in Mill End and Rickmansworth, eventually the Mill End class folded as the classes were small due to a clash with an existing Karate club on the site. The Rickmansworth club has continued to flourish and some students are still from the original lessons.

The philosophy of Three Valleys Karate club mirrors that of the head Sensei in that we don't expect every student to be able to do 100 press ups, flying side kicks 6ft in the air or sparring with multiple opponents and winning. All we expect is for the student to be as good as they can be. If they can do all of the above then they should, if they cant then that should be no reason to prevent them having a life in Karate.

Karate should be for all, every time you train you improve your Character, your fitness and health, your body skills and last but not least your chances of being able to defend yourself and overcome an attacker.

The reasons or at least some of them for starting Karate stem from long before when I was 11 years old the events around this age would set me on a path strange as it may seem to myself needing to do an activity to re gain some self-confidence. This turned out to be Karate and came to a point at the age of 20 years when I new it was time to find an Interest.

In today's society it would be great if we could all live along side each other without any conflict but you only have to listen to the news on any given day to know we are far from that point. It almost seems that manners, kindness and respect for others are seen as some kind of Weakness. I do not understand why this is. One of my favourite little sayings is to ""Walk softly but carry a big stick". I try to follow this saying.