Frank Brennan (karateka)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Frank Brennan (6th dan, shotokan karate) is one of the biggest names in British karate of the 1970s and '80s, winning a wide variety of titles both as an individual and as part of the KUGB team. He remains a well known and well respected coach of the KUGB England under-21s karate squad.
[edit] Biography
Frank Brennan was born in the City of Liverpool on the 6th of May, 1960. He was always sport-oriented, and he took up Gymnastics while at school. At the age of 12 he tried to join the Red Triangle Karate club, but he was told to go and join the Judo club for a year, as he was too young. This was particularly galling, as his brother was accepted for the club, but it made him all the more determined to gain membership. In 1973, he was successful and started to train at the club under the tuition of Andy Sherry.
His introduction to Karate competition was in 1974, when he competed in the KUGB Northern Regional Championships. He entered the Junior Kata event, which he won. He was a 4th Kyu at the time, and it was indicative of things to come that he won the first competition he ever entered. His introduction to Kumite Shiai was even more dramatic. In 1975, while fighting for the Red Triangle team, Bob Poynton broke his leg in one of the matches. The team has no reserves, so the young brown belt, who had only entered the Kata event, was suddenly in the final of the Team Kumite event against Leeds. He fought one of Leeds' most experienced fighters, Andy Harris, and decisively beat him with a fast mawashi geri combination to hold a Red Triangle win yet again.
His first international appearance was with the KUGB Squad in the European Championships in Sweden in 1978, where he came 2nd in the Senior Kata event. The next year, in Belgium, he won the Grand Championship of Europe, taking both Kumite and Kata events, a feat that he has achieved no less than four times.
As a fighter, he is rather unique, in that he has no particular speciality - he is equally at home using hands or feet, and quite often surprises his opponents with very dynamic combinations of some of the more unusual hand or foot techniques. As a senior member of the KUGB International Squad, the most recent highlight of his career was leading his team to victory in the 1990 World Shotokan Championships in Sunderland. He is held in great respect internationally - in an interview at the World Championships, the Japanese team coach, ex-world Champion Masahiko Tanaka said that the one man that the whole Japanese Team were specifically trained to beat was Frank Brennan.
He is a staunch and loyal supporter of the KUGB, and works very hard to further the aims of the Association. Asked recently what he thought were the main strengths of the KUGB, he replied:
"The KUGB is fantastic. It has shown itself to be one of the great associations of the World, and I'm not just speaking about success in competition. I refer more to the attitude and dedication displayed by its members - people who are in the KUGB do Karate for the benefit of Karate, rather than for personal gain, and that's what I really like about it. Nothing is perfect, and there may be some glitches on the route, but it is a bit like life, like evolution - things change and get better, and I can see the KUGB getting better all the time."
