09-06-24 - Shakeel Hussain successfully passes his USKA 1st Dan Black Belt!

Yesterday we inducted another Black Belt into the USKA Kickboxing roll of honour and into the record books.

This might not sound like an over special occasion with people passing their Black Belts every single week up and down the country but an USKA Black Belt is different.
Before yesterday in USKA's entire history since we formed in 1996 we had only passed 9 Black Belt Dan grades and only 6 of those using the comprehensive syllabus with our current criteria and format.

20 Year Old Shakeel Hussain was the latest inductee after 10 1/2 years of training since the age of 9.
Shakeel in his time in the sport has won an outstanding 21 World Championship Gold medals earned at home and abroad and is the current holder of 3 Unified World Title belts and going for a 4th next weekend.

Shakeel in the week leading up to the examination as part of his grading had to submit a Portfolio detailing his Martial Arts journey so far, perform an original warm up and teach a Beginners class to demonstrate competence and an understanding of coaching and finally before grading day enter the USKA Shark tank to take part in a 10 minute round of sparring with 1 minute switches against fresh sparring partners across multi disciplines (Kickboxing / Boxing / K-1) each minute. Shakeel would not know the disciplines until the round started making it difficult for him to adjust and using up lots of nervous energy.

On the Grading day and after 8 solid hours on the mat for Shakeel under the scrutiny of Chief Instructor Neil Kelly and Senior Instructor Qasim Beg, Shakeel was awarded his USKA 1st Dan Black Belt with a fantastic score of 92 / A-.

Shakeel now turns his attention to fighting for his 4th World Title Belt next week on the Kings of Combat event in Barnsley and after that looking at potentially taking on an Instructor's teaching role at USKA to pass on his knowledge and experience to the next generation of USKA Students.
We would like to congratulate Shak to the USKA Black Belt club!

Click here to watch Shak's Black Belt Grading Journey

Click here to watch Shak's Black Belt Shark Tank Journey