Father and daughter fought with the best, but no tears were shed from either side. Although the Traditional Okinawan Goju-Ryu Karate-Do demonstration by the Wairarapa club at the Greytown Town Centre on Saturday may have looked aggressive, the object was not, as in older times, to maim the opposition.
The display
drew a modest crowd of onlookers, who stood and sat transfixed by the martial arts moves that at times, certainly looked painful, especially when sparring partners were brought to the ground with a thump on the town centre's wooden floor.
As the chief instructor John Whitby said: "For demonstrations we try and keep it light so the public aren't too shocked, but we do a level of full contact."
One of the demonstrators, Paul Rodgers, started karate as a 17-year-old, but stopped in his early 20s to play rugby for Greytown senior As and Wairarapa-Bush.
It wasn't until 16 years later that his daughter Kirsten, coupled with an expanding "beer belly", inspired him to again take up the discipline. He now trains alongside his daughter, who also showed off her finest moves in the martial arts display. "We love doing it together it's awesome," he said.
And it's been non-stop since he took it up again. Last July he took away two silvers open men's kumute (fighting) and open kata from the national karate champs, with his daughter keeping that winning tradition going by securing a gold, silver and bronze.
November is when he sits his black belt, which is something he's wanted to do since he achieved brown belt as a teenager.
"It played on my mind all these years and I thought it was time to go back and do something about it."
The family theme runs right through the karate club and among Saturday's demonstrators were Clair McNeill and her two children Joel, 8, and Georgia, 9.
Meanwhile, performing for a random selection of onlookers of all ages on Saturday was mainly to promote the club and "let people know its not just about fighting", Mr Rodgers said. "A very small part of it is (fighting). It's about doing kata and doing applications and connecting with yourself and knowing what your body can do."
