Aims
Angus' chief aim is to practice for life and to pass on the benefits and traditions of the art to all his students. His maxim is "Karate is for all of life and believes that the principle aim of Karate is for the improvement of the self whilst assisting others to realise their goals. He is a tradtional stylist and believes in promoting the health and spiritual aspects of the martial arts as well as the more physical aspects. In terms of self defence techniques he is a firm believer in real techniques. He is very open and encourages participation and interaction with other styles and arts whilst keeping very focussed on your principle art. Although a Shukokai stylist/teacher, he has trained in many different martial arts under many reknowned teachers.
Background
Angus Rutherford, has been training in the martial arts since 1984. He has more recently been dedicated and focussed on Shukokai Karate. He has been running the Edinburgh Karate Academy since 2000. It was during this period, under the excellent instruction and personal mentoring of Chief Instructor Mushin Ryu Shukokai, Ken Campbell (3rd Dan), he realised Shodan grading under the prestigous Japanese Governing Body, IMAF (Kokusai Budoin) affiliation.
Angus started his training in 1984 under the excellent instruction of the Chief Instructor Sankukai Ryu, Colin Farmer (4th Dan), where his foundations in the martial arts were firmly laid. He left in 1995 when he left Zimbabwe for Edinburgh. 1986-1987, he was also training Kyokoshinkai in the afternoon at his high school under Best Muzuva (1st Dan) and Sankukai in the evening. He achieved kyu grades in both of these styles. He was also given personal tuition in Tae Kwon Do by his friend Song Chang (6th Dan Korean Army Instructor).
The period between 1995 and 2000 was a time when he was to jump from style to style, art to art and club to club, including Shotokai, Shotokan, Ninjutsu before eventually settling back with his original Shito Ryu base of Shukokai which he has been teaching since 2000. Angus benefitted from all the cross training during this period and met and trained with many good instructors.
Angus has a very open approach to the martial arts and has always been willing to learn from whoever would teach him. This has built a good general knowledge and forged good friendships within the Karate and martial arts world in general and is particularly helpful with assisting students who may have trained in other styles. These many friendships have greatly benefitted him and resulted in invitations to train on courses with the world reknowned masters, Shihan Tomiyama, Doshu Nanbu, Kancho Kanazawa and Sensei Murakami, courteousy Kofukan Scotland, Nanbudo Scotland and SKIF.
In addition to Karate, Angus also has a background in Tai Chi and Wu Shu, having studied under Sifu Ten Carr, 1992-95. He actively incorporates Chi Gong exercises into the warm up, in addition to the Karate based Ki and Ibuki (breathing) exercises.