Aidan Trimble is Nottinghamshire born and bred. He is also a world renowned karate champion. The high point of his career came in 1983 when he was the only non-Japanese fighter to win in any category at the 1983 World Championships in Tokyo. "I was born in Radford, Nottingham in 1960. I started to learn karate in 1972. I won the World Championships in 1983." The influence of Bruce Lee "It was the Bruce Lee era that got me started. Everybody was leaping around the streets kicking and going crazy but I obviously ended up taking it much more seriously."
"It was a lot harder work than in the films... and you tended not to die." School days "I did fairly well at school but as soon as I got into sport I loved sport."
 | | Aidan strikes a pose |
"Karate took my imagination." "You had to be 18 to go to a martial arts club but thankfully I was big for my age." "A guy used to teach me and a friend in a scout hut in Bilborough. Then we were taken on by a chap called Brian Collins. He was a black belt instructor and he really sent me on my way." My first job "When I left school I became a plumber. I worked at various jobs to keep training. There was no funding (for sport) at that time." "There's that mystical side to karate but also there are lots of different areas that you can practice. In short you never get bored of it." "In 1974 I started training with a Japanese instructor based in Nottingham. I was with him for several years. I was with him when I won the world championships." World champion "When you train at something long enough and hard enough you are going to be skillful. I decided a few months before the big competition in Tokyo that I was going to pull out all the stops. I was doing six hours a day, six days a week training. I went out (to Japan) well prepared." Aidan won the World Championships in 1983 at the age of 22. He turned professional in 1984 and became a karate instructor, then became an actor (starring in Emmerdale and Heartbeat) and dabbled with the idea of relocating to Hollywood and has written several books on his sport. To hear Aidan's full life story, including how he won the World Championships, in his own words...
Aidan now has his own dojo, called The Dojo, in Beeston. "You're pushing respect with kids. Respect is ingrained in martial arts. But also we're working on the confidence side of it with kids. It's not that we're going to turn them into super fighters, but when they have that confidence they're walking taller so their demeanor is more confident and they don't get picked on... and they get better concentration times at school. "I've seen tremendous changes in people. What is important is that people walk about with their heads held high. The sport is also enjoyable, it's fun." | 
