Kicking it with the best

WILLIAM WOODWORTH

Three martial arts experts have travelled to the birthplace of karate in a bid to increase their skills and bring back ancient knowledge.

Members of Marlborough’s goji-ryu community travelled to the tropical island of Okinawa, in Japan, with 32 other South Islanders to train under karate masters.

Leeland Roche, Theresa Hinton and Mary-Jane Thompson trained for a week at the world-famous Jundokan Dojo under sensei Tsuneo Kinjo and sensei Tetsu Gima at the beginning of July – with Leeland passing the grading test to be awarded his san dan, or third-degree black belt.

Marlborough Goji-Ryu karate club organiser Leeland Roche credits the community for their support in making the “bucket list” trip a reality.

“We have been highly supported by our Marlborough club and their families, and huge thanks to thank Sensei Hayden Wilmott from Canterbury Goju Ryu Karate Club for organising such a great opportunity,” Leeland says.

“The club carried out a lot of fundraising – we ran a quiz night, did vineyard work, and raffles with the help of different organisations.”

The group trained in very testing conditions, says Leeland, experiencing 30-degree heat and 90 per cent humidity – as well as immersion in the Okinawan cul- ture, language and food.

Leeland has been practising karate since 1999 and has spent the last seven years in Marlborough teaching after taking over the club. He was one of three New Zealanders to test for their grading during the trip. He says the experience of training under Sensei’s Kinjo and Gima was a bucket list experience.

“Having the opportunity to train at the birthplace of karate was just incredible and the masters were so patient, incred- ibly helpful and thorough - and just fantastic guys that it was a pleasure to train under for a week.

“They were completely deadpan while I was doing my grading which was pretty freaky – we had no idea how we were doing but I obviously did well enough to be awarded my san dan.”

Leeland now aims to bring his new learning back to his students - and with the next grading examinations coming up, he hopes to be able to hand out new belts in the near future.

“We’ve got our first few black belt graduations next as well as our kids grading up, and hopefully a few more black belts next year.”

But Leeland sees his students getting far more out of the discipline than just the martial art itself.

“Karate really shows a great way of life and the more you’re around it, the more life lessons you learn and more little improvements you see people making in their own lives.”