Brendan Howard, 2nd Dan Black Belt

I started my karate journey more than 30 years ago when I was at university. I was looking for an activity to maintain my fitness without the risks of physical injury associated with sports like rugby league, and a friend introduced me to a goju-ryu school. I achieved my first black belt before commencing a career with lots of travel, which meant I needed to adapt to whatever martial arts style was available in the location where I lived. This meant adopting various versions of shotokan style karate, where I was able to achieve my second black belt.

Eventually it got too hard to maintain the required standard with all of the travel and I stopped training around 2005.   One of the unexpected blessings of the global pandemic was that I stopped travelling and got curious about rejoining martial arts training. I was excited to discover that there was a traditional Okinawan Goju-ryu karate school active in Orange! After a 15 year hiatus it took a lot of work to rebuild my capability, but eventually in early 2022 I was re-graded to 1st Dan, and then graded again to 2nd Dan in late 2023.

I really love karate, and getting re-involved has been central to a renaissance of my overall health and wellbeing. It has also introduced me to the fascinating Japanese culture and in 2023 I had the privilege of training with some of the grand masters in Okinawa.libero.

Dan Rimmer, Shodan Black Belt

I started my son in Shotokan karate when he was 5yrs old in 2015.

I used to take him and sit on the side lines and watch.

One night one of the Sensei’s tugged at my shirt and said, “Maybe you should be on the mat and start doing classes” At the ripe age of 35, I thought I was too old for this.

I got my white belt on the 1st of April 2015.  I fell in love with Karate and really dedicated myself and trained multiple times a week.

A couple of years went by, and I graded to 4th kyu brown on the 15th of March 2017. I had also been assisting instructors with the club’s kid classes. I completed my instructing accreditation through Wushu Australia 12th of May 2017.

I continued to train and instruct the kids and graded to 2nd Kyu brown on the 25th of November 2018 with Shotokan until family, work life and just being burned out from Karate made me take a couple years hiatus.

During this time, I had met Sensei Colin Dibble out on our local mountain biking trails. We always chatted about karate, amongst other stuff! One night I was chatting to Col at our local bike shop, and he invited me to come along to try Goju-Ryu at Orange Dojo.

From the very first class at Orange Dojo, I had fallen back in love with Karate and Bunkai. I really enjoyed the smaller class and more traditional Okinawan teachings of Sensei Geoff Tait.

One of the teachings in any style of karate is “Never give up”. I had to learn a fully new syllabus through Goju-Ryu and I trained hard to finally achieve my Shodan Black Belt on the 18th May 2022.

Since than I have had absolutely life changing opportunities through Sensei Geoff and the TOGKF. Our club has visited Japan and Okinawa. I have been blessed with even training at Terauchi Sensei and Higoanna Sensei’s dojos.

I am looking forward to the future of my karate journey with the TOGKF.

William Tait, Shodan Black Belt

I am a Kiwi & moved to Australia in 2020 after 16 years in Christchurch, New Zealand. I started my karate journey at 16 years old, showing that even if you recently moved to a new area, you can pick something up that you'll love. I love the physical challenge that comes from doing kata, where I can let go of my worries of the day. I've met some amazing people through doing Goju Ryu karate, both In Australia and Internationally, and have travelled to Japan to train, which was a great experience.

I also enjoy playing football/soccer for the past couple of years in Australia.

I am working at Orange airport when not doing Karate or attending University, so you can be sure that I can keep you in the know about flights to Japan!