OUR TEAM!
David W. Collyer
I have been training in one form of Martial Art or another since I was 8 years old
starting off with Boxing and Freestyle wrestling at the Blacktown R.S.L. youth club
back in 1966.
I started Judo at the same club when I was 12 years old (1970) until I was 16 years old.
I continued with wrestling and boxing at the same time. (1974)
When I was 16 I moved to the north coast of N.S.W. and took up Shotokan Karate. (1975)
The late Frank Nowak was the Chief Instructor for Australia. I trained in Shotokan until about 1980.
I traveled around the country and overseas to try my hand at different training, from Kung Fu and Jiu JItsu to Ninjitsu.
I did Yun TKD in the late 1980"s. Moved to Brisbane in 1991 and trained with several different styles looking for a home.
In 1996-97 I started Bob Jones Ken Do Kai and I joined Scorpion Karate and now all my training and experience has brought me to a family I am proud to be a part of,
Scorpion Karate.
At present I hold a Third Degree Black Belt and am a Di-Sensei. I am a MAA (Martial Arts Australia) Certified Master Coach I have a Cert 4 in Training and Assessment with LLN and a Diploma in Counselling, this helps with many of my students who have emotional/self esteem problems, as well as sports counselling. I am always doing short or day courses to improve my knowledge and practical experience.
Most of my Martial Arts Certs for different grading extra were lost in the Brisbane 2010-11 flood.
I have been a registered nurse for over 30 years and at present I am working in the Disability area. Over the years I have taught self-defence to many different groups from professionals such as Lawyers, Nurses and teachers and year 12 students just before going on Schoolies, to the more mature members of the community to young people.
My main student group involves young people who have various Disability issues, at present I am attempting to learn conversational Auslan.
Anthony Cavanagh
ANTHONY KAVANAGH
Inducted into the A.M.A.H.O.F.(Inc) for 2011
Instructor of the Year – Scorpion Karate
Inducted into the W.K.U.H.O.F. for 2011
Instructor of the Year – Scorpion Karate
My name is Anthony Joseph Luke Kavanagh and I am currently a 4th Degree Renshi with Scorpion Dojos and Zen Do Kai, I have been training in the fighting arts for now 25years.
Our club motto “whatever it takes” was taken after a turbulent couple of years in the beginning of our unknown journey back to ZDK. We at Scorpion Dojos strive for more than just teaching a style or a system but to compete with Soke Bob’s meaning of Zen DO Kai. “The best of everything in progression”, to us it’s not just following blindly but “lead by example, follow by choice” as Soke Bob has done before us all.
We are grateful to Kyoshi Sama Anderson for allowing us to come back into the fold so to speak, after the initial club of Scorpion Dojos left in the early eighties, they continued to teach all the protocols of ZDK but under different guise SIMAC [Scorpion Integrated Martial Arts Centres].
I have fond memories of my first visit as a child of six to the local fire brigade at Woodridge fire station for boxing. Growing up in the Woodridge/Kingston area I lived next to and trained alongside some of the Queensland’s best boxers. They went on to be Golden gloves Lonny and Elwin G’Williams and Australian Title winners Dale and Ernie Attango, unbeknown to my parents I fought them weekly, as a child I was very accident prone always hurting my nose and falling over.
At school discovered Moon Lee Tae Kwon Do and trained with Sensei Scott Nicolas achieving Red Belt in 1982. Whilst having my first part time job at the local Kmart I was introduced to Bunjinkan Ninpo and the freedom it offered was challenging, I knew from then on I wanted to be a free-stylist so began my journey, with the inspiring tutelage of Nicolas Larfranigh this spanned 82 to 85 I achieved my 1st Dan ranking. As a serving member in the Australian Army Reserve 1984 to 1986 and then regular Army thru to 1994 I came into contact with many great CQC instructors in knife, pistol, stick and club. In 1991 at Enoggera I was introduced to Scorpion Integrated Martial Arts a truly freestyle club run by Renshi Glen Rushton (ex ZDK) and was hooked.
After leaving the Regular Army in 1991 I went back to {SIMAC] Scorpion Integrated Martial Arts Centres to compete ant train for many years. The class in my area was run by Sensei Peter Barnbrooke 2nd Dan and over the next 17yrs I have taught, trained and now taken over the reformed Scorpion Dojos. This happened as Sensei Peter retired in 1995 and Sensei Gavin Milley 4th Dan took the helm. He went on to leave us in 1997 to assume a life of service in the fire brigade and Dai Sempei David Reid came onto the scene. Work commitments took the now Renshi David Reid to start our Gold Coast club and I took the instructorship on the 9th February 1999.
