The Shevington Dojo

I didn't realise or remember I had this. It's just at the end of a video tape. I'd found my old camcorder and transferred the video tapes to digital on the computer and came across this. 

Photos From The 1980's and The 'Shevy' Dojo

Just a few photgraphs of Sensei Christian in the 1980's and in his natural home.....his Dojo in Shevington, Wigan. This was one of the first full-time, dedicated Karate Dojo's in the notrh of England. 

An Interview With Sensei Tony Christian - The Fourth and Final Part.

This is the final part of a long interview. along with a section of notes,  I did with Sensei Christian back in 2015, that was published in the UK martial arts magazine 'Martial Arts Illustrated'. 

This covers from the 1980's and the opening of his full-time Dojo in Shevington, Wigan onward. 

AM = “Following from that. You'd started in the 1960's. You had studied Goju ryu, both the Japanese and Okinawan versions. By the late 1970's you'd embarked on your own personal research and this had lead you to change how you taught Goju and then you'd become involved in Kickboxing.”

TC = “I thought it was the way to go. My boxing background, and remember Karate competitions back then were hardly non-contact, it was rough. It wasn't meant to be contact, but.....Plus, the training , like boxing's, had a realism.,hitting things and each other. Never been a fan of too much 'fresh-air punching', sort of thing and all this oi-zuki, gyaga zuki attacks. I never left Karate or Goju Ryu, just did my thing with it. Never thought it was wrong or didn't work, just needed some changes. Thing is , long term, I found Kickboxing was also lacking. It didn't have the depth of Karate. Plus, as I've said before, it's an injury filled dead end : MMA is the same. Good, don't get me wrong, but long term ?”

AM= “In 1982, you opened your full time Dojo, in Shevington, Wigan.”

TC = “Yeah, never thought it would last this long. Again, I've got to say thanks to Bruce Lee, with out him, it would never have happened. It was a natural thing. I had so many good students in Wigan. I taught here (Wigan) on Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. And in Liverpool on Tuesdays and Thursdays. A lot of driving around and messing about carrying training kit etc. Opening a full time Dojo meant I could get bags and all the other training kit together. And it really did take off. We were open 6 days a week, sometimes 3 classes a night ! You know all about that. It allowed me to teach weapons (Kobudo) as well.”

AM = “Back to how our training evolved, tell us about Danny Connor ?”

TC = “Danny was my closest friend in the martial arts. Like I said , we go right back to the 1960's. Danny had started Karate and then gone into the Chinese martial arts. He'd been around China learning it's martial arts, when it was hard just to get into the country (1970's). Later he was running the BKA (British Karate Association) and I'd joined it for him. I'm the BKA's senior instructor. He'd also been behind a lot of the kick boxing. Anyway Danny was always bring bring over these Chinese martial artist and ringing me up. 'Come and train with so and so'. Met a lot of interesting people this way, Ip Chun (25), Alan Pittman (26) etc. And Goju Ryu is not perfect – no style is. I'd always had this thing with Tensho Kata and softness. How I'd been shown it, that something just wasn't right. Through Danny and the Chinese arts , I was shown I was right. Tensho should be soft, not an open hand version of Sanchin. The 'Go' and the 'Ju'. I miss him, he's a big loss. I think the martial arts have gone down hill since he died.”

AM = “After 50 years, where do you see the Martial arts ?”

TC = “At the moment I think their in a bad way. There are things missing, things wrong. No commitment amongst kids starting in Karate now. Karate teachers who cant fight. MMA lads, who can only fight. It's Budo that's missing. Karate, martial arts, it's about fighting, but it's more than that, much more. Fighting isn't the answer to everything. How you behave is so important. To Chinen, Enoda etc that mattered more than fighting and they were right. It's not about hitting people, it's about stopping people hitting you. So, why does someone want to hit you ? How have you behaved ? Remember Budo can mean, 'To stop the fight'.

