During my early days of training in the Seventies I read everything I could about Karate and in particular Shotokan. In Later years I read some of my books again and noticed that Gichin Funakoshi, the man responsible for introducing karate to the Japanese mainland, mentioned that it took him 3 years to learn Tekki Shodan.

I pondered this and wondered why, as it is not a difficult kata to learn. I also read where he described karate as a seizing, grappling and striking art and realised that there was much missing in what I was doing. I also recognised some throws, locks and bars he showed and connected them to kata parts.

My training until then had its focus clearly in the sports area as it was taught for trophies. Practical self-defence was not covered in an adequate way as I had plenty of experience in the violence of the streets and knew that something was missing.
In 1998 I attended a Patrick McCarthy seminar and I was enlightened by a couple of snippets of kata he showed and began earnestly researching and finding for myself what was hidden yet in plain sight because after all, I felt I had discovered the Rosetta Stone and wanted to discover for myself the mysteries of kata. I joined Shotokan Research Society International moderated by Bob MacMahon and realised there were a couple of hundred karateka around the world searching for answers which I thought at the time was a small number.
Most of my contemporaries in Australia weren’t interested in realistic self defence applications and were pursuing their own path to perfection and relating it to the concept of budo.

In the ensuing years, much work was put into bunkai (analysis) of kata and then scenarios constructed where one could be called upon to defend from a violent situation from research from the Bureau of Statistics and other sources of inspiration, using some of the techniques learned and applied in kata practice.

I found this was rewarding to be able to introduce young and old to a last resort self-defence, whilst learning and training in a traditional martial art. The good aspects of the tradition passed on with the confronting recognition of prevalent violence today.
Quite a few of my students passed on to me incidents they managed to defend safely and I was gladdened to think we were practising an effective, last resort, self-defence.

We welcome men and women, young or old to discover the beauty and effectiveness of karate Training. Also clubs who might like a seminar for their own students.