Black Belt Institute

The Black Belt Institute (a.k.a.  BBI) was founded by Alex Atkinson in the early 1980's and had its humble beginnings in Rexdale Ontario, Canada.  At that time Alex Sensei was competing internationally in the karate circuit and along with his brother John, he was one of the top contenders and eventually Alex Sensei held the North American Kickboxing championship. Over time, Alex Sensei trained a number of fighters, including Muzammal (Maz) Nawaz who subsequently went on to win 4 world kickboxing championaship titles.

Over time, the BBI has grown from its humble beginnings to grow to a number of affiliated schools all over Ontario and into the USA. At the time of this entry the BBI has trained over 150 Black Belts.

Our curriculum follows the training that he received through the Canadian Karate Kung Fu Association (CKKA) which was Shotokan Karate and 5 Animal Fist Wushu (Kung Fu).  Basically we begin by teaching karate up to the green belt when the wushu training begins.  The reason for the late start of the wushu training is because our Grand Master, Dave Chong, believes that karate is easier to learn than wushu and the karate training will help speed the learning of the wushu.  Over time we have found the wisdom in his plan.