My Road to Shodan - Part 1

MY INTRODUCTION TO JUJITSU

I started training at the age of eight (1984) along with my brother and two sisters at the Ipswich P.C.Y.C. My Father located the Jujitsu school and watched several classes before signing us all up. I was a very timid and shy child and creep to the edge of the mat, not knowing what to expect. The sound of feet brushing the canvas mat and the sound of thuds from people being thrown.

Then a stern voice saying, “Mate”, everyone scurried to the edge of the mat, sitting leaning against the wall, waiting for the next technique. This was the introduction to Sensei Mark. Sensei Mark very confident and serious as he walked over and asked. “What is your name”? Then a smile appeared as he extended his hand saying, “Hello my name is Mark, Sensei Mark”.

This was the start of a friendship that would guide me through my childhood, adolescence and adulthood.

{Sensei Mark Haseman at that time 2nd Dan}

IPSWICH DOJO

The dojo was situated at the rear of the building adjacent to the gym. Often during training you could hear the radio playing from the gym with the sounds of grunts and weight plates slamming together.

The dojo had a distinct smell of sweat, canvas and fibro from the walls. Above the wall between the gym and the dojo had an angled partition of timber that filtered light and the sound of the gym.

The dojo was sunken into the floor from the main hallway above, dividing it with four stairs. Each time someone stepped onto the staircase it squeaked, signalling someone entering into the room. People constantly walked past the doorway as they visited the gym.

In the hallway above the dojo, walls were peppered with holes from people punching them. The hallway lead up to another flight of stairs just after the aerobics room to the main entrance.

In the dojo, the floor was titled around the mat area. The perimeters of the mat area was made of timber keeping the matting straight and still. An off white trucking canvas covered the mats that were bound to the timber with rope through eyelets and anchored to hooks. The mats beneath were approximately 2 inches thick. The canvas was discoloured with stains of blood, sweat and other body fluids.

At one end of the dojo a steel beam hang extended across the width of the room, with an old heavy bag hanging beaten and worn.

Near the entry of the dojo were a line of steel chairs with a series of posters hang on the wall behind. Some posters pictured action photos of the grit and determination of talented Judoka in the motion of throwing techniques. These photos motivated me for many years, determined to become what the photos portrayed.

Along another wall were throwing charts, where most of the class would refer to on many occasions over many years.

{Class fees when I started for the Sub-junior class were 75c. When you paid at the front desk, you were handed a ticket}

LANG PARK DOJO

The first time I went to Lang Park PCYC was for a competition in 1993 for the Queensland State Titles. It was arranged by Sensei Mark for me to be picked up by his son Sensei Chris. The Lang Park PCYC was located right beside the Lang Park Football Stadium in Milton (Corner of Caxton and Hales Streets). The PCYC consisted of timber and mixed metal structures set back off the road with a large car park between the two.

Inside the dojo area were concrete floors with the training mat surrounded by a metal barrier. The mat was a 50mm thick foam, consisting of multiple mats placed together. The mats were covered with a trucking type of green and red vinyl. The mat area was set up for competition 14 x 14m. {In 2009 Sensei Chris Haseman purchased the mats and cover for his own fitness training business}.

Surrounding the matted area were larger steel louvered windows. Just like the Ipswich dojo, there were all the throwing techniques in poster form hang on the walls.

Between the periods of 1995 – 2000, I would travel from Ipswich to Brisbane on the train three times a week to training at Lang Park PCYC. When I finally received my driver’s license I would travel by car.

In 1996, I started teaching a class focused on competition training preparing others for competition via fitness, strategy and technique. The class would run for two hours on a Saturday morning. I would charge everyone who attended a gold coin and I would generally have a water melon every so often to cut up and share after class.

The class would focus on a different aspect of fighting each week, with drills, technique and fitness to reflect each area. Week one ground fighting, week 2 stand up grappling, week 3 Sparring and week 4 biffo. Biffo was the term we used mixing everything together. This style of training is what is now called MMA. In those days it was Sports Jujitsu and then the Japanese also called it shoot fighting. It was only in the late 1990’s that the term MMA came about.

TRAINING, GRADINGS AND COMPETITION

Technique after technique were taught, the endless feeling that I would never understand how everything is done as effortlessly as what Sensei Mark was able to demonstrate. He was and still a magician on the mat as he manoeuvres his Uke with precision.

There was never room for conversation, Jujitsu training was a matter of continued discovery and development as new techniques were learnt. The feeling of an arm lock coming on for the first time in ground fighting, not knowing if to tap the mat or push yourself to resist the pain. Jujitsu provides you with a conduit of knowing when to give in and acknowledge someone else’s achievements or when to push yourself to achieve, to cope with winning or in most cases as in my case (as a child) to cope with losing. My main battle as a child was not due to my poor technique, patients to learn the technique, but rather it was my confidence and the feeling “if I could achieve”.

During the period of 1984 and 1993 I strictly trained at the Ipswich Dojo and when I graduated from High School I got into to do Civil Engineering and travelled daily into the city. So the next step for me was to start attending at both the Ipswich and Lang Park PCYC dojos.

The Lang Park Dojo offered a different take on training. Many Police, military and security personnel trained at the Land Park dojo focusing on different parts of the training syllabus.

Lang Park also offered a much larger training area and class size. Practicing between the two dojos allowed me to learn a technique one night and then hone it the next. I soon appeared to pick up technique, break it down and the next night demonstrate something completely new. An adaption to the technique or variety.

At this stage I was a senior green belt {1993} and realized I was hungry to learn more.

One of the brown belt in the Ipswich dojo wanted to conduct classes at the Toowoomba PCYC. So he asked if I could accompany him with some of the others twice a week. So I started going up to assist with classes and before long I was graded to a blue belt {1994} and was able to become interested in competition more as I watched Sensei ‘s son Chris with the others at the Ipswich dojo.

The Ipswich class was divided between those who trained in competition with Sensei Chris and those training in syllabus work with Sensei Mark. Soon I spent my whole time focusing on competition.

In the meantime the brown belt conducting classes in Toowoomba PCYC was training for his Shodan grading and asked me to be his Uke. I accepted his offer and soon discovered, what was required to train for the Shodan. From that time that was one of my goals, was to gain my Shodan, but in a way that I felt that I was competent and accepted by the others on mat.

By the end of 1994 (18 years old) I won several competitions and my first Queensland State Jujitsu Titles and gained my Purple belt. At that stage the Purple belt grading was rather a recently added addition to the schools Jujitsu syllabus.

Some of the others who also won their divisions in the state titles gathered and it was decided to drive to Sydney to attend the National Seminar and to compete in the Australia Jujitsu Titles.

A group of travelled in the bus, some from Ipswich and Lang Park and others from Sensei Chris’s club at Arana Hill PCYC north of Brisbane.

I was able to compete in my division and also the division above. I received a first for my division and 2nd place for the division above. The guy who beat me was Shane Price. Shane and his brother Shaun (both very good), trained with Sensei Chris at Lang Park and Arana Hill PCYC’s.

TIME LINE

1984 – Commenced Jujitsu Ipswich PCYC

1985 – Graded Sub-junior Yellow

1986 – Graded Sub-junior Orange

1986 – Graded Sub-junior Green

1988 – Graded Junior Green

1988 – Graduated Primary School

1989 – Graded Junior Blue

1992 – Graded Senior Green

1993 - Queensland State Titles 2nd (72-76kg Division)

1993 – Graduated Senior High School

1994 – Graded Senior Blue

1994 – Graded Senior Purple

1994 - Queensland State Titles 1st (72-76kg Division)

1994 - Australian Martial Arts Extravaganza (MMA) – 1st 72 – 76kg Division

1994 - Australian Titles - Sydney 1st (72-76kg Division) / 2nd (76-82kg Division)

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