Friendly Martial Arts Faces

My on-line martial arts buddy, Matt D’AQUINO of “Beyond Grappling” fame (from Canberra) put me in touch with the owner of the Goulburn Martial Arts Academy, Craig HARMER, and on Tuesday, March 26, we had a pleasant chat over coffee about the state of affairs in Corrections and martial arts in general. The next night I dropped into his club to watch his class and found it a very positive place to train. His students were very polite and welcoming, which speaks volumes about the instructor(s).

On Thursday, I drove one hour to Canberra and that’s when I received the good news from Insp. Steve EVANS! I had coffee with Matt D’AQUINO, meeting him for the first time in person. He helped buoy up my spirits with his camaraderie and martial arts contacts. I arrived just as the very long Easter weekend was starting, so once again rooms were at a premium, although this time I went upscale to the Mantra MacArthur Hotel. No crappy place for me, thank you.

Matt put me in  touch with Ben TURNBULL (Turnbull Martial Arts Academy) and Mitch LANGMAN (Dark Carnival Martial Arts) in Canberra. I meet Mitch through Eddie SHAW (Sense Corporation – run with his son Nick) who was managing his role players at the AFP, and all three of them attended a two-hours joint-locking seminar I put on at Matt’s request at his club on Thursday, April 4th.

Eddie and his son Nick took me out to lunch that week and we had a great chat about role players and martial arts. The use of role players has long been adopted by the Justice Institute of BC (Police Academy). They are recruited largely from our Police Judo student classes, as they are strong, fit, and can take a beating. They love getting tossed around!

So the martial arts brotherhood made me feel very welcome in these early stages of my tour, especially Matt. Thanks you guys!

Now on to my wonderful AFP academy experiences…