It could have been like 4th Dan Sensei Pete Saunders’ experience!
The photo is taken at the 1982 Za Zen Kent championships against the Irish Army Rangers. This was about the time that I also met Sensei Neville Smith, 8th Dan, Deputy Chief Instructor of Washinkai Karate. (Sensei Pete is second from the right in the photo.)
Pete says “It was a fight day against the Irish army rangers in the early 1980s. Our dojo was in the YMCA Dover.
These competitions were pretty much full contact and needing water was seen as weak spirit.
Bruises were always down both shins and the forearms didn’t fare much better. However, nowadays we know better and water is so important. I remember seeing new students vomiting on a regular basis.
I’m glad I went through this as it makes me the person I am today, but I look back sometimes and wonder how our dojo was full!”
Shihan Chris Thompson replies: “each dojo in the UK was different. However, when a court case was filed against one of the Japanese instructors who kicked a student in the groin, a different attitude was then taken against health and safety”.
