I began my martial arts journey in the early 1980s in South East Asia with honest-to-goodness kung fu master Tony Tan Suan Hee. Ours was a ‘traditional’ class, meaning there was no chit-chat to be had. Traditional also meant the six of us could expect to enjoy drills back and forth across that little dingy musty room.

Subsisting off a diet of Bruce Lee flicks and Chinese soap operas, I persevered through each training session. With the simple commitment to stick-with-it, bruises faded for the next class, weeks turned into months, and months ticked into years. In no time, I was working through my black belt testing – an hour and a half, technique after technique.

Proud as I was of my accomplishment, I still had lots of questions regarding the system I had just tested in. What little I knew was sorely put on the line as I instructed beginning students in the drills I had gone through. This trial-by-fire was nowhere more evident than when I travelled to the America to embark on my path through Business school.

I quickly found myself in the SMU Martial Arts Club, and was startled by some very significant differences. People were friendly. People were knowledgeable. And people were hitting me.

This is an early picture of me with Yokage Aikijujutsu Gendai Bushi Dojo (Dallas) sometime in 1991.
I'm the young one on the far left. Yokage Aiki Jujutsu

While I should have been worried about getting my head knocked off, I think what struck me harder was the fact that people actually talked in class. Not social chatting, of course, but people would talk about the techniques – of what was expected and how to perform them better. And what my instructor Sensei Bryan Robbins and his then students were all saying made a lot sense to me.

(L->R) Dr. Ted Gombordella, my instructor Paul Hinkley and my head instructor Bryan Robbins - sometime in 1995.

Proctor Dojo, led by my other instructor Sensei Michael Proctor et al.
This is where I earned every bit of my black belt, folks. Cooper Institute

Thus began my real journey as a black belt.

Two times a day, six days a week. Four to five formal sessions, one or two informal ones, and the rest was spent at the gym or at the track. While I laboured through Traditional Taekwondo patterns, most of the other sessions were exhilarating. I found myself being challenged, getting more effective, and understanding my game better.

Graduating from Business School, and finally basing myself in Western Australia, my journey in the martial arts developed in other interesting ways. While starting my own school in mid 2000 was in itself a momentous event, I reckon being geographically isolated from my mentors and reaching out through the Internet for like-minded practitioners was the most defining challenge I have experienced as an instructor.

The Internet brought with it IAOMAS, a non-profit student support group and its associated online forum. Through the forum, independent instructors such as myself found other instructors who maintained a similar ‘honest-to-goodness’ attitude about their martial arts.

Like other things on the Internet, IAOMAS was an explosion of information. The forum allowed me to meet instructors, like IAOMAS Founder Stuart Anslow, who were very clear about they did, and knew what they were talking about.

Presenting an award to IAOMAS Founder Stuart Anslow in 2003 at his dojang. Raynerslane, England

While exciting, this initial foray online also unfortunately coincided with my passion for the martial arts going through its first real decline. At this juncture, I had the pleasure to acquaint myself with Sifu Tim White, Director of Molum Combat Arts Association, who would later play a significant part in helping me out of this trough.

Training with my mentor Sifu Tim White, Director of Molum Combat Arts in Dallas 2006. MLCAA

My unhappiness with the martial arts was not just due to my passion finally being chipped away by killer drills. It was because I felt that the system I had was not really a system at all. I had accumulated a modicum of skill yet it was haphazard and disorganised. The drills that we used were not linked to the patterns. The patterns we used were not influencing our self defence techniques.

A turning point came simultaneouely when I was studying IT pattern recognition for my Master's in Business and Technology, and with my reading 'Shotokan’s Secret,' a book by Shihan Dr Bruce Clayton. Shotokan’s Secret is unlike other by-the-numbers martial arts books. While you can enjoy it for the amazing profiling of Okinawan Karate masters, the book makes a profound statement – that Karate was created for a purpose. This purpose had then been shrouded by history, and the tactical worth of its techniques diminished by myths and a subsequent development of sport karate.

(L->R) Kyoshi Ric Llewellyn, myself, and author Shihan Bruce Clayton, Ph.D at Kyoshi's Benicia Dojo near Napa Valley, August 2006. Bruce D. Clayton, Ph.D

An interplay of forces has started me on what I believe is the most important contribution I will make to Traditional Taekwondo and martial arts in general.

My objectives are threefold:
1. To clarify Traditional Taekwondo as it evolved from Shotokan, and to affirm the legitimacy of both classical and modern interpretation of application,
2. To use Taekwondo’s patterns as a vessel in which to transmit key skills and subjective experience, and
3. To organise these lessons appropriate to the skill level of the practitioner.

A high point of my Dallas 2006 trip was meeting with A-KaTo Founder GM Keith Yates. The meeting was
even more special as I was honoured soon after with inclusion as a new black belt member of A-KaTo. While GM Yates was not my direct instructor, he has been a generous and inspirational mentor through my upper belt involvement in the martial arts.

I used my recent trip to Singapore (2007) to visit with my first martial arts master, Tony Tan. It's been 20 years since he graded me to black belt. I was "the last" of his students, he tells me. While he no longer practices martial arts, he was still generous with his time. Also more friendly and accessible than when I was training with him. The question was not raised, and I am sure Master Tony assumes I still practice the same art he taught me. In many ways I still do, with everything else adding layers over my initial training. I am ever thankful to him, without his time I would not be where I am.

This is only the start of my story - I have not been more excited with the martial arts. After 24 years of plugging away at it, I believe the training does amount to something – and I welcome you to visit us and find out what’s in it for you.

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