Battling to karate prowess

Press, 27 March 1981, Page 20

Battling to karate prowess

By TIM DUNBAR Jean Battle, the world’s highest-ranked woman in Seido Karate, is an unusual lady with an appropriate namei and her occupation — driving a bakery truck in New York — is a little different, too. Mrs Battle is in Christchurch from Seido’s world headquarters in New York as a special guest of the local branclt.

She keeps on “trucking” these days on a 400 km range between New York City and Long Island, and loves her job. “I was always restless in an office and I enjoy movement,” she sayd. “The only thing is that the job seems to cut into my karate.”

’ When Mrs Battle returns to Brooklyn next month she intends to “modify priorities” so that she has time for her job. her sport, and her two children, an 11-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy. Life has been a little tough for her in recent months as her husband, Claude, a giant karate exponent with 16 years experience, died suddenly last year. “For a while it was hard for me to put on a gi (karate uniform) but I’m back into it now,” she said. Mrs Battle, who has trained in karate for eight-and-a-half years, is a third degree black belt, “working towards my fourth,” and there has been inspiration for her in Christchurch, where she has stayed with Renzie and Karen Hanham. Karen Hanham is a second dan black belt, a promotion she earned last year while training under , the seventh dan, Tadashi Nakamura, in New York. “She was given

extra hard work by Nakamura while the others were just meditating.” Mrs Battle said. “I told myself I would carry it on as a memorial to her. but ...” The 42-year-old . NewYorker has lived her entire life in Brooklyn, protrayed in the movies as one of the roughest areas in the city. She sees it rather as an area where families have lived for. generations, but has had some bad experiences both there and in Manhattan.

Mrs Battle regarded the attack made on her on the street in Brooklyn as “almost a.natural end to my lesson.” She had just finished karate training when the incident occurred. “I was so used to staying calm under attack that it was nothing. I forgot about it as soon as it was over, no tears or anything.”

She has twice been attacked in Manhattan without harm. Two strong teenagers actually ran away when she faced up to them.

“I started out in karats for self-defence purposes,** Mrs Battle said, “but within a month karate itself had grabbed hold of me. People cannot put that much sweat into self-defence, something else keeps them going.”

Mrs Battle has been in Christchurch partly for a holiday, partly for ■karate i and has loved it although she has found a two-week stay too short. “It’s been at six-year daydream to coma here, and finally I made it.”

“When they hear my stor* ies in New York a few moret people will want to coma here, I think.”

Mrs Battle watched three South Island exponents ofl Seido undergo strenuous tests for their black belts irr Christchurch last Saturday! and she was impressed. “It? was truly a black belt grading,” she said. “These people are ex« posing their whole .guts to you, their whole selves. I didn’t know any of them be-! forehand, but afterwards yotr really know them.”