Terry first stepped through the doors of a dojo in 1990 when he joined the local university karate club whilst trading as a baker in Coleraine, Northern Ireland.
He trained under the Chief Instruction of Sensei Aidan Trimble within the Federation Shotokan Karate and began his teaching journey whilst a 4th Kyu instructing the new beginners. This is where Terry found his passion for teaching, particularly finding delight in being able to pass on what he had been taught in his own style which then inspired him to open his own class after obtaining his 1st Dan in 1994.
Continuing to run clubs for the FSK became more than a part-time hobby for Terry when his daughter Yasmin began training in 1997 followed by his son Zachary in 2000.
Whilst teaching children and running his own club, Terry would regularly have unique and adaptive ways of teaching that he believed he could further develop, but I felt constraints at the time. Once Yasmin graded to 7th Kyu his instructor announced that he would no longer be teaching children and to carry on instructing her he would have to leave. It was through this development that gave him the spur and drive that he was looking for. Within the town of Coleraine there were no other Shotokan Karate Clubs catering for children, this is when he recognised the gap presented, opened his own club, and joined the Karate Union of Ireland under the Chief Instructor Sensei Tommy McGrane to embark on his own Shotokan Karate journey.
In September 2001, his younger brother, Paul passed away and two days after this, Zanshin was born. By 2004 he had expanded to 6 clubs across Northern Ireland and Zanshin became the largest single style Shotokan Karate Club in Northern Ireland with over 300 students training regularly under his instruction. After 3 years with the Karate Union of Ireland, we broke off and joined the Karate Union of Great Britain with 12 clubs under the Zanshin name.
Zanshin then became the sole representatives of European and World Shotokan Karate in Northern Ireland and by 2019 Terry had coached many students to local and national titles along with instructing 15 clubs across the country and has now began the task of rebuilding after the pandemic to grow his clubs once again and maintain a high standard of Shotokan Karate across Northern Ireland.
Being with the Karate Union of Great Britain has taught him a lot about teaching and training, and Terry marks this as the result of being in the presence of such high calibre instructors such as Chief Instructor Sensei Andy Sherry and Sensei Frank Brennan along with witnessing a high level of training from the students within the KUGB.
