There's a lot more to martial arts than Hong Kong or Hollywood movies will tell you according to two long-time exponents of the sport.
Whangarei's Henry Heta and Grant Power were both honoured at a ceremony in Feilding recently and inducted into the New Zealand Martial Arts Hall of Fame.
"It's not
about fighting like Bruce Lee or smashing people over, it's about what you put back into the sport and the community," Power said.
Power started out many years ago studying karate but since then has also branched into tai chi and ju jitsu.
He has spent time instructing residents of a number of rest homes in the area in Tai Chi.
"After a while doctors treating some of them were asking staff how they were treating them differently, their health and mobility had improved so much," he said.
"Hitting someone is a mug's game; real power can be gained by helping people like that," he said.
He said Heta, an instructor for the NZ Advanced Academy of Martial Arts, had spent a lot of his time working with young children in the community.
Power, who runs the Kesshin Ryu dojo in town, said Heta had been one of his original instructors and it was a special honour to have been inducted at the same time as such a well respected instructor.
The New Zealand Martial Arts Hall of Fame is recognised both nationally and internationally and is currently based in Feilding but it will be packaged up and moved to another location next year and Power hopes Auckland will be the next stop.
Over 30 nominations were received for the fourth intake but only 11 people were finally inducted. Most of the country's senior instructors are consulted in the process.
The minimum requirement for a successful nominee was over 25 years of continuous practice in a martial arts discipline.