Looking back, I think the big thing with us all back then. We were all looking for 'the answer'. That one thing that made sense of everything in the martial arts, worked against everything and made it all work. Thing is now, I don't think there is one answer. I think there's several. But what was important,was the looking for that. The searching, the training.”

Andy Moorhouse began his training back in 1973, but only became a student of Sensei Tony Christian in 1979 and has been with him ever since. He was the 'first in last out' , guy in the old Shevington Dojo and can be contacted via andy.moorhouse@hotmail.com

NOTES :

1 = DANNY CONNOR : Originally student of Vernon Bell, before becoming an early student of Tatsuo Suzuki. Through out the 1960's and 70's he visited the Orient to study the martial arts. He was one of the first to go into mainland China to study there. He was a pioneer promoter of kick boxing, author and became chairman of the BKA.

2 = VERNON BELL : British Karate pioneer who studied with Henry Ple'e , the Frenchman who introduced Karate to Europe, and Tetsuji Mirakami, the first Japanese instructor to come to Europe in the 1950's.

3 = HARRY BENFIELD : Very early student of Karate under Danny Connor. Went on to introduce Uechi Ryu to Britain.

4 = TAIJI KASE : KEINOSUKE ENODA : HIROKAZU KANAWAZA : HIROSHI SHIRAI.

Kase, was a pre-war Shotokan student of both Gichin and Giko Funakoshi. Enoda , Kanazawa and Shirai were post-war JKA champions. The four had been sent as an expert team to promote Shotokan Karate in Britain. All became highly respected masters of Karate in later years.

5 = LIVERPOOL RED TRIANGLE CLUB : One of Liverpool's early martial arts schools and the first Shotokan club in northern England.

6 = TERRY DUKES : Believed to have been a Kyukoshinkai student, who then claimed to have introduced the style of 'Mushindo' to Europe and Britain. Made a great many dubious claims of contact with great masters and thus access to secret teachings etc. In later years his claims were shown to be false and 'Mushindo' was his own concoction.

7 = MUSHINDO : Terry Duke's style of Katate , this went on to become more of a Karate-cum-Buddhist cult than more conventional Karate styles. Perhaps a reflection of its times (the 1960's and 70's.) or the man ?

NOTE – Mushindo is not related to the current Mushin Ryu style, founded by Alfie Lewis.

8 = GEORGE ANDREWS : Now Morio Higaonno's (IOGKF) senior pupil in Britain and head of the OTGKA.

9 = TERRY O'NEIL and STEVE CATTLE : Both very sucessful Karate champions, Cattle was a student of Kase and O'Neil of Enoda. O'Neil also became the publisher of the now defunct 'Fighting Arts International' and actor.

10 = BOB HONIBALL : Tony Christian's first black belt student and now senior Jundokan instructor in Britain.

11 = TONY VISCOUNTE : Famous record producer, working with the likes of T.Rex and David Bowie.

12 = STEVE ARNEIL : Kyukoshin Karate master and president of the IKF. Was the first westerner to complete the 100 man kumite.

13 = DENNIS MARTIN : Martial artist and author, moved over from traditional martial arts to body guarding and what is now termed RBSD.

14 = BRIAN WAITES : Early student of Karate and one of the three students at the Goju Kai Humbu Dojo who Yamaguchi sent to introduce Goju Ryu to this country. Disappeared from martial arts circles in the 1980's.

15 = STEVE MORRIS : Regarded by many as one of the most gifted martial artists in the country. Started in Kyukushinkai in this country, went to Japan and became involved in the introduction of Goju Ryu here. Followed his own path in 'Pure Form', an attempt to get to the essence that links all martial arts. Became frustrated and abandoned traditional Oriental martial arts and works at his own 'Morris Method' of no hold barred fighting and training MMA fighters.

16 = GARY SPIERS :  A New Zealander and proud of his Maori heritage, met Waites and Morris at Yamaguchi's Dojo. Used his Karate experience to move into bouncing and security work. Distilled these experiences into his 'Applied Karate' group.

