Mike Billman started training in karate in 1969 after retiring early from rugby after suffering a serious back injury. He first trained under John Van Weenen, and then Mike Randall MBE. He moved on to join Sensei Kato and during his karate career he competed for the Japanese-run Kodokai association.
He trained and took all of his gradings under Senseis' Kanazawa, Enoeda, Miyazaki, Asano, and Kato, and received his 8th Dan certificate from the WKF in December 2008.
He is Vice President of the British Karate Federation and he has recently been made Chairman of the EKF (European Karate Federation) Technical Commission. At the same time Mike was appointed to the European Karate Sports Commission, and has now also been made a member of the World Karate Federation Technical Commission. This is the first time that anybody from Great Britain has ever held all of those positions at the same time.
Mike is a company director whose company deals with the personal protection of visiting Royalty, Diplomats, and other such Vips', and was himself a bodyguard from 1980 until he retired from actively protecting clients in July 2008 to concentrate on other aspects of his business.
He is a SIA qualified Close Protection Officer (renewed in March 2009) and he is a Lecturer on CTP (Career Transition Partnership) courses for SIA qualification for those leaving the Armed Forces, and has a City & Guilds 7303 Teaching in the Public Sector qualification. He is also a qualified Conflict Management Instructor.
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