“I was born and bred in Lismore. My Mum’s from Hong Kong and my Dad is Australian so I’m half Chinese. I’ve lived here all my life other than a stint on the Gold Coast. I’m a dad of two. My daughter is 5, turning 6 and we have a son who is 4.
My history of Martial Arts is based on Karate since I was 4 years old. My Sensei Dean taught me my first class when I was 4 years old. Dean is the head instructor along with his wife Cristy. In regard to Karate, I am a 3rd degree Black Belt. They say that when you get your black belt you’ve learnt enough and now have the knowledge and skills to then do proper Karate. Then there is Dans. First Dan is black belt and then you follow through your training. The head of our particular style is George Barounis. He is based in Sydney and is a 9th Dan. His instructor is in Japan and is a 10th Dan.
As a youngster I did Karate for fitness but I was motivated because I have a family member in Hong Kong who does Kung Fu. He is a part of the movie industry over there so knowing that I had a family member with a background in Martial Arts, I was always kind of motivated watching his movies. He’s done a movie called Ip man which is a popular Kung Fu movie. Seeing his martial arts ability really motivated me to learn.
There are so many aspects to Karate as you progress through, such as teaching, grading and getting your belts and you also have competition which is the sport side of things. As a junior I progressed to tournaments, local at first then I became a part of the state team. From there I went on to National representation and then junior world championships. I won 5 National championships through the events. That was in Kumite. I won an Oceana tournament as well.
I’m here at Miyagi Kan in Lismore as more the kids instructor. If anyone remembers Karate Kid’s Mr Miyagi…same name. The inventor of Go Ju which is the style we do is Chojun Miyagi. That’s where Hollywood in a sense used that name.
We’ve been running in Lismore for almost 20 years. We are very lucky as the club in Sydney is very successful as well. We have the most recent person from Australia to win the World Championships actually come from our club. Her name is Kristina Mah. She won in 2010 and it’s a very prestigious event to win a world karate federation world championship. As a club we are very well known in regard to the tournament stuff in the country.
The classes have just started up again. Because of Covid we have to be very conscious of how we work. If people want to be a part of a more community based Karate club you are very welcome. We have classes from the age of 5. We have mini Miyagi’s running around in karate uniforms which my daughter partakes in. It’s hard to teach her because I’m Dad not Sensei. At that age it’s more about coordination and social skills. We have a couple of kids from disability services as well. They partake and once they walk through that door they are all equal and engaging. We had one little boy who didn’t really have friends come in and make some friends here. One of the parents called and said this little boy had a bullying incident at school and one of the other kids from our club stepped in and stuck up for him. It was that community based thing external to whatever he’s learnt here. It was so nice to hear that.
At the moment we have classes Monday and Wednesday from 4.30pm. We teach little kids from 5, teenagers and adult classes from all different levels. Our oldest student is 60 plus. We have this great space and we are very lucky Multitask let us use it. In Summer we have Aircon and Winter we have heating.
As a father of a 5 year old daughter it’s very important for me to try and teach boys and girls how to defend themselves, to know either how to get themselves out of a dangerous situation or not to put themselves in a dangerous situation. If I can do that, my job is done. If it’s only one person who’s life is saved or escapes a bad scenario then it helps me sleep well at night. That’s kind of what we are here for. It’s not about making money. It’s about teaching something that I love which is Karate and also to implement that skill of resilience into people’s lives. Whether they put that into their schooling, getting a job or being motivated to reach for the sky, the skills that you learn here in Karate are skills you can implement into your life.”
My history of Martial Arts is based on Karate since I was 4 years old. My Sensei Dean taught me my first class when I was 4 years old. Dean is the head instructor along with his wife Cristy. In regard to Karate, I am a 3rd degree Black Belt. They say that when you get your black belt you’ve learnt enough and now have the knowledge and skills to then do proper Karate. Then there is Dans. First Dan is black belt and then you follow through your training. The head of our particular style is George Barounis. He is based in Sydney and is a 9th Dan. His instructor is in Japan and is a 10th Dan.
As a youngster I did Karate for fitness but I was motivated because I have a family member in Hong Kong who does Kung Fu. He is a part of the movie industry over there so knowing that I had a family member with a background in Martial Arts, I was always kind of motivated watching his movies. He’s done a movie called Ip man which is a popular Kung Fu movie. Seeing his martial arts ability really motivated me to learn.
There are so many aspects to Karate as you progress through, such as teaching, grading and getting your belts and you also have competition which is the sport side of things. As a junior I progressed to tournaments, local at first then I became a part of the state team. From there I went on to National representation and then junior world championships. I won 5 National championships through the events. That was in Kumite. I won an Oceana tournament as well.
I’m here at Miyagi Kan in Lismore as more the kids instructor. If anyone remembers Karate Kid’s Mr Miyagi…same name. The inventor of Go Ju which is the style we do is Chojun Miyagi. That’s where Hollywood in a sense used that name.
We’ve been running in Lismore for almost 20 years. We are very lucky as the club in Sydney is very successful as well. We have the most recent person from Australia to win the World Championships actually come from our club. Her name is Kristina Mah. She won in 2010 and it’s a very prestigious event to win a world karate federation world championship. As a club we are very well known in regard to the tournament stuff in the country.
The classes have just started up again. Because of Covid we have to be very conscious of how we work. If people want to be a part of a more community based Karate club you are very welcome. We have classes from the age of 5. We have mini Miyagi’s running around in karate uniforms which my daughter partakes in. It’s hard to teach her because I’m Dad not Sensei. At that age it’s more about coordination and social skills. We have a couple of kids from disability services as well. They partake and once they walk through that door they are all equal and engaging. We had one little boy who didn’t really have friends come in and make some friends here. One of the parents called and said this little boy had a bullying incident at school and one of the other kids from our club stepped in and stuck up for him. It was that community based thing external to whatever he’s learnt here. It was so nice to hear that.
At the moment we have classes Monday and Wednesday from 4.30pm. We teach little kids from 5, teenagers and adult classes from all different levels. Our oldest student is 60 plus. We have this great space and we are very lucky Multitask let us use it. In Summer we have Aircon and Winter we have heating.
As a father of a 5 year old daughter it’s very important for me to try and teach boys and girls how to defend themselves, to know either how to get themselves out of a dangerous situation or not to put themselves in a dangerous situation. If I can do that, my job is done. If it’s only one person who’s life is saved or escapes a bad scenario then it helps me sleep well at night. That’s kind of what we are here for. It’s not about making money. It’s about teaching something that I love which is Karate and also to implement that skill of resilience into people’s lives. Whether they put that into their schooling, getting a job or being motivated to reach for the sky, the skills that you learn here in Karate are skills you can implement into your life.”