17 = GOGEN YAMAGUCHI : Japanese solider and martial artist. Studied Karate with the head of Goju Ryu, Chojun Miyagi in the 1930's . Termed his branch of Goju, Goju Kai and founded the JKF. A martial arts innovator, credited with the development of free sparring, studying yoga and with a strong spirituality to his teaching.

18 = STEVE BELLAMY : Moved to Japan to further his martial arts studies.

19 = TERUO CHINEN : Goju Ryu master, trained under Chojun Miyagi as a child. Regarded by Sensei Christian as his biggest influence and the best 'Kata man' he's ever seen. Head of Jundokan International.

20 = MORIO HIGAONNA : World famous Karate master and head of the largest Goju Ryu organisation, the IOGKF. Regarded as an archetypal martial arts master.

21 = MASAFUMI SHIOMITSU : Early Wado Ryu instructor.

22 = STEVE TABERNER : British Kick Boxing champion in the 1980's.

23 = JAMES ROUSSEAU : South African , went to Japan to study Karate in the 1960's. Trained with both Higaonna and Chinen. Brought first Chinen and then Higaonna to Britain. Helped establish the IOGKF. Now leader of the GKI.

24 = JOE LEWIS – BILL WALLACE – BENNY URQUIDEZ : Legendary American Kick Boxing champions from it's golden age , in the 1970's and '80's.

25 = IP CHUN : Son of Ip Man, senior Wing Chun master and teacher of Danny Connor.

26 = ALAN PITTMAN : Studied Chinese martial arts under R.W. Smith.

An Interview with Sensei Tony Christian , part 3.

'FOLLOWING THE TRAIL' – A CONVERSATION WITH SENSEI TONY CHRISTIAN.

This is the second part of a long interview I did with Sensei Christian back in 2015, that was published in the UK martial arts magazine 'Martial Arts Illustrated'. 
This section covers the mid-1970's and his search for greater depth and understanding of the martial arts. 

AM = “So, we get to the mid-1970's and the appearance of Okinawan version Goju Ryu, as opposed to the Japanese version (Goju Kai), you had been working with. How did the training differ ?”

TC = “Well, the real truth of it was , I think there was no depth in the Japanese stuff. Gary didn't understand the Kata and the Bunkai's , that's the trurth. He could do Seiunchin Kata, but couldn't do Sepai or Sesan. He knew Bunkai for some of the stuff, but not others. No real depth of knowledge. And that's what I wanted. (At this time Tony Christian was a 2^nd Dan and Gary Spiers was a 3^rd or 4^th Dan)”

“So, I was off on the trail of this depth, I was off to Japan. Thinking about it, Steve Cattle was a wonderful man. He'd been out there and he said. “ You're crazy, you're going to loose your club – which was making a lot of money at that time. You'll go out there for a year and all your students will go. When you're there, they'll treat you like rubbish and when you come back, you'll have no Dojo. “ But I was so keen, I had the money and the plans. Then Steve rings me . “I've got the answer to your problem.” He'd just met James Rousseau (23). He's linked to Chinen and Higaonna and you want to learn all the Kata and that. They know it all.” And that was my trail. My trail wasn't to learn to fight, because I could well do that. You know Spiers, if you were in a fight in a pub and I'm deadly serious, there was none better.”

“If you really wanted to know how to fight, I wouldn't have picked Chinen, I'd have picked Gary every time. What it was, was that Chinen could do Sesan and all those things. And that's what I wanted, to learn the whole system, more depth. Now, I'm not into Japanese history, I've said all a long, I don't want to be a 16^th century samurai ; unlike some, or dream dream of Chojun Miyagi and Okinawa. I'm my own man, I'm more interested in the history of Great Britain, the history of where I come from. I view the martial arts, now, as mine. It's mine , it's yours to do what ever you want with, it's yours to do your own thing with. It takes time, but it becomes yours. “

