Fighters - Goju-ryu Karate- The Sleeping Giant
December 2000 edition

Sensei Christian  in Shika Dachi

Cont.'.

Gary came down to my club and taught his style which was Goju Kai karate. This style struck me as leaning towards more where I was coming from on the philosophical side of martial combat systems. So I moved across to Goju Kai with Gary and a little later we opened up clubs in Liverpool and Manchester."

"For me Goju was the real taste of traditional karate it had combat aspects and a full array of weapons, all linked in with a philosophical background, and was quite a way from the sporting connotations which were beginning to show through on the karate scene at that time. For a young Liverpool lad like myself who was out to Learn self defence, I didn't want a sport, I wanted something that would stop someone stabbing me on the streets of Toxteth, so for me Goju was the business."

"Goju Kai is a karate system with twelve Kata's which I wanted to learn; I wanted the complete system. But you have to remember this was thirty years ago you couldn't just pop off down your local video shop and grab the video. So I researched and explored every avenue, to the point where I was making plans to travel to Japan to the scource. Then Steve Cattle rang me and told me that there was a guy who had just come to this country named James Rousseau. He was a student of Hiagonna Sensei and Chinon Sensei and was going to set up clubs for Okinawan Goju-ryu. Upon hearing this I went to see him. I was one of the first black belts in this country to knock on James Rousseau's door." 

"Within months I had met Chinon Sensei, set up Okinawan Goju-ryu Clubs with James and became totally immersed in Goju ryu karate, needless to say, thanks to this turn of events I didn't have to go to Japan to further my studies. I want to point out at this stage a few things about Okinawan Karate

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