Instructors
Our Academy are fortunate to have six black belt instructors, all of whom are CRB checked and qualified first aiders. All our instructors have been students at the club for many years and as a result possess a wealth of martial arts experience. Our team of instructors are led by the Academy’s founder and Head Coach Alf Love who has over 35 years experience as a martial arts coach and is widely respected as one of the finest martial arts coaches in the country.
Our association with ‘Shorai International’ provides a major benefit to our Academy as we are supported by its president Joe Tierney who is renowned worldwide within the Martial Arts Community. Joe makes periodic visits to the Academy to conduct lessons and student grades and personally takes all the Academy’s black belt grades.
Joe Tierney (Shorai International President)
Initially starting in traditional karate Joe has competed at the highest level in various styles including traditional karate and kickboxing. With over 35 years of experience in competing, coaching and refereeing combined with holding the positions of WKA national team coach and WKA world chief referee in the 90's Joe is rightly respected throughout the world in Martial Arts.
As a competitor Joe, a black belt 8th Dan, has won many titles including both British and European Championships in traditional karate, he has also been a silver medallist at the Wako World Kickboxing Championship; in 2009 Joe was inducted into the 'Martial Arts Illustrated' hall of fame in recognition of his services to martial arts for over 35 years.
Alf Love (Head Coach)
Alf Love, Head Coach and founder of the Academy, has a wealth of experience in teaching martial arts, a 6th dan black belt Alf has an exceptional talent as a coach which is illustrated by the significant number of World Champion kick boxers and black belts he has successfully produced over the years.
Chloe Love (Chief Instructor)
A 4th dan black belt Chloe is the most successful competitor produced by the academy, having won an incredible eighteen world championship titles in individual light continuous and also several in individual semi contact and team events. Chloe won her first World Championship gold medal at the age of 8 and has not stopped since, she has also won numerous national titles.
With over 18 years of competition experience Chloe has an unbelievable wealth of knowledge to call upon, appointed as a junior instructor in 2010 she became a senior instructor back in 2012.
James Casey (Instructor)
A 3rd dan black belt James has come through our academy as a youngster, after sometime away raising a family he is now back with us along with his two young children Eva and Ethan. James is a really tough competitor who only made rare appearances at World Championship his last being in Cyprus in 2013 where he won a silver medal in Light Contact. He has an abundance of experience to call on in his role as one of our instructors.
Tejay Bacon (Instructor)
Appointed Junior Instructor in January 2016, Tejay has since earned is 3rd Dan Blackbelt and on turning 18 in April 2021 been promoted to a fully fledged instructor having joined us at the age of 4 Tejay became a remarkably talented competitor who always had to work extra hard throughout his competitive career because of his size.
Winner of two world championship titles in 2013 in both light continuous and semi contact Tejay won his third world title in Florida in 2015 and his 4th in 2018 Whilst continuing to develop himself Tejay has played a significant part in the development of many of our younger students who have joined our academy and gone on to enjoy similar success up to the present day.
Mia Woodward ( Junior Instructor )
Since joining our academy Mia has had what can only be described as a meteoric rise to stardom, at her first WKKC World Championship in 2014 she won both her individual divisions to become a double World Champion, four golds at each of the following two years championships along with a further Gold in 2017 and another four in 2018 plus a Gold at the WKO World Championships has made her one of the most successful competitors at our academy.
Mia is a 3rd Dan Black belt and a really tough competitor who’s strength is doing the basics extremely to an extremely high level, she is now passing on the qualities that made her a multiple World Champion to our younger students.
Kyran Henry – Jones ( Junior Instructor )
A Black Belt 2nd Dan Kyran joined our academy at an early age and is another of our rising stars, he is an exceptional student with great technical ability, bouts involving Kyran are very spectacular with him always wanting to use highly technical moves to gain an advantage. With his high standard of technical skills Kyran is another who has recorded exceptional scores in when taking his grades.
Kyran has competed at three WKKC World Championships the first in 2017 where he won bronze, a feat he repeated in 2018, in 2019 he won a silver and also won Gold at the WKO World Championships.
Brad Derbyshire ( Junior Instructor )
A Black Belt 2nd Dan Brad joined our academy at an early age and is no doubt one of our academies rising stars, Brad is an exceptional student with a tremendous attitude. Attaining really high scores in all his academy grades, his performance when taking his Blackbelt grade with Sensei Joe Tierney resulted in him receiving glowing comments from the martial arts legend.
Brad has competed at three WKKC World Championship’s, the first in 2017 where he won a silver medal in light continuous, he then won a further two silvers in 2018 and repeated the feat in 2019. He also won Gold at the WKO World Championships in 2018.
Kaiya Henry – Jones ( Junior Instructor )
A Blackbelt 2nd Dan, Kaiya like her brother joined our academy at an early age, she is always very helpful and has a wonderful disposition with a terrific attitude making her an ideal addition to our team of junior instructors.
Kaiya has competed at World Championships in 2018 and 2019 winning Golds, Silvers and Bronze in both individual and team events. We are delighted to have her as part of our team of junior instructors who fulfil an important role in supporting our senior instructors.