“That's were the Kickboxing comes from, they did their own thing, Joe Lewis, Bill Wallace, Benny Urquidez (24) etc . And that's what Steve Taberner was doing with Kickboxing – his own thing. That was the trail they wanted to take. I enjoyed all that, because it's all martial arts , it doesn't have to be just one way. I think the danger of the martial arts, is like religion, were things are closed, blinkered and cloistered , they don't see anything outside themselves. Like I say, open and closed views of training.(make a note for this) They don't see the wrestling or don't see the striking. Some of the oriental styles can't see anything but themselves. They don't see that , like Wigan was the base of 'Catch - As – Catch – Can' (wrestling), some of the greatest wrestlers in the world in their time : which I see and they don't. And they don't see the boxing, which I did, because I'd been there with my Dad, watching them all. I still think, in close quarter fighting, striking, you'll never beat a good boxer. I didn't like the idea of people saying to me. 'Oh you can't do this.....' Chinen used to watch me doing the boxing stuff and say you shouldn't use that. It's ridicules. Like Bruce Lee said, if it's good , use it. If it's not good, discard it.”

“Was Bruce Lee an influence ? Because at that time (late 1970's and early 1980's)) we were all cracking off doing things in our own way. Gary Spiers was doing his own thing. This idea that we all lined up and did the same thing. We were Scousers, we always do our own thing. Steve Cattle split from Enoda, Kanazawa split form the JKA. Higaonna from the Jundokan. Steve Morris, they all went off on their own searches. The martial arts is always a big search.”

The Drill Hall

Some photos of the Drill Hall in Wigan. Sensei Christian taught here every Wednesday, from 1973 until 1981. It was the local Territorial Army training centre, with a very large wooden floor, great for training on.....except !
With its long and constant use by the army the wooden floor was a....little battered, shall we say.
Splinters in the feet were a very, very regular and painful experience.  And at times we would have to share the area with some of the armies vehicles. Training or even free-sparring (jiyu-kumite) around trucks and landrovers just added to the fun.

Past AND Present

It should be noted that this blog is not a pure history site, Sensei Christian may have retired from teaching Karate on a day to day basis, this doesn't mean he has retired completely. Last month (July 2019) he held a course in Wigan along side Hanshi Chris Rowen covering different approaches to Goju Ryu and the fact these are just slightly different ways of doing the same thing. The starting point is the same, the outcome is the same. Viva la difference !
Later in the month he then conducted a class at his student, Tony Bewley's , Garswood Dojo and handed out certificates to those who had passed their Dan (black-belt) grading the month before (May 2019).

Photos from the early 1970's

An Interview with Sensei Tony Christian , part 2.

'FOLLOWING THE TRAIL' – A CONVERSATION WITH SENSEI TONY CHRISTIAN.

This is the second part of a long interview I did with Sensei Christian back in 2015, that was published in the UK martial arts magazine 'Martial Arts Illustrated'. 
This section covers the early 1970's and the 'Kung Fu Boom' of that period. 

'FOLLOWING THE TRAIL' – A CONVERSATION WITH SENSEI TONY CHRISTIAN.

AM = “Just to take you back. What was Karate training in general like back in the 1960's, your pre-Goju Ryu Training ?”

TC = “We didn't know any better, any depth. My lessons could be, line up, basics and then we'd fight: Kumite / Randori for an hour and we'd knock sh*t out of each other. It was terrible really. This was in the Gordon Smith Institute, it was a Seaman’s institute. In the middle of the hall , where all this training was going on, was a big glass case with model ship – like a nine foot long model ship, huge ! And this old boy would keep coming running in...”For Christ sake, what are you doing ? You'll break me ship !” We were always knocking each other about, ask Bob Honiball (Sensei Christian's first Black belt student) about this. There was no real Kata study, it was all fight, fight, fight. It really got bad, because it was Liverpool. I couldn't relate Kata and fighting (Kumite), till Gary Spiers came along and showed me Bunkai etc. And we were young and silly and putting adverts in saying ; learn to fight, that sort of thing. So there were always people coming in and trying it on and I was always up for it – loved it ! Looking back, we had some bad times, how people didn't get killed ?”

