HE KNOWS HOW IT FEELS Karate expert puts his pupils on the rack

Press, 23 February 1977, Page 12

HE KNOWS HOW IT FEELS Karate expert puts his pupils on the rack

(By

TIM DUNBAR)

About 10 years ago a young judo black belt who was dabbling in a new sport, karate, was told he would never be any good at it.

But Renzie Hanham proved the sceptics wrong and the fourth dan black belt is now the highest ranked exponent of the kyokushin style of the South Island.

Hanham, the head instructor of the Christchurch Seido Club, is also regarded as one of the best and most knowledgeable teachers of karate in this country.

His martial arts career began at the early age of 14 when he and a friend went along to the Canterbury Amateur Judo Club. Just four years later Hanham was the youngest holder of a black belt in New Zealand.

“Karate was not heard of at all when I started judo, although I vaguely remember reading about this guy who used to kill bulls with his punches,” said Hanham this week.

Masutatsu Oyama, the Korean-born Japanese who disposed of bulls, later toured the United States challenging all-comers — including boxers and professional wrestlers — to last three minutes with him. He won all these bouts, totalling more than

200, by knock-outs. Oyama is the man largely responsible for the spread of modern karate and is still regarded, at the age of 53, as the leading karate master in the world.

As knowledge of karate increased, so too did the wish to become proficent in this martial art, but it was a while before the sport was taken seriously. “I did both judo and karate for a while, but the judo blokes used to stand at the side of the mat and laugh when they first saw karate,” said Hanham. Hanham had begun karate in 1965 under Doug Holloway, the pioneer of the kyokushin style in New Zealand and one of the first foreigners to train in Japan.

Karate instructors were few and far between in the early days of the sport in Christchurch and Hanham claims that “if a black belt walked through Ihe door we would just about have laid prostrate at his feet.”

Hanham persevered with karate even though “everyone told me I wouldn’t be any good as I was the wrong build or something” and in 1969 he gave up a promising judo career.

“I had been doing judo for eight years and was a

bit sick of it. As well, I was very disappointed after the 1968 trials when I failed to make the New Zealand team.”

At the time Hanham ihrought there was a North Island bias in the selection of the national team, but now sees things a little differently. “In retrospect, it could be my excuse for lack of positive performance,” he said candidly.

Another reason for pulling out of judo was the large number of injuries he was suffering. “My knees were bad at the finish; there are a lot of strains and sprains in judo.”

By this time Hanham had already achieved much in karate, and in 1967 he captained the Canterbury team which won the inaugural New Zealand kuokuskinkai championship and finished runner-up in the open event himself.

Two years later he took over as head instructor of his present club and must take a large percentage of the credit for its growing successes.

Hanham's own skills — which obviously partly rub off later on his students — have been honed by a trip to Japan in 1969 and two to New York (1975 and 1976).

H a n h a m ’ s students might well complain about the demands placed on them and he admits that 95 per cent of new club members drop out after six months to a vear.

But they could hardly claim that their teacher makes them do things he has not experienced himself.

In his latest trip to New York, where he trained under a seventh dan, ladashi Nakamura, Hanham and two other club members were really put through the mill. “Nakamura makes you do knuckle push-ups, leaps on your shins and back and belts your shins with a bamboo sword.

“It does me good to be the sludge. I feel less sorry for people when 1 make them tram hard. “And if you stay in your own environment you tend to get big ideas about yourself.”

Over the last two years the Seido club has spent nearly $12,000 in air fares sending members to New York and Hanham says he “shudders to think” what his three trips have cost him personally, both in living expenses and lost wages.

But he is, nevertheless, a “great believer” in sending people overseas. “They will have been training

under one person all the time and need to be a little independent of their instructor.”

Hanham regards perseverance as the main quality required by members of his club. “Not everybody likes to get yelled and screamed at and different clubs attract different sorts ot people."

He is adamant that it is ridiculous to say that one style of karate is superior to another. “It’s very much an individual thing and our type of approach might not appeal to all. The main thing is to work under a reputable teacher.”

Perseverance has certainly been a trademark of Hanham’s career and one of his first big tests came in 1969 when he trained in Tokyo with a numbeer of other young exponents, including Brian Fitkin, the captain of the English team which won the world championships last year.

"Training was particularly rigorous and a lot gave up after two days. We would also see third or fourth dan black belts demoted to white belts.

“For two hours and a half, you’d be on the go all the time, but the worst thing about it was the absolute monotony of the training, designed to test your spirit and concentra-

tion. After two hours when you would be pretty tired the top fighter in the dojo would have a lick al you." “We were so naive that we didn’t know what we were letting ourselves in for.” says Hanham. He has found Nakamura’s training less monotonous but full of little psychological pressures. Students are shown something only once or twice and often told by the instructors — who come back two hours later — to “wait a minute.” Hanham’s idea of a good training session is one where the air is “crackling with tension." At 31 years of age Hanham, a commercial artist, feels he is far too old to compete any more and is more interested in coaching and teaching. And seven years ago he achieved his long-held ambition of representing New Zealand when he competed successfully in a karate test against Australia. Judo and karate have not been Hanham’s sole experiences with the martial arts. “Years ago 1 had a wrestling lesson and entered the Canterbury championships for a giggle — I fought the New Zealand champion and lost by a fall in the second round. One of the other club members, Wayne Wendleken, actually’ made the Canterbury team.” He has also done a little boxing, but did not find it to his liking.

■ Footnote: Hanham does not have it all his own way in his own household. His attractive blonde wife, Karen, might be petite in stature but she is a black belt in karate herselt.