George Sfetas was born in central Greece in 1952. He started Karate training at the age of 12 years, quickly took his 1st Degree black belt and started teaching at a gym in downtown Athens .

He opened his own Karate gym in 1970 and in 1973 met and married an English girl and decided to leave Greece to live in England .

George joined the National College of Karate, one of the oldest and biggest karate schools based at the Tonbridge Club, which was run by Tom Hibbert, now head of the English Karate Board; it was also the first headquarters of the Wado-ryu style in England . After training for less than a month George was asked if he wanted a teaching job, the first non-oriental ever to teach there. Whilst there he was privileged to work with the best Japanese Masters such as, Sensei Meiji Suzuki, Sensei Maeda and Sensei Sakigami.

It was whilst working there that he was invited to join the England Team. It was the first time that they had beaten Japan and George was very excited to have been a part of it.

This led to him teaching in various parts of England and the Channel Isles, where he did gradings and ran courses. He also taught at various Education Authorities.

After two years in London , George moved to Brighton in the South of England where he opened the SAMA karate club. He quickly established himself as one of the most experienced and highest qualified instructors in the town, (by this time George had gained his 3rd Dan Black Belt). He was invited to teach at Sussex University , and Brighton Polytechnic, which he did for many years.

By now George was a well-known celebrity in the South of England, giving live demonstrations at Cinemas, Nightclubs, Women's Groups etc. He travelled with his team all over England .

It was around this time that George first became interested in Full-contact karate, (now known as kickboxing ), it was to be his passion for many years to come.

George became the Professional Karate Associations European coordinator and travelled extensively to Europe and the U.S.A. He was involved in coordinating and judging at most of the big fights. He was Guest of Honour at Bill Wallace's retirement fight in Anderson , Indiana , and was a judge at the Ross Scott World Title fight in New York 's Madison Square Garden .

George Sfetas made his first trip to the U.S.A. in 1979 and if those in the American Karate community expected to meet a Promoter and a business man, it came as quite a surprise to most of them when George turned out to be a creative and innovative Karate expert.

During one of his many visits to America, Robert Heale, Chairman of ISKA had this to say of Sensei Sfetas '' I was fortunate enough to be able to arrange for George to teach a one-day course for my students in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. At first I had reservations about the course because of George's involvement in training professional fighters, I believe that at the time he was coaching seven British kickboxing champions at his club in London . My school on the other hand was very traditional with emphasis on training professional and business people in basic karate for self- defence , my misgivings however proved to be totally inappropriate this remarkable Sensei proved to be able to teach a unique blend of traditional and kickboxing techniques which he has implemented into a syllabus for grading students. Mr Sfetas has a reputation both in Europe and the U.S. as a spectacular and innovative exponent of all manor of kicking techniques. Additionally I can personally attest to the efficiency of his punching combinations which combined both speed and accuracy, were it not for his excellent control I no doubt would have personal insight into their obvious power as well ''.

Sensei George Sfetas was the first European trainer/manager ever to take fighters to the U.S.A. This gained George Sfetas the name of being a fine instructor in kickboxing and earned him and his fighter's respect from the world's champions. The Americans found that Sfetas' fighters had good kicking techniques, as well as being able to box, they were also tough and disciplined. George worked hard to bring about matches for his fighters against the Americans; he considered them to be the best at kickboxing. It was at this stage that 10 of his fighters were in the PKA world ratings, which at that time were the equivalent of the WBC ratings. His fighters made such an impression at that early stage, it says a lot about Sensei George Sfetas.

Apart from his involvement with kickboxing George worked hard to promote Karate in general, during his last visit to America he visited Joe Lewis, Chuck Norris, He Ill Cho, Bill Wallace and Joe Corley. He arranged courses for Wallace and Ill Cho in England and Ireland for the first time and Joe Lewis in Athens , also for the first time. He was personally asked to take Chuck Norris around London when he visited to promote one of his many films. George feels that having had the opportunity to train with such recognised karate authorities as those mentioned above, his experience of both traditional and contact karate has grown tremendously. So valued was George that he was the first European to be mentioned in the Who's Who of Karate by John Corchoran and Emil Farkas,

George Sfetas was also a contributor to many martial arts magazines all over the world and the publisher of the magazine Sport karate.

George Sfetas is seen as an emissary of European Karate because his karate is so good, his kicking so fast, his punching so accurate and spontaneous, his overall style so elegant. From what we know of kickboxing in the USA , no one has managed to attain the level of synthesis between traditional karate training and full contact training, George Sfetas has achieved just that.

British kickboxing at that time was at its height of popularity and was even being shown on National TV; Saturdays World of Sport. For the first time it was being taken seriously and fighters were gaining recognition and rewards. Advertising kickboxing on peak time TV was also another first. Unfortunately just as the sport was taking off politics stepped in and with it brought much unrest with certain groups splitting and wanting to run the European Division of PKA. George Sfetas resigned in 1984.

Of all those involved in the process of promoting kickboxing in Europe, no one has done more than former European Coordinator Sensei George Sfetas.

From the wealth of experience gained in England and America he returned to Greece and was the head of the WAKO Organisation, promoting and organising semi-contact karate and kickboxing. He promoted the European WAKO Championships in which 23 Countries took part he also promoted the biggest Martial Arts Spectacular ever seen in Greece with guest star Joe Lewis. He was responsible for coaching the Greek Team taking them to numerous competitions throughout Europe .

George was to take yet another direction, into filmmaking. He produced and directed 13 Martial Arts films, his son Christopher (now 4th Dan) taking the starring role.

Listing all of George's activities and achievements would mean writing a book, which we will leave for a later date. For now he is happy to be back in Brighton teaching both traditional karate and kickboxing all over Sussex .