Trees lined the street outside a small community church. On most nights grunts, yells, and slaps could be heard resounding across the mostly deserted concrete car park. Inside a large wooden hall, and source of the noise, the Kobra martial arts club was in full swing. Groups of identically garbed students practiced techniques. Kicks and punches flew with varying degrees of skill and accuracy.
Matting hid the wooden floorboards on one side of the hall. The softer covering offered some padding for throws and falls. Phillip stared straight ahead maintaining a strong focus. Three students faced him, one directly in front and one each on his left and right sides forming a triangular pattern.
Phillip and the other students bowed in turn and began to fight. The forward and right hand side students attacked at once, the third staying back and watching. Phillip ignored the poorly distanced kick coming in from the left. He moved directly into block the punch from the forward attacker. Stepping in close his used his elbow to stop the punch. Then he quickly twisted his arm around to counter strike with a back fist to the head. He finished off the opponent with a palm heel and used the falling body to screen himself from the attacker that had failed with the kick. As he manoeuvred around the fallen opponent an arm grabbed him from around the neck. The third attacker had entered the fray.
Phillip grabbed the arm and dropped suddenly to the ground. He used a shoulder throw technique to propel his attacker into the last man standing. They both fell down in a heap of arms and legs. Phillip rolled quickly out of the throw and performed the customary finishing off moves on the still flailing attackers.
Many years back while at a school camp, one of Phillip’s close friends gave him an introduction to karate. They had some play fights and Phillip like most teens his age, while unsure of his own abilities, thought he could hold his own. He was completely outclassed by his friend. Whenever he thought he was about to score a playful punch on his friend a kick would seemingly come from nowhere.
The camp and impromptu karate class had been an inspiration and Phillip keen to learn to fight like his friend joined the same martial arts school. In some ways this was a turning point for Phillip. He became part of a club for the first time in his life. The fitness aspect came at the time of life were he could really excel. As a younger boy he had played some team sports like soccer, and cricket but had never been much of an athlete. Participating in martial arts changed all that and he dedicated himself to the sport. Phillip practiced every day of the week either with the club, with friends, or on his own. Over the years he tried short stints at many other styles but kept returning to his core club.
When Phillip joined the club it was relatively young. The Senior Instructor John Steadman a sensei 3rd dan black belt sported an array of tattoos. He was respected, perhaps a little feared, by his students as an awesome fighter.
Sensei John himself had risen through the grades under his own master over the previous decades eventually rising to the rank of Sensei and starting his own club. There was a large hierarchical system behind the martial arts clubs. However this was never relevant to Phillip, or for that matter any of the students below black belt, their focus was training and sparring.
The clubs regular grading’s allowed the students to prove what they had learnt in a pressure environment. These times where some of the proudest days of Phillip’s young life. During Phillip’s brown belt grading Sensei John, the Senior Instructor walked over to Phillip ‘Please follow me and we will do a little sparring.’
Phillip was shocked and nervous, he had never before even seen the Senior Instructor do sparring. Sensing Phillip’s tension the Senior Instructor advised Phillip to relax and just take things easy.
A bundle of nerves Phillip bounced from one foot to another. He bowed first and Sensei John replied with a nod of the head. The Senior Instructor stood calmly just out of range, smiled and beckoned Phillip to attack with a small gesture of the fingers. Phillip launched to attack and immediately scored on the Sensei with a lightning fast left leg round house kick to the head. Phillip couldn’t believe he had scored and Sensei John looked surprised as he wiped away a small dribble of blood where his earing had punctured his head. Phillip stepped back and apologised profusely. Sensei laughed it off and this made Phillip really nervous. The Sensei now came into range and tagged Phillip multiple times with well-timed hand and feet combinations. Phillip tried to block but couldn’t do anything to match the skill of his Sensei.
Afterwards Sensei John pulled Phillip aside and told him that he needed to learn to calm his mind. He gave Phillip some basic mediative exercises to practice.
Over 10 years with the club Phillip rose quickly through the ranks. His dedication, skill, and fitness quickly became evident to the senior members. As Phillip progressed, so did the club, with the Senior Instructor reaching the rank of 6th dan black belt.
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