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| Some of Wally's Old Students | Black Belts | |
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| Students & Black Belts |
Blacktown has been the centre of Martial Arts in Australia, with the first Karate Club being opened in Blacktown along with some of the earliest Judo clubs in Australia.
For some years many Martial Artist's have not trained or shared their knowledge outside of their selected Form or Style.
On 22 the Mayor of Blacktown City, Councillor Leo Kelly opened the First Combined Martial Arts Open Day.
After my investigations, I believe that this is the first time in Australia that a group of Martial Artists have come together to share their knowledge with other styles by giving demonstrations & lessons on their style of Martial Arts. Demonstrations were given in Judo, Ju Jitsu, Karate, Philipino stick fighting, Tae Kwon Do, Kick boxing & brick breaking.
Another unique thing about this combined Martial Arts day was that all of the instructors & students did it for free. They came together to share their knowledge with other Martial Artists & the public because of their dedication to their art.
There were representatives from South Australia, Victoria, ACT & central West NSW. Along with a host of local Martial Artists including, Fite Rite, East Coast Doce Pares Institute, The NSW president of the Australian Kokodan Judo Association, Go Ju Ryu Karate Do, Sports & Combat M/Arts, Fighting Fit Martial Arts Tae Kwon Do & the host & organiser Blacktown Dragons Karate Club.
Hopefully this will be the beginning of a regular Combined Martial Arts day. Anyone interested in being a part of the next combined day should contact Bruce Freeman on 0424-80-3215 or ryudo1@tpg.com.au
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| Opening By the Mayor Councillor Leo Kelly | Denis - Judo Demo | Denis Byrne | Phil Chapman Go Ju Ryu Karate Do |
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| Craig Bajraktarevic-Hayward Cacoy Doce Pares | |||
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| Terry Riches Australian Kodokan Judo Ass. & I.B.F. | Terry Riches | Terry Riches | Terry Derwin Sports & Combat Martial Arts |
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| Terry Derwin | Terry Derwin | Simon Wright Fighting Fit Martial Arts | Kym Reid Jinen Karate Jitsu |
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| Bruce Freeman Ryu Do Karate | Simon Wright Fighting Fit Martial Arts | Rhett Junker Fite Rite | Rhett Junker |
Blacktown Council & the local Martial Arts practitioners paid tribute to the founders of Martial Arts in the Blacktown area by presenting them with a lifetime achievement award.
Although it was to pay tribute to the local Martial Artist's. Wally Szlagowski & Merv Oakley are the founding fathers of Australian Karate & Ben Depede who devoted years of his time in teaching Judo.
Wally Szlagowski opening the 3rd Judo Club & the 1st Karate Club in Australia. (Blacktown)
Mer Oakley who introduced Go Ju Kai to Australia & trained under Master Gogen Yamaguchi. Many of the Aust Go Ju styles could trace their roots back to Merv.
Ben Depede who studied Judo in England & ran the Seven Hills Judo Club.
Unfortunately Ben lost his battle with cancer on the 24th Dec 2006. He will be missed but his knowledge & spirit lives on this the Judoka's that trained under his expert guidance.
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| Right to Left Merv Oakley, Wally Szlagowski & Ben Depede | Merv Oakley & Wally Szlagowski |
Myself, Wally Szlagowski & Merv Oakley
More pictures will be added soon
CLUB PATCH
New Club patches are available to all financial club members at a cost of $10.00 Each.
TAMESHIWARI
The club breaking patch is now available to all students who have successfully performed a break. Cost is $13.00 per patch.
Twenty Four years ago a I started the Blacktown Dragons' Karate Club. The membership was limited as I could only accommodate so many people in my 20'x20' garage. The training was based on reality. Hard training, cut out the fancy stuff & develop techniques & power. Not to many new starter's stayed, They found it difficult to handle the intensity & variety of the training. Some only came one night never to be seen again!
Our first Black belt was Greg Wiggins. After 4 hard years of training & bruises he got his 1st Dan. A hard way to earn a coloured belt.
We had by 1994 three groups training in and around the garage, one in the garage, one in the drive way & one group doing Judo on a bit of canvas in the back yard & we would rotate through the various stages.
It was now time to move into a hall. We started looking for more students before we opened at Quakers Hill Public School. Some students, once again came & went. Not too many students could handle the Judo/Karate combination, but we thought it would be worth perusing. So in 1995 we opened at Quakers Hill Public School's Hall. The School principal, Anne Malchay assisted greatly in the hall hire rates so we could offer lessons as a community service. Then the lesson cost was by donation. students would place into a tin what they could afford. Not a good way to get rich as the donations most times didn't pay for the hall hire.
Over the years the club has obtained equipment by donations from Peter Wood & Gabi Galayini. Money received from training fees went to increase our equipment. Now we have a well equipped club with rice straw Judo mats, jigsaw mats, sai, bo, swords, boxing gloves, bag mitts, focus mitts body armour, punching bags, skipping ropes, training knives & of cause the ever popular breaking table.
Over the years we have grown, influence from other black belts from various styles & continually evaluating our approach to our art has developed into a club that has a lot to offer in training, self defence & the classical martial arts.
Keep watching the news letter for more information.
Neil Ohlenkamp has agreed to let us link to his Judo page. Neil's web page would have to be the best source of information on Judo techniques & information on the web today. Try it out ! click on the link below or go to our links page.
See you at the dojo