Chris Paxton

Position - RTK Branch Instructor
Dojos - Accrington

Why did you start

I first started practising martial arts growing up in London as a young child. Back then, I studied Judo; however, a lot of the early lessons I learnt are just as relevant to Karate now as they were to Judo then—respect, discipline, focus, and self-confidence to name a few. Despite really enjoying training and competing, I ended up quitting Judo shortly after starting Secondary School, a decision I still regret to this day.

In the late 90s, whilst on Summer Holiday from Uni, I received a knock at the door from an Instructor from a local Karate Club (GKR), which was recruiting for new members, and decided to give that a go. I did it for a couple of years during the holidays but ended up stopping again after I moved up from London to the North, as there weren't any classes close to where I lived.

When my son, Lucas, came back from school one day with a letter advertising Red Tiger Karate, after seeing a demonstration there, we both signed up for the class in Haslingden, and this time it stuck. Third time lucky!

What keeps you training

Being completely honest, there are three things: greediness, stubbornness, and most importantly, that I enjoy it. My dad was always really active when he was younger, as were a number of my uncles. However, gradually they all, one by one, stopped practising the sports they loved and started getting larger... we love food in my family. I'm determined not to follow in their footsteps and want to keep training as long as I'm able to.

Job in the real world

I am a Senior Manager at Royal Mail, working in their Commercial Strategy and Innovation Team. This means I get to play around with fun new ways of delivering parcels, like drones, and, being a nosey parker, spying on all our major competitors.

Favourite part of karate

That I can train alongside my wife and son, both of whom are much better at it than me, however I’d never admit that to their faces.

Hobbies other than karate

I am a self-confessed nerd and love sci-fi films/shows, including of course Star Wars and Star Trek. I also used to be massively into running, and although I don't run as much as I used to, I still attend Parkrun as often as I can and also lead a free monthly running session for Red Tiger members and their families.