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Chronicles of the Overlord – My Martial Arts Journey

Commencing operation . . .

Overview

I was training at home and took a glance at my black belt certifications. I realised I had been a black belt for over a decade, since April this year. I started reminiscing a little about my journey and in this entry I will share it with you. My core fighting style was purely Karate based, but in more recent years I have done a lot of kickboxing training and even dabble a bit in Brazilian Jujitsu. While I am certainly not an MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter nor hold any particular interest in entering the octagon, it could be said that my fighting style these days resembles a hybrid of Karate and kickboxing.

Past History

I admit it. I started my Karate training on a whim. I was seven years of age, and one day, my father received a letter in the mailbox about a local Karate club. He asked if I would be interested in giving it a shot. All I knew about Karate at the time was that it was a ‘way of fighting.’ I remembered being very excited at the time and enthusiastically agreed to try it out. I don’t recall too much of my earlier years, but I know I enjoyed my Shito Ryu training. I started taking a couple of lessons a week, but over time, that increased to about five times a week. Even at a young age, I was quick to learn and retain each Kata required for the corresponding grading. It was always my fighting form that required more attention for improvement.

In 2003, I moved from Australia to the UK because my father got a new job. Wanting to continue my Karate training, I attended the local Karate club, but that was a Shotokan club, not Shito Ryu, which meant that there were subtle but noticeable differences. Coupled with the fact that I lost my brown belt certificate during the house move, meant that I started at 5th Kyu for Shotokan Karate. I’ll never forget my first Shotokan lesson because it was the one time in my entire life where I wanted to quit Karate training completely. At the time, I felt that Sensei Trevor had been way too hard on me; monitoring, scrutinizing my every action and constantly correcting my movement, stance, and technique. The frequency of those amendments made me feel that all my training up to that point had been a total waste and that there was no point in me continuing Karate anymore. I went home and cried to my father and told him I never wanted to do Karate again but he wouldn’t accept my answer and verbally forced me to keep training. I was a pitifully, weak, and pathetic 13-year-old. I’m thankful I went back to the Shotokan Dojo though as slowly, but surely I improved and eventually made the transition from Shito Ryu to Shotokan.

I used to get physically and mentally bullied quite a lot during my secondary school years. I’ve always been vastly different from other people and being a skinny and weak foreigner did me no favours. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure how much my Karate training aided or equipped me to deal with these encounters as most of the time, I did not fight back and just endured the abuse. There was the rare occasion where I retaliated, but that was in the more extreme situations. Despite my lack of build, with the correct execution of Karate techniques, I was capable of unleashing some devastating techniques against my attackers.

My Shotokan grades were done by a strict external examiner named Kevin Hickey. Truth be told, I almost failed my 4th Kyu grading and actually did fail my 1st Kyu grading because I made a couple of mistakes in my Bassai Dai. He even gave me a second chance to redeem myself, and I fixed my first mistake but then made a second one towards the end of the Kata! I choked on the day, but since I performed the rest of my 1st Kyu requirements sufficiently, I was awarded a provisional 1st Kyu rank and was told to return in three months’ time to get the full 1st Kyu rank. Sensei Kevin even mentioned how it can be nerve-wracking to grade and how it is understandable for people to make mistakes under pressure even if they knew the Kata sufficiently under ‘normal’ circumstances. It was then I thought that perhaps Sensei Kevin wasn’t so harsh after all.

There was a 5-year gap between my 1st Kyu and 1st Dan grading in Shotokan Karate, which is generally considered to be quite a lengthy timeframe to grade to Black Belt. The main reason for that was because I lacked the physical capability to take my Black Belt grading. My technique and Kata was at the right level, but my combat ability needed to improve. I lacked the strength to stand equally against the Black Belts in the club and so I needed to take an extra year to prepare for my Black Belt grading.

A couple of months after receiving my Black Belt, I spent around a quarter of a year back in Australia to visit my family. During that time, I decided to revisit my first dojo to keep up with my training. Sensei Joe Templin didn’t recognize me, but in fairness, it had been over a decade since I last trained with him. It was during that time I realized that despite being a Shodan, I still lacked strength. Sensei Joe put a lot more emphasis on fitness training than my Shotokan training in the UK. I had never done push-ups or sit-ups in my Karate classes, and when I first tried to do them, I barely managed to do five push-ups, and while I was able to do a lot more sit-ups, my repetition speed was very slow. Sensei Joe came over to me and pointed out one of his green belt students who happened to be a 50-year-old man; had better fitness than me. He wasn’t malicious about it, just stating the facts but I still felt pretty terrible about it. Sensei Joe said that he would focus his efforts on improving my fitness and my fighting ability during the three months I was back home for. That training back in Australia proved to be vital as I started doing a lot more strength and conditioning exercises both in and outside the dojo and Sensei Joe taught me a few really good techniques for competition fighting.

