One of the first students that John Richards had was to become a Kickboxing World Champion. Howard Brown trained with John Richards in the 1970’s at a dojo in Hockley, along with Howard other fighters who became British champion were Godfrey Butler and Edge Brown.

During the 1980’s two of John’s students did very well representing Great Britain in Karate World and European Championships they were Shirley Graham (Light weight) and Yvette Bryan (heavy weight).

John’s latest prodigy is Kelly Rose, she has been training at the Digbeth dojo with John for 4 years. She is the current WKA (60kg) British champion.

As well as these students who made it big at the highest level many more students have won trophies in competitions at regional level over the last 30 years. They include: Linval Graham, Rupert Richards and Pansy Wright and many more.