Martial Edge interview Sensei Rod Butler, fourth degree blackbelt of Karate-London. Sensei Butler is now part of Shotokan Karate England, with clubs in the Chingford, Enfield, Walthamstow, Larkswood, Whitechapel, Leyton , Tring and Wanstead areas. We discuss the highs and the lows of his 30 year career as a martial artist and his ambitions for the future.
Martial Edge: When and where did you get started in Martial arts?
Rod Butler: I started in the 70s as a result of the Bruce Lee films. At that time my son Daren who was then seven years old, started karate classes. I used to take him along to the class each week and I used to be totally bored watching the class go up and down practising blocks and kicks. As soon as I saw the kumite however, the moves made sense and I enrolled there and then. I enrolled with Sensei Mick Randall at the Winchmore Hill School of Karate. The club was great but because of my work as a musician my attendance was very sporadic. I looked for classes in other clubs that were not held during the evenings when I worked. I went to quite a few clubs including Greg Durants club then at Picketts Lock in Edmonton. Eventually I found myself at Sensei Enoedas dojo Marshall Stree in London’s West End.
Martial Edge: Who have been the individuals that have inspired you along the way?
Rod Butler: The main influence on me is undoubtedly Sensei Enoeda. I wrote the book Keinosuke Enoeda ~ Tiger of Shotokan Karate as a tribute to Sensei Enoeda. The spirit, the atmosphere, the dynamics, the technique, the friendship and the camaraderie; nothing can top the years spent in the dojo (and out of it) with Sensei Enoeda. I have trained with many of the top English Instructors; Andy Sherry, Frank Brennan, Dave Hazzard, Ronnie Christopher, Terry O Neill the late Eddie Whitcher and from Scotland Jim Wood. Japanese instructors such as Kasajima, Osaka, Tabata, Kase, Kanazawa, Shirai, Yahara, Tanaka, Naka, Noda, Isaka; all are inspirational in their own unique way and have given me something very special. There is something else though. I am lucky enough to be with lots of great people every day of the week in the clubs that I run. The loyalty and trust that they have shown me inspires me to do my very best.
Martial Edge: When did you get involved with teaching?
Rod Butler: It was a complete accident really. I had an operation on my leg. I went back to the dojo for training too soon and came out with a heavy heart. I could not kick above ankle level. Totally embarrassed I borrowed a small room in Waltham Forest College and began my slow path back to the karate that I loved. After a while people became inquisitive and some asked to join me in my karate work outs. That was the club; well it was a small room with no windows and no air ventilation. In the summer it would be 100 degrees great for training. In the winter, it was like an ice box and you had to keep going non-stop to get warmed up! It all started there and the club really got going on April 1st 1985. Chris Lafbury, one of those first members is still there with me. Quite a few others including Massoud Aghassi and Senel Dervish who started shortly afterwards, are also still training with me.
Martial Edge: What are the principles that you try and instil in your students?
Rod Butler: Well, good technique of course, but with that a recognition of the history of karate and where it came from its roots. I always make the class perform the bow at the beginning of a Kata; a way of respect and also a thanksgiving to the originators of the kata that we are performing. The bow to the front or Shomen of the dojo, I always describe as a bow to our predecessors in karate, the ones who unknowingly have led us to where we are now. I like good etiquette and respect. It costs nothing and it is so easy to lose along the way. I like the students to try to do things the right way and be a little humble whilst at the same time having a good karate spirit and attitude. Frank Brennan is probably one of the best examples of this kind of attitude that I can give technique, power and etiquette all rolled into one.
Martial Edge: How has your training evolved over the thirty years you have been involved with Karate?
Rod Butler: It’s not quite so manic now. Everything used to be in a rush as if there wasn’t enough time. I was keener on kumite earlier on, now I like to investigate kata and the various applications. I like to make my own interpretations of the moves and research them as well. The technical side of karate can never be completely mastered, that is what keeps us all going, so I am still trying to improve and get better all the time. I look at the various ways to motivate students now. Their training and their improvement is very important to me, years ago I was much more selfish in this respect.
Martial Edge: There has been some in the UK martial arts world that have questioned the long term future of Karate as a popular mainstream martial art, how would you respond to that?
