Sensei Rob Copeland Karate Bio

1st Dan: 1982, 2nd Dan: 1984, 3rd Dan: 1987, 4th Dan: 1992, 5th Dan; 1999, 6th Dan: 2010,
7th Dan: 2020

Rob Copeland began training in Karate in 1979 when he joined the Rising Sun School of Karate, with Sensei Selwyn Gould in the centre of Cardiff. 

Selwyn stopped teaching in 1980 and the club was taken over by Sensei Mike O'Brien, Wales' senior Shotokan Instructor, then a 4th Dan. Rob then started training at Mike’s club, Cardiff Shotokan at the National Sports Centre, now WIS as a Purple Belt.

Rob remembers vividly, the privilege he felt, of being among some amazing Karate-ka at Cardiff, in particular he was honoured to train alongside Lyn Powell, Kay Flye (later Kay Powell) Gabe Operanta and Martin Payter.

Rob was a natural Kumite competitor and after less than three years training, in 1982, he won a bronze medal in the Men’s Kumite at The Welsh Championships (Just the one ‘Mens’ event in those days) being beaten at the semi-final stage by the great Stephen Wellington who was later to become long standing Welsh coach and has been a good friend for many years.

There were no Welsh championships in 1983, but the following year 1984, Rob went one better, reaching the final, beating the late, great, Roberto 'Swede' Mastrangeli in the semi-final before again losing to Stephen in the final!

The following year 1985, Rob was Welsh champion for the first time, beating Spiro Micallef, a kickboxing champion and a fine Karate fighter in the final.

Over his career, Rob was plagued by knee injuries. Cartilage problems caused him to miss the 1986 Welsh Championships. He attended the 1987 Championships, beating Kickboxing legend Denzil Lawrence in the Semi-final, before losing to team-mate Martin Payter in the final. He tore the cruciate ligament of his left knee in the final of the 1988 K.U.W. Championships against Paul Watson, an injury he still carries! 

Between 1988 and 1993 he was only able to take part in the Welsh Championships on one occasion, in 1990 where he again reached the final only to lose to Clifton Brown.

He was unable to compete at the Welsh Championships again until 1993. He won, beating Andrew Kelliher in the final. He won again in 1994 beating Clifton Brown in the final.

He first represented Wales in 1982, in the Welsh ‘C’ team vs the USA team (AAU) but his debut as part of the ‘A’ team came a year later at The 1983 Grand Slam in Port Talbot. The other members of that team were Steve 'Mopsy' Jones, Cedric Wellington, Paul Byrd, and Andy Morgan with Stephen Wellington and Roberto Mastrangeli injured members of the squad.

 That line-up are undoubtedly Welsh Karate legends!

 Rob was the only shotokan competitor in that team, which was the best Welsh team he was ever in, and in his opinion, the best Welsh team he has witnessed.

The team was managed by Sensei Mike O'Brien and coached by Sensei Ritchie Noblett. A golden era for Welsh Karate, when Wales could compete with anyone, anywhere. 

He was a regular member of the team for many years, attending Three European Championships: Paris '84, Oslo '85 and Madrid ‘86 (the only Welsh fighter or official to attend all three) and six Grand Slams.

Rob dominated the senior Individual Kumite event in the K.U.W. for fifteen years, winning K.U.W. National Championships on eight occasions and The K.U.W. Shield six times. 

He was beaten only five times in fifteen years within the KUW which was a very large and strong Shotokan group in those days.

Rob was also extremely successful in Shotokan 'Ippon Shobu' events, with three memorable wins at SEKU'S Portsmouth Open tournament (an extremely reputable Org run by Sensei’s Mick Dewey and Dave Hazard) from four attempts. 

He won the individual Kumite at the Gichin Funakoshi World Shotokan Invitational Championships on three occasions, in '97, '98 and 2000. He was also captain of the K.U.W. winning team in 1993 and to his great pride, and certainly a highlight of his competition career: led his own Vale team of Billy Seagrim, Mark Payter, Kee Wong and Phil Manfield, (all with the exception of Phil, taught by Rob) to victory in 2000, beating the USA JKA team in the first Round, Rob beating Shotokan legend Richard Amos in his bout, and The KUW team (comprising Ritchie Noblett's Bushi-Kai Squad) in the final.

He was awarded The Vale of Glamorgan Sports Personality of the year award in 1998. The Karate Union of Wales awarded Rob his 5th Dan in 1999.

