Steve Arneil

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Steve Arneil (born in Krugersdorp, Transvaal, South Africa, on 29 August 1934)^[1] is the famous karate practitioner. He is president and founder of the International Federation of Karate.^[2] He holds the 9th dan rank and the title of "Hanshi".

[edit] Biography

At the age of 10, his family moved to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), and there he began training in Judo. By the age of 17 he earned a black belt in Judo and also practiced both Kenpo and Karate.^[3] Around the age of 25, Arneil moved to Durban, South Africa, to complete his education in mechanical engineering. He found a local Judo dojo in Durban that also offered a karate class.

In 1962 he travelled to Japan to study karate under Masutatsu Oyama. Steve Arneil was "adopted" by Mas Oyama, in order to allow Arneil to marry a Japanese woman.^[4] When Arneil left Japan in 1965, he had achieved the rank of the 3rd dan and had been the first person to complete the 100-man kumite after Oyama.^[5]

After his marriage, Steve Arneil relocated with his new wife to Great Britain. In the same year, he and Bob Boulton founded the British Karate Kyokushinkai (BKK) organisation.^[6] The first full-time dojo was opened in Stratford, East London. Over the yars, the number of clubs has expanded so that today there are between 65 and 70 of them throughout Great Britain.

During the period 1968–1976, Arneil was the team manager and coach for the All Styles English and British Karate team which became the first non-Japanese team to win the World Karate Championship in 1976. In 1975 the French Karate Federation^[7] awarded him the title of the World's Best Coach.

In 1991, Arneil and the BKK resigned their 25 year long membership with the Japan based International Karate Organisation (IKO) and founded the International Federation of Karate (IFK), which currently has a membership of over 100,000 in up to 19 countries. He is currently the President of the BKK and head of the IFK.

His 8th dan was awarded to him by the British karate community for his services to karate in Great Britain. On May 26, 2001 Arneil was awarded his 9th dan by the IFK country representatives at their meeting in Berlin.

[edit] See also

• John Jarvis, a prominent karate instructor from New Zealand, his student.

[edit] References