Jane started training in 1968. At that time, as the daughter of both Sensei Charles Naylor (7th Dan) and Sensei Dot Naylor (3rd Dan), she thought that everyone did Karate – as not only did her family, including brother Mark, but everyone they interacted with socially.
Jane successfully passed her Black belt under Sensei Enoeda on the 13th May 1977. She was never one to rush through gradings as she just enjoyed training so much, but with a lot of pushing and cajoling, and through hard training she gained her 5th Dan on the 6th October 2012.
She has had the privilege to train under many great Karate masters, too many to name, but training under Sensei Enoeda will always stand out for her.
She had known Sensei Enoeda since she was very young as he was a great friend of her father. He would often visit Chelmsford’s Dojo and both families would socialise. When Sensei Enoeda married Reiko, her father was his best man and she was his bridesmaid. This close relationship gave Jane the opportunity to regularly train with and learn from Sensei Enoeda.
Jane has had a very successful competition career – winning her first title as Southern Region Kata Champion in 1974. She then went on to be regularly placed at National Level in both Individual Kata and Kumite, and Team Kata events – including Gold in 1982.
Jane was a member of the England team from 1983-1991 and represented Great Britain in the 1990 World Championships for Kumite. Although her international career came to a close with the birth of her first daughter Bronte, she did return to compete and be placed at National level again in the subsequent two years.
Jane’s passion is always for the technical development of her karate and to train at every opportunity, but she has also channeled some of this energy into developing her reputation as an Instructor both within the Chelmsford Dojo and the Karate Union of Great Britain (KUGB).
When the murders of two young children took place in August 2002 (the Soham Murders), Jane immediately decided that she would open a class dedicated to the development of self-defence in young karateka. This class has gone from strength to strength producing numerous students who have gone on to pass their Dan grades and be successful at both National and International level, including two world champions. Most importantly Jane continues to inspire all her students to learn strong karate based on high technical standards.
Jane is an active member of the KUGB. She is one of a very small group of people within the organisation that competed for England AND Great Britain, is a National Referee (one of the first women to take this qualification), is an Assessor and has over 50 years of membership of the KUGB.
In recent years she has become the KUGBs Publicity and Promotions Officer, and is the voice of the National Championship Finals each year. For Jane, having these roles is a great honour as her father was a founder members of the KUGB and an active member of the Executive Committee for many years in his role as KUGB Vice-Chairman.
On the International Stage Jane is the Publicity Officer for the European Shotokan Karate Assocation (ESKA) and the World Shotokan Karate Assocation (WSKA). She regularly attends their Championships which allows her to continue to strengthen her technical knowledge and understanding observing Karateka of the highest standard at close quarters.
In December 2018 Sensei Jane was honoured at the Active Essex Awards where she was named as Coach of the Year.
In 2020 Jane became the National Administrator following the passing of Sensei Bob Poynton and in 2021 she passed her Rokudan grade. A great achievement for someone who was told her asthma was so bad that she’d never be able to do sport.
Jane’s involvement with Karate has been a lifelong family affair. Along with her father, mother, and brother being Blackbelts, she is married to Richard Naylor-Jones (6th Dan), and their daughters Bronte and Megan both practice Karate. She very much believes that the KUGB is a “family” and has a very close and strong relationship with the KUGB’s Senior Instructors.
