About Us

Hi I’m Sensei Marty and a First Dan black belt with GKR Karate.

I grew up in The Gap, a suburb on the north side of Brisbane. When I was in my teens I trained at Zen Do Kai Karate also known as Bob Jones Karate.

Training 5 times a week I quickly learned a lot of great skills and found karate exciting and challenging. The club was very disciplined and the students took training seriously, so it was a good environment for learning this kind of martial art. The Sensei was respected by everyone and seemed to have so much knowledge and skill.

When I finished school and got a job, things changed and unfortunately I stopped training. As so often happens life gets in the way .. and years went by. I was married and had a family. Although I always thought of going back to karate, I just didn’t find the time to look into it.

As our son started to grow into his teens he seemed to be spending so much time on his computer and studying and not enough time with exercise. Like many other parents, this concerned me. One afternoon we had a knock on the door and a young guy asked if we were interested in joining the local karate club. I grabbed the info and put it on the kitchen table. I wasn’t thinking at the time, but later I thought ‘I always wanted to go back to karate and Luke needs to exercise’. Perfect, we could learn karate together. And so we did.

karate improves fitness and co-ordination
As soon as I stepped into the dojo and put on my gi I was hooked. That was 11 years ago and now I’m the Sensei and still loving it. Our son has now moved to Melbourne and when he gets settled he’ll be able to find a dojo and jump back into training.I’m so pleased I was able to give my son some training in martial arts. It’s a skill that stays with you. Because it’s reps, reps, reps those repetitions train your muscle memory to react.
trying out my self defence skills with my brother
Our club has dojos all over Australia, UK, New Zealand and parts of the US.I teach and train on the north side of Brisbane. This area includes The Gap, Taigum, Sandgate, Petrie, Lawnton, Ferny Grove, Everton Park, Chermside West, Chermside, Bray Park, Banyo and Albany Creek.There are hundreds of students just in our region. Being a family orientated club it’s a supportive atmosphere to train in.

Once you’re a lifetime member you can train at any of the clubs worldwide. The means you can train every day of the week, 50 weeks of the year if you choose. So if you miss a class, there’ll be another on somewhere close by. That’s one of the reasons it’s so popular.

By the way, starting out you don’t need to feel self conscious or concerned that you don’t know anything. Every other student knows how you feel.They were once starting out too so everyone wants to help you learn.