In October 2000 Rob took his club, which he’d established in 1984 at Barry Leisure Centre, out of The Karate Union of Wales and set up The Vale of Glamorgan Karate Organisation as an independent Association, which has become possibly Wales' most successful ever Karate organisation!

At the head of his own Association, and then 40 years old, Rob led his squad by example, continuing to find individual competitive success, though he began to focus more on his students. In April 2002 Rob was appointed Assistant Welsh National Coach, (a post he resigned from in July 2003) and a week later and seventeen years after his first win, and at the 'advanced' age of 42, won The Mens title at the Welsh Championships for the fourth time! Beating ‘youngsters’ some half his age on the way!

His title was one of eight that 'The Vale' won at the 2002 Championships, more than any other Association, placing Vale Karate for the first time at The summit of competitive Karate in Wales, a place they've remained since!

He was once again captain of The Welsh team at The 2002 British Championships Home International event in Sheffield. Unfortunately near the end of his match during Wales V Scotland and winning his match 5-1 he sustained a broken foot.

Rob need 5 months off work and out of Karate to recover from that injury that should have ended his competitive career, but on July 5th 2003, eight months after he last competed, Rob made yet another comeback, achieving 3rd place at one of the biggest events ever held in Wales, The 10K Karate Clash Prelim, being beaten by Jory Chather in the semi, beating Darren Haynes in the third place match and was the only Welshman to make the top three.

On September 20th 2003 at THE 10K KARATE CLASH, held at London's Mermaid theatre, Rob was beaten by the only other Welshman present; British Under 21 Champion and European medallist David Godfrey, who was invited to compete when Rob's original opponent Craig Burke withdrew due to injury.

Rob competed alongside Billy Seagrim (European Under 21 silver medallist) and Gareth Reynolds (British and Commonwealth champion) who weren't born when Rob was first an International; in the Mens Team event at The 2004 Welsh Championships, helping Vale Karate win the Mens team event for the first time, a twenty-five year old ambition fulfilled! 

Rob competed for the last time at the Central England Open in June 2006 winning the Mens Masters Kumite event! The only ‘Veteran’ event he ever entered.

Rob had joined the Railway in 1976 having spent the vast majority of that time as a train driver, he left the railway In March of 2007 and became a full-time professional karate instructor. 

Rob has truly brought Karate to the community. He has delivered free Karate taster sessions to literally thousands of schoolchildren, having visited the majority of Primary Schools and virtually every Secondary School in the Vale of Glamorgan! Often teaching throughout the school day.

He and his wife Cathy see it a part of their job to promote Karate and bring the benefits of karate to as many people as possible.

Rob established the very first Council supported Special Needs Karate classes and single-handedly established 'Special Needs Kata' categories in competitions in Wales. He was awarded the prestigious 'Coach of the Year' title by The Welsh Sports Council in 2008, in recognition of this work.

In July 2010, at a surprise 50th Birthday Party held in his honour, Rob was presented with a Diploma marking his promotion to 6th Dan, presented to him by The Welsh Bushi-Kai Chairman Nigel Taylor and signed by Rob's Senior Graded students and a number of legends of Welsh and English Karate. 

There had long been great turmoil in Welsh Karate and Rob found it impossible to support the Governing Body, and so Rob was one of the founding members of Karate Wales Ltd, a big step forward for Karate in the principality. Rob was President of Karate Wales between 2017 and 2020.

He resigned amicably as President, but is still a great supporter of Karate Wales.

Another huge step forward is the Welsh Karate League, now run by Rob and Stephen Wellington, which has, and continues to take Welsh Karate to new heights. Vale Karate won the top Club award for seven consecutive seasons 2012-2018.

Thirty-two years after establishing Vale Karate at Barry Leisure Centre, Rob returned to the Leisure Centre when the possibility of running a small full-time dojo arose.
The size of the dojo meant Rob had to double the number of classes, running well over twenty classes a week.

At his sixtieth Birthday in 2020, Rob was awarded his seventh Dan by the directors of Karate Wales.

Rob's hunger and ambition for Vale Karate is as strong as ever, when Karate came to a standstill due to Covid-19, in March 2020, Rob did all he could to keep his students engaged, running a dozen zoom classes weekly, and several weeks of One-to One’s where he regularly delivered sixteen One-to-One sessions a day, all week, up to eighty a week!

Rob Celebrated forty Years of Karate in 2019, and although there are Instructors in Wales, many of them Rob’s friends, who have been involved in Karate longer than Rob, no one has spent more hours in a Karate-gi!