Sensei Jackie Jones 3rd Dan
(nee Stembridge) started training at the tender age of 25 at Konjaku shin School of Karate. It was as a white belt in 2000, Jackie attended her first national karate course in Torbay where she met Andrew. She progressed quickly through her kyu grades and found that she had a passion for karate. It is fair to say that she had a natural ability towards karate but it took a lot of hard work and dedication to finally get to achieve black belt in late 2002.
During her time with SKI, Jackie has regularly trained with the world’s top Japanese instructors such as Kancho Kanazawa 10th Dan, Hanshi Asano 9th Dan and Sensei’s Kagawa,Sode, Wada, Nagai, Murakami, Kawazoe, Tagowa & Kobara. From this she has gained valuable & varied skills & experience, which shows in both her training and teaching.
Jackie has had many achievements in a short length of time. In 2001, whilst holding 3rd kyu brown belt, she was personally selected by Hanshi Asano to represent Great Britain in the SKIEF European Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark. The experience proved invaluable as it prepared Jackie for her next G.B. selection to the SKIEF World Championships in Durban, South Africa, in 2003. She was hoping to gain more valuable experience from the championships, but actually fought her way through to 3rd place in the women’s kumite (free fighting) event. Which meant that after only 3 years karate experience & having gained her black belt just 8 months earlier she was third in the world! She later in the same year received top honours as she won the prestigious N.E Lincolnshire Sports Associations Sports Personality of the Year, after being nominated by the then Mayor of Grimsby, Councillor Peter Barker. She has also represented Great Britain on further occasions in Odessa, Ukraine and more recently Tokyo, Japan 2006. Jackie has also had success on a national level in the SKIGB champs & various open karate competitions.
Although being successful in competition, Jackie believes that this is only a small part of traditional karate. Competition is invaluable to test your karate abilities under pressure although in a safe environment, but it has for her, also had a massive impact on self confidence.
As an instructor Jackie believes that karate has no boundaries, you can start at any stage of your life & it will, if you embrace it, have a huge impact on your life. You will become more self confident, have greater self esteem, better concentration, flexibility & learn self defence all as you improve your fitness. Jackie originally started teaching children’s classes. Watching a child develop into a confident & disciplined karate-ka is so rewarding. Karate has such a positive effect on a child’s development not only in karate but in every aspect of life.