NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Sport

Martial arts: Doug Bailey's hanging black belt on cornerstone of existence

Anendra Singh
By Anendra Singh
Sports editor·Hawkes Bay Today·
25 Nov, 2019 06:00 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Doug Bailey, of Hastings, with the sixth-dan, black-belt Olivecrona ju jutsu accreditation he received a fortnight ago. Photo / Warren Buckland

Doug Bailey, of Hastings, with the sixth-dan, black-belt Olivecrona ju jutsu accreditation he received a fortnight ago. Photo / Warren Buckland

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Having devoted more than three decades to martial arts, Doug Bailey has acquired a status that doesn't just give him a quiet sense of accomplishment but also enhances the values of a branch of discipline he had gravitated towards.

"It's a fantastic achievement for our club and a big milestone for Olivecrona Ju-Jutsu because I'm the highest graded person other than the founder himself," says Bailey who became a sixth dan (degree) black belt in Hastings a fortnight ago.

The 49-year-old emphasises it's a great reflection on the founder, Stenfinn Olivecrona, of Palmerston North.

"We look at grading differently than the rest of the martial arts world, too, so a lot of people who are graded see it as a target so they get all excited and jump up and down.

"We see the grade for what it is. That is, an indication by the instructor that a person achieved a certain level," he explains.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

READ MORE:
• Martial arts masters share skills with the community
• Martial Arts: Whanganui's Night of Assassins 4 promises a big card
• Waihi's martial arts centre looking for a new home

Bailey says it's simply an individual embarking on a journey from a room of 20 or so which, ultimately, he believes, speaks volumes of the instructor rather than the exponent of the Japanese Kawaishi judo. It's more a state of mind and attitude for the latter.

The finance company manager from Hastings, who spent the first decade studying the Olivecrona jiu jitsu methodology, has harboured a fascination with martial arts since his childhood days.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"It's just the best form of jiu jitsu that I've found learning and teaching," says the bloke who runs his gym at Norton Rd and has been teaching since 1992. "It's really very different from any other form of martial arts I've come across around the world."

The Olivecrona methodology is a principles-based teaching as opposed to a techniques-based one in championing self-defence in light "of the law and CCTV cameras everywhere".

Discover more

Sport

Jake Mawson adds glitter to Hastings taekwondo dojang

23 May 12:15 AM
Sport

Six current and ex-Kiwi champs on wrestling card

06 Dec 06:00 PM

"Our response to fighting is based on thinking about principles rather than about techniques."

They embrace universal principles applicable to any given situation as opposed to thinking of an exact response to a specific attack that other martial arts disciplines tend to instil.

His first foray into martial arts began with karate in secondary school but found jiu jitsu and has never looked back.

"I've done other martial arts during that time but jiu jitsu has everything in it — you know, striking, grappling and ground fighting, joint locks and the whole lot."

Bailey founded the New Zealand Jiu Jitsu School of Self Defence (NZJJS) in 1995 with Michael Hickson, of Palmerston North. Kerry Young, of Hamilton, became a disciple two years later and, in that same year, Olivecrona amalgamated his ju-jutsu club with the school.

At its prime, NZJJS had clubs in Waikato, Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa, Whanganui and Manawatu provinces but owing to work demands and retirements, it now has clubs in the Bay and Wellington. It was registered as an incorporated society in 1997.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

NZJJS clubs were early participants of the Sport Ju-Jitsu NZ tournament circuit, with members competing with distinction from 1999. Eleven NZJJS members have represented New Zealand at World Games level.

In 2003, NZJJS instructors were among the founding members of the NZ Ju-Jitsu Federation. Bailey was federation chairman from its inception to 2008 and again from 2012 until this year.

All NZJJS instructors hold federation instructor qualifications and all black belts are recorded in the public register of ju-jitsu instructors and black belts.

Its instructors descend from Hans van Ess, who brought Kawaishi jiu jitsu to New Zealand from Holland in 1961. Van Ess trained predominantly under Jaap Nauwelaerts de Agé, who studied under Jean de Herdt, one of Mikinosuke Kawaishi's original French students, as well as the Budokwai's Gunji Koizumi and Kawaishi himself. He also trained under Gé Koning and the judo great, Anton Geesink.

Kawaishi Nihon Goshin Jutsu is a form of jiu jitsu Mikinosuke Kawaishi taught in Europe from 1928 until his death in 1969. Kawaishi attended Waseda University in Japan where he trained in judo and kendo.

Kawaishi jiu jitsu tends to place much influence on throwing and groundfighting techniques.

Olivecrona, a disciple of the Kawaishi system, had adapted his jiu jitsu to his work in the security industry. While the foundation techniques of Olivecrona are Kawaishi, they are taught in a different manner. Techniques are classed roughly into out-fighting, in-fighting and groundfighting, with an emphasis on close-contact clinch fighting.

Classes are dedicated to free-practice styles to enable students to hone their fighting skills. There is no curricula of kata techniques characteristic of traditional Kawaishi schools.

Tenth dan is the ultimate and is often awarded posthumously.

Doug Bailey is enjoying the martial arts journey and will go as far as his fuel tank enables him to. Photo / Warren Buckland
Doug Bailey is enjoying the martial arts journey and will go as far as his fuel tank enables him to. Photo / Warren Buckland

Ask Bailey how far he wants to take it, he umms and aahs before replying: "I just want to keep on going until I'm too old and broken to keep on going."

It's not lost on him that the art keeps him supple and active as well as offers a great creative outlet.

"That's the great thing about fighting from a principles point of view," he says, after finishing fifth at the World Games in 1992 (Argentina) and 1995 (NZ). "You can problem solve using a very small toolbox rather than using 500 dictated techniques — you just make it on the fly."

Bailey was also NZ team manager and head referee at Jersey in the Channel Islands in 2007, including the highlight of adjudicating the men's final. He has controlled more than 2000 matches to date and has received an outstanding award from the Kiwi federation.

"It's like being the referee in the Rugby World Cup final," says the instructor who was born in southern Hawke's Bay before pursuing a manufacturing jeweller's apprenticeship in Manawatu.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Sport

World

Aussie sporting first in racial abuse arrest

11 Jul 04:15 AM
UFC

The story so far: Tafa set to begin new chapter in UFC career

11 Jul 03:35 AM
Premium
All Blacks

All Blacks vs France: Where the second test can be won

11 Jul 02:51 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Sport

Aussie sporting first in racial abuse arrest

Aussie sporting first in racial abuse arrest

11 Jul 04:15 AM

Basketball Australia and Victoria Police made the first-ever such arrest in Australia.

The story so far: Tafa set to begin new chapter in UFC career

The story so far: Tafa set to begin new chapter in UFC career

11 Jul 03:35 AM
Premium
All Blacks vs France: Where the second test can be won

All Blacks vs France: Where the second test can be won

11 Jul 02:51 AM
All Blacks wing stocks take another hit as Caleb Clarke scratched from second test

All Blacks wing stocks take another hit as Caleb Clarke scratched from second test

11 Jul 02:34 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP