To Become a Master, My Journey So Far……………Still Continuing……………

The Full time location in Maidstone became one of two when 10 years ago (2007) I took over the location in Gravesend from Master Murphy as he had relocated back to Ireland.

Whilst attending over the years in America I have had the pleasure to meet such a wonderful amount of people, too many to mention, with some of these traveling from all over the USA and Canada as well as other continents just to be there. Grand Master Will Higginbotham has been one that I have had the pleasure to train with many times there and also to host at our own Dojang/Dojo/School a couple of times.

Another on many occasions is Grand Master Ken Smith, the Master of Tapi Tapi who trained extensively with Professor Remy Presas in Modern Arnis. Training with him made an opportunity to strike up a friendship and with another UK based friend and colleague, Grand Master Chris Byrne, a Jujitsu instructor from Crewe that is part of our team, we invited GM Smith to come to the UK and share the art further as taught by Professor Presas. So now training in this art as well has seen yet another side to my development by becoming an instructor and representative for Grand Master Smith and spreading more of Professor Presas’s art further.

I have to mention a bit about the training camp in Deer Lake as so many fond memories with everybody training and sharing like it should be. The place that Muhammad Ali had built for his training regime back in the early 70’s became a place where Professor Dillman became friends, saw it being constructed and indeed trained with each other. There are massive boulders with names painted on them of all the great boxing champs from the day’s way back. There are cabins that the trainers and the team would share, a chapel, the kitchen and diner, the training room where the ring was and the biggest sleeping cabin being the ‘bunkhouse’ where you just have to have the experience of staying in. The cabins are all built from a log construction so very fitting as they are in a spread out situation on the mountain with Ali’s house being at the top and rightly so, the best. I stayed in the bunkhouse and smaller cabins with all the lads while visiting all those years but had the chance one time to stay in the Ali house which was such a pleasure knowing that the great man and his family lived there when in the area to train. A vast amount of celebs visited the camp including the Jacksons and a young actor trying to rise up that was one of the sparring partners, Sylvester Stallone, Rocky in the making.

Whilst we spent time there training and as I have mentioned before, having the pleasure to be asked to teach there, we also bonded with others and this showed very much whilst celebrating the weekend with the Saturday night Karaoke party, and around the camp fire, very interesting !!!

Other regular Grand Master instructors that I loved to train and mix with from there included Matt Brown, Dusty Seale, Steve Cooper, Sterling Johnson, Chris Thomas, the late Ed Lake and Steve Stewart from Canada plus many more over the years.

Back on the home front during these years, I was still attending other seminars whether it was directly training martial arts or business seminars meeting and networking with successful, knowledgeable and motivated people.

I struck up a very strong bond with a great martial artist and now my friend, Everton Smith, a Karate instructor from Wales who is now part of our group also. Mr Andrew Cameron of Wing Chun International has always given me motivational kicks up the back side and advice if he thought it would do some good.

Over the years we have had Grand Master Paul Bowman attend the school to conduct seminars so our students and friends from all over could also benefit from his vast knowledge and experience including feeling the ‘Happy Pain’ that goes with it.

A few years ago I was approached by a TV company to go along and do some things on set which included food fights against other teams which was fun for the students and parents that I took along on various occasions. I did manage to score a plate of some sort of goo all over Reality star Jack Osbourne which was fun. This Saturday morning show was co hosted by Holly Willoughby and one time I was asked to go along and break some roof tiles dressed as her character on the show so it appeared that she herself had done it. Don’t think I’ll say more about that here as the mental picture might be too disturbing HaHaHa.

I managed after so many years to actually get to train with

Bill ’Superfoot’ Wallace having missed the chances before so that was a great seminar where I could take some students with me to see a living legend.

Another time during a visit to Memphis in the USA whilst doing a tour visiting the land mark places of Elvis Presley I had the opportunity to visit Kang Rhee, an instructor to Elvis from 1970 to 1974, Also to Bill ‘superfoot’ Wallace and Priscilla although Elvis was known more for his association with Ed Parker of Kempo Karate. I also met Jerry Schilling who was his body guard and friend, a karate exponent around the time with Bill Wallace.

All of this Training and learning just makes you want more and during the years I had gained knowledge of the Chinese Meridian Channels and the Acupuncture points along them for our martial training methods that we used within the Kyusho-Jitsu. I had also been using them to help heel sore muscles, strains and headaches etc so then decided it was time to go even further with this path of learning.

So now I had enrolled onto an acupuncture course like some of my other colleagues had before. Lucky to be able to train under my good friend, Chris Byrne and KORE Therapy. This was now another heap load of learning to take on board and I was so thankful of my previous understanding of the system up until that point. This took me away a lot as had my seminar trips to various places, so yet again meeting lots of other people. After passing my acupuncture exams I felt very pleased with myself that I had done this and extended my knowledge as everything compliments each other and the acupuncture theories help the martial art techniques to become better understood to me within their application.

As with the martial art training, the healing arts also take you through other avenues with continued learning development and thanks to a great friend and exceptionally knowledgeable person, Brian, I had the opportunity to train in a Korean system of treatments under Mr. Jong Kook Baik. So now bringing my Korean TaeKwonDo together with Korean Koryo Hand Therapy, acupuncture and treatments.

I have now attended many levels and different aspects of alternative therapies including an advanced practitioners Master class in Korean hand therapy.

My journey so far would not have been possible without the many people that I have had the pleasure to meet, be trained by, associate with and indeed to teach myself. I have seen so many people grow in so many ways and qualities whether it be our little Ninjas, Juniors or Adults and in some cases, some students have been all three. I have been lucky to have had fantastic instructors work with and for me all grown from within, including our current Chief Instructors from each school.

I also thank, once again all the people that I have trained under and with that I mentioned before and members of our Zendoryu association group including GM Graham Dybal, GM Mark Smith, GM Damian Kierans, GM Andy Mason, GM Fred Wetherell and others that make the journey an exciting, educating and fun one,

So, to become a master!!!!!!!!

I have been blessed to have been given the title of Grand Master for my efforts and achievements within the eyes of my peers but I don’t see it as reaching a certain grade or point in training only. I feel that it is a title that shows we have always tried to improve and showed progression although I will have to just keep on striving to be a master of myself and keep trying to learn more along my journey wherever it leads me. I always refer to any technique as a journey with certain junctures along the way to its finish that have a reason, so like my own journey, I hope that one day I can add to this article, if anybody ever wants to read more,

as that would mean,-

I’m still here and trying to become a Master.

By Grand Master David Martin

Family Martial Arts – Maidstone & Gravesend