During my time at university was when my Shotokan Karate training really took the back seat and my academics came first. I trained a pitiful once a week, and while it was possible for me to train more frequently if I travelled further away from Coventry, I chose not to because I lacked my own transportation at the time. At any rate, I trained with Sensei John Johnston and occasionally with Sensei Hiroshi Ken Hassell and even attended a 3-day karate camp towards the end of my final year of university, which was a lot of fun.

I admit it. I started my Shorinjiryu Kenkokan Karate training on a whim. I was 22 years of age, and one day while my best friend was round my house, he asked me how my Shotokan Karate training was progressing. I told him it was going well and he then mentioned how he recently returned to his Shorinjiryu Kenkokan Karate training and invited me to give it a go. I had heard a few things on and off about the Shorinjiryu Kenkokan Karate style from my best friend, but when he showed me some Koshiki fights, I became impressed. It also turned out that the Dojo Ken Shin Kai training times followed just after my Shotokan Karate lessons and therefore I would be able to train in the way of Shorinjiryu Kenkokan Karate without sacrificing my Shotokan Karate training.

In recognition of my Shodan status in Shotokan Karate, Sensei Ciaran started me at a provisional 4th Kyu. Even with my previous Karate experience, I had a tough time learning the Shorinjiryu Kenkokan Karate style. I owe a big thanks to my best friend for putting in the extra time to give me some one-on-one training in order for me to get to speed with the Shorinjiryu Kenkokan Karate way. The differences between Shotokan and Shorinjiryu Kenkokan Karate are staggering, and the vast inconsistency in the two styles was the main factor for my struggles.

It took a good six months for me to get a reasonable grasp of the Shorinjiryu Kenkokan Karate way, and by about a year, I had graded to 1st Kyu. Shortly after that grading, I participated in my first Koshiki Karate Seminar, where I had the privilege to be instructed by So Shihan Masayuki Kukan Hisataka, the head honcho at the time. It was three days totalling around 20 hours’ worth of training, which was the longest amount of training I had ever done in the span of a few days. There was a Shiai tournament held on the final day, and I managed to secure 2nd place and earned my first ever Karate trophy. All in all, an exhaustive but enjoyable learning experience. A couple of months down the line, Shihan Ciaran hosted another Koshiki Karate seminar on a Saturday and on Sunday, Team Koshiki UK travelled up to Chester for a freestyle Kata tournament. It was split into divisions depending on rank, so in the 3rd – 1st Kyu kata tournament, I ended up placing 1st with Koshiki Bassai for round 1 and Kudoka No Seisan for the final.

Since then, I have travelled the world, including such countries as Canada, Russia, Lithuania, Poland, and Australia to compete in Koshiki Karate tournaments. My results from these ventures were less than stellar on the whole, to be honest. There were a few highlights but many more defeats in my tournament record to date. My Kata performances were usually stronger than my Shiai matches, so my Karate training had been a lot more focussed on Shiai with the aim to improve that aspect. That being said, I have definitely improved in all areas of my Karate training.

I believe it was around 2016 when Shihan Ciaran decided to branch out a bit more and incorporate kickboxing classes into the regime. I didn’t think much of it at the time but took up a couple of classes per week to try and improve my fight game. I took up Brazilian Jujitsu a year later to build a complete self-defence package. I only train once a week in that art, but that was sufficient for me to get a grasp of the fundamentals.

Many years later, in 2019 things have started to come together for me on the battlefront; having competed and won in both Koshiki Karatedo fighting and kickboxing.

Future Aspirations

I am currently working towards my 3rd Dan Black Belt, and I have been meaning to visit Japan and train under So Shihan Masayuki Kukan Hisataka. I have never visited Japan before and would very much like to do so in 2020 when the Olympics is hosted over there. I suspect there will be a lot of buzz within the martial arts world during this time, so feel that would make a great timing to visit Japan and get some training in; perhaps even compete in a tournament over there.

I don’t have any vast ambitions with the kickboxing side of things; I have always been more focussed on the Karate aspect of my training. I may compete once in a while in kickboxing but do not see myself taking it any further than that. Same with Brazilian Jujitsu; I am not particularly interested in working my way up the ranks, I am simply content to learn at my own pace, refine the basics with the aim to support my overall self-defence capabilities.