How Kojin-Kai Came to Be
February 2023
Where it started
Ryan took over the running of a karate club in Ashford that was part of a larger franchise organisation. Running his own club had always been the dream, so the chance felt too good to pass up.
Millie had already built a serious competitive career of her own by this point, including a Commonwealth gold medal and a WKF world ranking, and started training alongside Ryan not long after, initially as cross-training between her own competitions. By 2024, she became his assistant coach, and teaching together quickly turned into something they loved more than almost anything else.
JUNE 2024
Four weeks to find a home
They were told their venue was closing, with four weeks to find a new home or close the club entirely. They searched everywhere, churches, schools, and anywhere with a hall. They found the 7th Ashford Scout Group Hall, far from a perfect fit, and had to invest in proper matting before it could even function as a dojo. But it was exactly what the club needed at the time, and it’s been home ever since.
MARCH 2025
The leap of faith
The longer they ran things, the clearer it became that being part of a larger organisation came with real costs, costs that were being passed straight on to students and their families. So Ryan and Millie made the decision to leave and go fully independent.
It was a genuine leap of faith. Ashford already had plenty of established martial arts clubs, and plenty of people told them it wouldn’t work. At the time, they had just 9 students.
Going independent meant they could run things entirely on their own terms. Costs for families, gis, licences, gradings, halved almost overnight, and that saving went straight back into the club, more classes, more sessions, more availability. Gradings moved in-house, so nobody had to travel elsewhere just to be assessed. And students were no longer limited to inter-club competitions, they could now enter the wider competitive circuit properly, for the first time.
The growth that followed
9 → 40
Students in the first year, including a brand new adults class
12 medals
World Championships, September 2025, from a team of 18
26 medals
English Championships, April 2026, with 6 new English Champions
TODAY
Kojin-Kai now
Kojin-Kai holds the Safeguarding Code in Martial Arts Mark, the only club in Ashford, and the only Kyokushin club in Kent, to do so, and has been recognised with a Mayoral Award for its contribution to Ashford’s sporting reputation. Ryan is the reigning English kata champion and a World Championship silver medallist.
None of it would have happened without the leap taken back in March 2025.
Want to be part of the journey?
The next chapter is still being written, and there’s always room on the mats for someone new.