Dave Hazard

He is assisted within the ASK by senior instructors and karate-ka like Jeff Westgarth, Jess Lavender, Paul Herbert and Juli Pops.

When Dave was seven the family moved Harlow new town in Essex, to a house with two inside toilets, space for everyone and a garden.

A few years later when Dave was about thirteen, his parents separated and his mother took the children back to the east end of London to a flat in Leyton.

[8] Hazard left school aged sixteen and became an apprentice hairdresser in an old fashioned barbers shop where he became skilled at cutting hair.

[11] By the time Blackfriars dojo closed, the building being needed for a different use, Hazard had risen from beginner to run the club.

As a professional instructor Hazard taught a girl called Katy at Goldsmiths College karate club who was known as "Ee-ee" because of her squeaky kiai.

Kate Bush was later seen on television singing her high pitched hit song "Wuthering Heights" with dance moves that Hazard said appeared to come from karate.

Training at the JKA headquarters in Ebisu, Tokyo he was recommended by Enoeda to study the technique of Mikio Yahara who was of similar build.

At SEKU Hazard started an instructors' class on the lines of that he had trained in Japan, to improve quality and uniformity of teaching.

In 2003, after nineteen years with SEKU (technical director since 1985), Hazard left to set up his own federation the Academy of Shotokan Karate (ASK).

[16] ASK is an international organisation founded to promote excellence in Shotokan karate as a martial art rather than as a sport.