AM = “So free fighting predominated ?”

TC = “Yes, loads of injuries though, lad had a broken leg, because we didn't know what we were doing. Shiomitsu (21) was asked why he'd been so cruel back then and said when he was young and because he didn't know how to teach, just fight. I was like that, knew how to fight, but didn't understand Kata or the philosophy behind it all (Karate-Do) . I'd come from a Boxing school and we were just whacking each other with this wonderful new art.”

AM = “We're into the 1970's now and you'd converted to Goju Ryu now, moved out of Liverpool to Wigan and are instructing , but not professionally yet. “

TC = “What happened , to get this down. I was a time served engineer, with a degree working at Napiers in Liverpool. We got taken over by British Aerospace and moved to Rushman - Packman in Newton -Le – Willows. So I moved out of Liverpool and to Wigan....I was working and teaching part-time. Now Karate was rare in Liverpool, it was like no one had seen anything like it in Wigan. A guy called Vick Dalton, a real all-round sportsman : Football, Rugby, Cricket ….Started training with me and Bobby Greenhalgh, we had clubs in Liverpool, Manchester , Preston and St Helens as well as Newton. We were going to 'crack eggs with big sticks' (Liverpool expression). So we had clubs everywhere but Wigan. Then Vick and a lad named John Owens said to me, you live in Wigan, why don't you have a club in Wigan ? And they are the ones who got me the Drill Hall. And that was the most magic time.”

“In the other clubs there was like ten training. When I opened up at the Drill Hall in Wigan , There were cars all over the place. I thought they were for the nearby rugby ground. I walked in and they were all for me. There were hundreds trying to join ! That was September 1973 and they'd all been watching Bruce Lee and we must never forget that wonderful Bruce Lee. I have a shrine to him – bow to Bruce (laughter) – made me a professional teacher. “

“When this happened I'd been doing Karate a while, I was no beginner. And I had some good black belt students under me by this time. I turned up that first night and there was hundreds and then every Wednesday after that. A standard night at the Drill Hall was one hundred students, it was unbelievable !”

“It was because they'd all seen 'Enter the Dragon' and all that. It was huge there, a magic time, and of course attracted loads of other people, the likes of Steve Taberner (22) etc, loads.”

AM = “The Drill Hall is now legendary. It's where I started with you. Sometimes there were over two hundred and we had to train in-between the army lorries. “

TC = “It is legendary. This is how it all fits in. Because I'd come up to Wigan, Gary was still in Liverpool. He was teaching, but he was also bouncing and body guarding. Doing it for the money.

I was an engineer and I was teaching, so I was getting a proper wage. Gary didn't have a proper job and had to chase it, job to job, bouncing etc. I think he was struggling. There wasn't much money in teaching before Bruce Lee and the Drill Hall. So Gary wasn't really around when it really took off......Remember that at this time there was no Sky TV, no computers, inter-net and no trendy fitness gyms, nothing like that. These were a hard working gang : a mining and rugby town. So when they saw this (Karate), it just took off. They were a fabulous bunch. Up to that time Bob Honiball and Brian Taylor were my Black Belts and I had a small group of brown belts at the other clubs, only a few students at clubs here and there, but in Wigan it just really took off.”

AM = “So you can thank Bruce Lee for becoming a pro-instructor. Because you set-up in Wigan, had these masses of students and could make the leap from being an engineer and part time Karate teacher, to become one of the first professional Karate instructors.”

TC = “It took over from my job. What happened was my boss in engineering said, in a nice way, basically. “You've got to make your choice Tony. You're not working in the right way. This Karate's distracting you from your work.” One thing lead to another and I went in and said. “ I've made my choice – I'm leaving !” Shocked everyone. My dad went berserk at me. I'd been to college and everything. Five year apprenticeship, proper qualifications, wife and a little baby, mortgage. And I walked away from that safe long term job. On reflection – wow ! I can see what my dad thought, how would it last ? I'd given up security for something that could only last a few years. Well it lasted a bit longer that a few years. I had over 30 years in the sun. Most business' only run 7 years.”

