Robbie Gorringe
Program instructor, Little Ninjas and kids beginner
Black belt in Zen Do Kai Karate and in JKA Shotokan Karate, with more than five years of experience teaching karate.
Instructors
Black belts with decades of experience between them, led by the club's founder.
Master Wade Kirkpatrick
6th-degree black belt, Master Instructor and club founder
Sensei Kirkpatrick has trained in karate since he was 9 and has spent more than two decades teaching. He is a direct student of Sensei Robert Gifford, 8th-degree black belt and Director of the Zen Do Kai Karate System in the southwestern United States, and became the youngest person ever to earn a black belt in Zen Do Kai.
- Eight-time Texas State Champion
- Men's Golden Greek Award and Texas Golden Greek Hall of Fame, 1997
- Zen Do Kai Instructor of the Year twice, Black Belt of the Year, and the Bushido Award
- 6th in the world at the National Black Belt League World Championships
Kristen Schmid
1st-degree black belt, instructor
Mrs. Schmid began her training through a women's self-defense class taught by Sensei Kirkpatrick, then joined his regular karate class and worked her way up to 1st-degree black belt.
She has a master's degree in Library and Information Science and teaches elementary math for KISD. She is a mother of two, and proof that you are never too busy to try something completely outside your comfort zone.
Morten Hagland Hansen
Club co-founder and former instructor, 2nd-degree black belt
Mr. Hansen started martial arts in 1987 in Haugesund, Norway, training Japanese Jujutsu under John-Arild Birkeland to 3rd kyu. He went on to Modern Arnis, the Filipino martial art, under Guru Are Larsen and Punong Guru Johan Skaalberg, testing for 2nd class at the 2nd International Modern Arnis Summer Camp in Lübeck, Germany in 1991 and running a Modern Arnis club in Haugesund.
After moving to Stavanger he taught Modern Arnis at a local Ju-Jutsu school and trained Kyoshinkai Karate under Jarle Sundvor. In Houston, his family trained at Texas Martial Arts in Katy under Sensei Rick Eirdam, and he continued when Sensei Wade Kirkpatrick took over, earning his black belt in 2007.
Mr. Hansen co-founded Fulshear Family Karate with Sensei Kirkpatrick and taught at the club for a number of years. He has since moved back to Norway and still looks after the club's website.
Our black belts
Many of our students go on to earn their black belt, and several of them help out in class. Here are some of our black belts with Sensei Robbie Gorringe and Master Wade Kirkpatrick.
In memoriam: “Wild Bill” Ramsey
William “Bill” Ramsey (1950–2015) was one of our original co-founders. He helped build the family-oriented dojo we still are today, and his daughters trained right here on our mats.