Rod Butler: Karate still looks to be pretty popular to me. It has a very wide base of discipline, history, self-defence, fitness and tradition. This gives karate a very wide appeal to the public at large and especially to children. Kick Boxing, Aikido, Judo are also very popular. Tai Chi is I think growing in popularity now. There are a lot more Tai Chi clubs now than there were 10 or 20 years ago. However, karate is everywhere. In every town you will find a karate club. When we started in Chingford, East London 20 years ago we were the only club, now there are dozens in the area.
Martial Edge: Tell us about Shotokan Karate England, its aims and ambitions .
Rod Butler: Well, again Shotokan Karate England was an accident it was not planned. After Sensei Enoeda died in 2003 there was a split within our organisation, the KUGB. Many of us in the South of England decided to go with the new group JKAE and I was one of the committee who helped to form the group. I was dismayed at the outcome! Many things happened that upset and alienated a lot of people and many of Sensei Enoedas long-term students left the new group. Vicious accusations started flying about and everyone seemed to be power hungry. Our clubs resigned from the JKAE in February 2005 and a day or so later all of our members received rather nasty letters from JKAE demanding the return of their licence books and telling them that their grades and qualifications were now worthless. These letters were sent to children as young as six and seven and many of them were extremely upset and thought that their clubs had closed down. I had to get on to the Trading Standards Authority and contact the JKAE solicitors. It was a nightmare. What these events did prove however was that our clubs had done the right thing in resigning from JKAE. We had a lot of support from some very high profile karate instructors together with offers of help, courses and competitions. It seemed as though lots of people were there ready to help and assist our new fledgling little group. We affiliated to the EKGB and made some great contacts and friends. Forty of us went over to the dojo of Sensei Kasajima in Luxembourg for a 20-year celebration course. That was the highlight of our first year as Shotokan Karate England. Rosemary New (Rosemary Hall), an original student and team member, decided to join us together with her thriving and very spirited club. We also had our first National Championships. Naturally it was small, just a couple of hundred competitors, but the atmosphere was electric. We all had a great day. On the day of the championships our sports centre venue was flooded out and we had to improvise in an outbuilding. Everyone including parents offered to help to move mats and chairs. It turned out to be a great day for everyone in spite of the floods.
Martial Edge: What are your own personal ambitions for the future in respect to your schools and organisation?
Rod Butler: To embrace with enthusiasm all that life has to offer. Out of bad events we will try to find some good. This has always happened to me and always happened to the clubs. Our clubs motto overcoming all difficulties has proved very valuable over the years. We have some excellent instructors and some great adult and junior competitors. It is my job to see that they get the best opportunities and the best results. We don’t want to be an enormous organisation. I don’t want to rule the world. A small family unit is a much better way to work with maybe slow and gradual growth. I have always enjoyed putting on courses and over the years we have had some of the worlds top karate instructors in our dojo. I want this to continue every year now, with the world’s top instructors coming to our clubs in London to teach. We already have some big names lined up for 2006/7.
Martial Edge: What are the changes you see that are happening in the world of UK? Karate?
Rod Butler: At some point there has to be a meeting between the traditional side of karate and the sport side. We are going forward together in the new unified karate body now and so some kind of coming together should be made. As traditionalists we don’t want to lose or water down our karate. We like the Ippon. When at competitions we love to see someone score with an Ippon technique, but somewhere along the line we will have to merge ideas with the sports karate competitors. It is going to take a long time and there have been unsuccessful attempts at these kinds of mergers before.
Martial Edge: Do you think there is room for co-existence?
Rod Butler: If we don’t go this way then we might as well have two groups traditional and sport - and both compete in our own individual ways at our own kind of events. If that is to be the case then what is the point in us all joining together in one unified karate body? One has to be enthusiastic about the future; it is too easy to be pessimistic. There are a lot of good karate people working within the unification system, literally hundreds of years of karate experience. We must put our faith in them to do what is best for us all.
Martial Edge: Anything in the pipeline we should know about?
Rod Butler: We are now also in negotiations with a film company who are interested in producing a karate film. Everything is under wraps at present, but I am involved in working on the script and production. I am also working on another karate book with the chief instructor of Finland, Sensei Willy Ortiz. Ultimately, we want to continue doing good karate and set a high standard for ourselves and for others.
Interviews 
Martial Edge interview Sensei Rod Butler, fourth degree blackbelt of Karate-London. Sensei Butler is now part of 
Rod Butler: I started in the 70s as a result of the 
earlier on, now I like to investigate kata and the various applications. I like to make my own interpretations of the moves and research them as well. The technical side of 
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