“Karate was all right then, up to when Danny (Connor) died. After that Karate started to peter-out. It's had a good run, over 30 years. Most business only have a run of 7 to 10 years , if they're lucky. Karate tripled that. It's lost its run now, gone quiet. “

“People go about the 1960's and how great the Karate was, even back into the 1950's : but really nothing was going on. It was trying, but.....Really it was the 1970's and good old Bruce Lee. That's when things took off. Even when Gary Spiers came around, there was nothing big going on. Then Bruce Lee came along and it's on tele' as well (The 'Kung Fu' TV series). That's when things really exploded. Suddenly it was everywhere. 'Kung Fu Fighting' on Top Of The Pops, even those 'Hai-Karate' adverts. I was what ? Twenty seven years old, sports car, living the dream , as they say now. The time of my life.”

Some early photos of Sensei Tony Christian.

An Interview with Sensei Tony Christian , part 1.

This is the first part of a long interview I did with Sensei Christian back in 2015, that was published in the UK martial arts magazine 'Martial Arts Illustrated'. 

'FOLLOWING THE TRAIL' – A CONVERSATION WITH SENSEI TONY CHRISTIAN.

Sensei Tony Christian has been involved in the martial arts for 50 years and was a professional instructor for almost 40 years , until his recent retirement. He goes back to the early days of Karate and then the introduction of Goju Ryu. The Kung Fu boom of the 1970's and the Kickboxing 1980's.

He currently hold the grade of 8^th dan and is the senior instructor within the British Karate Association.

I've been attempting to interview Sensei Tony Christian for many years – after all he is my Sensei. But as the interviewer Michael Parkinson once commented. : “There are some people you don't so much interview, as light the blue touch paper and retire.” Anyone who has met Tony Christian will know , he falls into this category. So, here goes.....

ANDY MOORHOUSE = “Back in the 1960's Karate was a very rare thing, how did you first come across it ?”

TONY CHRISTIAN = “It was a very rare thing. My interest may have come with the James Bond books and films in the very early 1960's. And these boys were seen as magic men, magic death touch.....The early boys (of Karate), the very early boys - and Danny Connor (see note 1) was one of them - had been training with the likes of Murakami and Vernon Bell (note 2). Danny had opened a club at Blair Hall in Liverpool and one of his students was Harry Benfield (note 3): a missing link in the early story of Karate here. He was a lovely guy, a lot older than me, he'd be well into his twenties, I was a teenager. A friend called Willy Gould said to me , “I've seen this Karate, you've got to come see this.” It must have been, talking to Terry Wingrove, 1965, when Kase, Enoda, Kanazawa and Shirai (4) first came over. There is a photo of them when they first must have landed. Two of them were doing a demonstration at the Red Triangle club (5). We sat mesmerised by them !

My Dad was mad on boxing (he was a boxing promoter and manger in Liverpool) and I'd been pushed into that when I was a kid. Now, I've come to a conclusion that people are sporty or their not – Like they can be musical or not, or academic or not. The people who become barristers etc were clever at school that sort of thing. I was sporty, always playing football, not much rugby in Liverpool really. And involved in boxing through my dad. I saw Karate and I'd never seen anything like it, but I remember at the time, no-one took us on. No-one was interested in getting us to join up, become members and start training. So it went on the back-burner for a bit.”

“Anyway, later Willie Gould came to me and said he had found a Karate club, by the Carlton

Cinema. Upstairs in a Labour club. This club was the one started ,in Liverpool, by Danny Connor, but was run by Harry Benfield, who was only a purple belt. This was Wado Ryu, but at that time it was all just Karate to us. This was where I met up with Danny and we became life long friends. Anyway Danny disappeared off to Japan – to further his studies – and sort of never came back ! So we were left swinging. Then we ended up getting involved with Terry Dukes.”

