Posts Tagged ‘Black Belt Journey’

by Tracey West

My journey began back in 1989 where I started out as a white belt. I first started learning Karate with my husband Mark at the Australian Academy of Martial Arts with Sensei Graham Keleher.  I loved it…

My first tournament was in Lismore in 1991 where I was a blue belt (4^th Kyu).  I came first in my division and second in the Black Belt division. What an experience that was. I learnt to fight the demons.  That was the first of many tournaments to come.  I fought in the State Titles in 1992 and 1993, where I came second in Kata and first in Kumite both years. I fought in the Goodwill Tournament, where our club from Japan came over.  I achieved equal third in Kumite, and at that stage I had already graded to 2^nd Kyu.

I graded to 1^st Kyu at the end of 1993 and trained for 3 years after that, until I stopped training for personal reasons.

I gave birth to a son in 2000, and by 2007 we were interested in putting our son Matthew into Karate. We looked up one of our old club members and found he was running a club of his own called Kodomon Karate-Do.  We put Matty into Karate at the beginning of 2008 with Sensei Glenn Irvine and not long after I started back at training.

I have really enjoyed coming back.  I trained pretty hard and finally went for “Shodan Ho” in June 2009 and passed.  It doesn’t end there; I still have a lot of training to do, as I eventually will be going for “Shodan”.

I am also in training to become a qualified coach, which I thoroughly enjoy, and thanks to Sensei Glenn Irvine, I now have the opportunity to better my skills at Karate.

Tracey