Legends Karate head-instructor Shidoin Joost Frehé started karate (shotokan) at the age of 9 and received his junior black belt in the Netherlands in 1992 under Sensei Theo Theloesen while training Shaolin Kempo & Okinawa Kobujutsu at Classical Martial Arts Acedemy ‘Se-Fi’.
In Dec 2004 Joost received his 2nd degree black belt (nidan) in Traditional Okinawa Goju Ryu under Sensei George Andrews at Sensei George’s renowned Elephant & Castle-based London Honbu dojo, the European headquarters for the Internatonal Okinawa Goju Ryu Karate Federation (IOGKF).
In 2006 Joost lead the English Team (OTGKA) during that year’s World Games (World championships) in Toronto, Canada, while also started teaching his first (Goju Ryu) club directly under the auspices of Sensei Andrews in South-East London (Norbury Karate Club).
Shortly after, and partly due to the unsuspected closure of the first full-time Martial arts accreditation program that had been running under the direction of Master-level instructor Hanshi Patrick McCarthy (Koryu Uchinadi Kenpo-jutsu) from the International Ryukyu Karate Research Society (IRKRS), Joost embarked on a 3-year degree-level course in Chinese Medicine (at CCM London) in an effort to explore the ‘Chinese roots’ of karate-do, an aspect often debated by yet another influential Goju Ryu heavyweight and close friend of Theloesen Sensei, the late Shihan Drs. Harry de Spa, Chief instructor of the NOGKA (then Dutch branch of the IOGKF).
‘Legends Karate’ was established by Sensei Frehé in January 2009, initially as a Koryu (Old-school) Uchina-di (i.e. Okinawan di or te, more commonly referred to as simply kara-te) with the approval of the (then) OTGKA committee Sensei Andrews (OTGKA), Sensei Linda Marchant (EGKA) & Sensei Andy Barker (EGKA) and in June that same year the “Legends dojo’, as it become to be known, received international accreditation with the IRKRS, who also credited Sensei Frehé with his Shidoin-level instructors licence (2011).
In November 2011, with the support of both his primary instructors Sensei Andrews (7th dan) and Hanshi McCarthy (9th dan), as well as colleagues from the participating EGKA contingent under the direction of Sensei Ernie Molyneux, Sensei Frehé participated in the Karate – Wushu Exchange Convention and Contest held in Fuzhou, China, the historical Southern Chinese capital where many of the early karate pioneers, most notably Higaonna Kanryo Sensei (Naha te) and Kanbun Uechi (Uechi Ryu) but also early pioneers such as Bushi Matsumura Sokon among others, had gone in search of the Chinese fighting arts, from which modern karate-do largely evolved.
During the contest, organized by the Fuzhou Karate Association (FKA) headed by no one less than Mr. Li Yi Duan, chairman of the China Fuzhou Wushu Association, Sensei Frehé was awarded gold for his performance of the old-school version of the kata Sanchin (Kume Matsuyama Koen version) which as part of only 2 Westerners within an all Chinese contestants group, he had set out to perfor in representation of his club (Legends karate).
During his time in Fuzhou Joost studied extensively with the most prominent advocate of Fuzhou Ming He Chuan (Whooping Crane boxing) Shifu Yu Dan Qiu, 3rd generation gongfu master in the Xie Zhong Xiang lineage, which according to some historians (but not the IOGKF) was one and the very same historical figure Kanryo Higaonna Sensei trained with in Fuzhou in the latter part of the 19th century, referred to in Okinawa as Ryu Ryu Ko.
Sensei Frehé runs several junior ‘old-school’ karate clubs in London’s East End with additional branches in Isleworth (Middlesex)) and Holloway.
Adult classes run in Euston, Central London, at Bloomsbury Fitness (dojo), part of the University College London (UCL) Martial arts program.
Joost has published several articles on the ‘karate – white crane connection’ which have been published in both in the IRKRS Monthly Journal www.koryu-uchinadi.com and the IOGKF On-Line Newsletter www.iogkf.com and was awarded the Honour Roll ‘Researcher of the Year’ by the IRKRS in 2011.
For more info about the club please browse this site or contact Sensei Frehé directly on info@legendskarate.com or on his mobile on 07897 824302
Recent Comments