“At this time there was just Wado ryu and Shotokan in Liverpool. We were doing Wado and that was a dead-loss. We weren't learning anything. The (Japanese) instructors were just coming round and knocking the cr*p out of us. Looking back, it could be because they couldn't speak English well enough, they couldn't explain. We were making mistakes and they couldn't explain enough to correct us, so they just hit us until we stopped making the mistake ! This could be how Budo got lost, because it could be explained ? We just mimicked the moves, the kicks and punches. But, to learn Budo, you've got to talk to someone, have a conversation. They weren't up to it, so we didn't pick-up any of the Budo – not their fault though.....

We picked up the kicks and punches and Harry was always head butting things, like bricks ! It was just like crazy.”

“We thought Terry Dukes (6)was marvellous when he first came around – explaining stuff. Of course he was a total con-man, but we didn't know that then. His style of Karate, Mushindo (7), didn't exist. And this is where I met George Andrews (8), when I'd gone to London to train with Terry Dukes. Now , we thought the sun shone out of him. I was lucky, I had a great bunch of mates in Liverpool and in Karate. The likes of Terry O’Neil and Steve Cattle (9) – a very good friend to me. Now they'd been to Japan. They were very dubious about it, Steve Cattle said ; “ There's no such thing as 'Mushindo Karate' (out in Japan). I think it's a load of bull !” Because Dukes made all sorts of claims for Mushindo. “

“There was something not right about Dukes and Mushindo, but he was a second Dan – and good for that. So, we thought he was good at first. Nothing by today's standards, but.....What happened then was we lost the club we were in. It was compulsory purchased and was going to be knocked down. So we decided to smash it, kicking doors off, smashing windows – butting brick ! (a lot of laughter around here.) Harry butting stuff : we wrecked the place.”

“Now this is were it gets fun, because we had no where to train and Harry Benfield didn't pick it up, he wasn't bothered. So me and Bob Greenhalgh – (training partner), sat down and talked about what are we going to do ? We decided to do something about it and got a hall. We also wanted out of Mushindo and being involve with Terry Dukes. We even wrote to Kenei Uechi as a way out and got a lovely letter back. At its end it said “where there's a will there's a way.” Looking back, the 1960's was the blind leading the blind ! We then had little clubs all over the place. Everton Valley, where Bob Honiball (10) joined (Sensei Christian’s first student to become a Black Belt.) ,but we were having doubts about things. Dukes was saying things like, he was flying over to Okinawa for meetings all the time. “

Andy Moorhouse = “The thing was Terry Dukes had a skill. He could do Karate to a decent level – unlike many people in the past, or even now, who say that they are Black Belts or masters, but haven't trained and have no physical skill. “

Tony Christian = “He was a good kicker ….and talker. I was the north of England representative for Mushindo – hows that for creditability ? Dukes was really clever and doing well. He was teaching T.Rex and Mary Hopkins. Tony Viscounte (11), the record producer, was a student and friend. We think he picked a lot up from Kyokyushinkai. Steve Arneil (12)was teaching in London back then, Steve Morris (13) was also an early student of Arneil's, before he left for Japan.....

Dukes was talented, but embroidered the truth, sucked a lot of people in. He used to take us to the Samye-Ling monastery etc. Now if I've got some of this wrong, sorry, it's 'cos I've made a mistake.”

“To move it along the trail. Duke was very interesting, but a crazy man ! He started calling himself Nagaboshi Otomo. Terry O'Neil said : “ I bet he wants the cheques done to Terry Dukes ?” We laughed about it. I was lucky I had all these scouse mates up here, Harry Benfield , Terry O'Neil and Steve Cattle, who had doubts. Terry and Steve were well in with Shotokan. We were a bit out in the cold because of our involvement with Terry Dukes. “

“Now, Dennis Martin (13) , who'd been in Mushindo with me, see's as demo by Brian Waites (14) and Steve Morris (15). They'd been training in Japan and had just come back with Goju (Kai) Ryu. This was very early 1970's. We get Brain Waites to do a course in Liverpool. On this course is Gary Spiers (16) . Terry O'Neil had met him out in Japan and had invited him over – never thinking he'd come – and Gary had followed him back. Next thing, and all this was in a very short time, I had a club in the Gordon Smith Institute, a right rough part of Liverpool : next to the VD clinic ! Not a lot of us, only ten to fifteen students and Gary rolls up wanting to train. He didn't want to teach, just train. That's were he was great, there was no pose about Gary, he just wanted to get in line and train. So we trained together, went for a beer and became mates. In a very short space of time, we decided we were going to set up Goju Ryu in this country. Gary started teaching Gekisai etc. I already knew some of the kata : Saifa and Seiunchin, from Mushindo. Dukes had been doing them much the same, coming from Kyukoshinkai. It wasn't difficult to change over, we were already Black belts, but in Mushindo crap. “

“What we did next then, Steve Morris was going to look after London and the south. Brian Waites, the Midlands and we were looking after the north and build it up. Now they (Spiers , Morris and Waites), were all third Dan's from Yamaguchi (17) - head of the Goju Kai and Yamamguchi was behind them. He'd already conquered America and thought he'd do Britain too. Then Brain Waites just seemed to disappeared. Looking back Brian might have had enough of all the hassle. Trapped between two very powerful characters, Gary up here and Morris down south, both going in different directions. We got a guy called Steve Bellamy (18) on board, he was a Sheffield based Wado ryu Black belt. Me and Gary went down and started teaching him the Kata etc and he became the secretary of the British Goju Kai – which we set up about 1971. Like a lot of things in life, nothing came of it. It was all talk and no walk. We picked up a lot of people, everybody wanted to see Goju, everybody was fascinated by Goju ; it was new. And this was before Chinen (19) and long before Higaonna. (20).”

“Gary Spiers we the first guy up here. A New Zealand lad, part Maori. He was a student Gogen Yamaguchi, he'd also trained with others, Higaonna for example. The door was wide open for him. He could do Sai, not so good looking back, but no one else could back then ! We all thought he was wonderful. He was an awesome fighter. He doing slapping parries and low kicks, when the rest of us were doing big blocks and high kicks , impractical stuff. He'd come from Yamaguchi's school. Which was all Kin Geri (groin kicks) and Nukite ( eye poke) : serious stuff. I thought it was fabulous, still do to this day, it was good stuff. It was and is a vicious fighting system. Then Gary went on to make his doorman stuff which made him really famous, which was based on his Goju Kai stuff. But, back then he was a Yamaguchi boy. He was a big man and thing I like about him was he was a sincere man. There was no pose about him, no pretence, just one of those – what you see is what you get people. “

The lineage of Sensei Tony Christian and the Academies Of Goju Ryu Karate-Do

Approaches To Training

A little sample of the thing this blog will be covering in more detail later. Sensei Christian's views on open and closed approaches to teaching and training. 

APPROACHES TO TRAINING.

Sensei Christians view is that there are two approaches to training , an open one , where the art relates to and is influenced by the student , the progression of training , experience and the outside world etc. And a closed approach were everything is fixed , unchanging and unadaptable . There is only THIS way.

Only this ONE response and all else is wrong .This stifles the development of the student, who may ultimately get there but isn’t being helped . This is reflected in Sensei’s teaching methods . Technical training , where the focus of attention is on what you do ,the performance of correct technique, both solo and with a partner. (Is this where the closed approach became trapped?) And Tactical training were the focus of attention is on dealing with the attacks etc of the training partner . It is this attack that governs the response , what technique you want to use! And Sensei’s view has always been that karate is SELF-DEFENCE ,always has been, and all else is secondary. What good is the ultimate aim of karate-do as expressed in the dojo kun if you’ve lost , been beaten or killed! The primary aim of karate 500 years ago was self-defence and it should still be today .