Des Murphy stepped into his first dojo less than a
decade ago. Within this time he has become a dominant
karate fighter, the NAS 2000 champion and opened up
his own successful school.
It was Des Murphy’s wife Linda who found a club
and encouraged him to start training. Studying a martial
art was something they both wanted to do, but neither
of them realised the effect it would have on there lives.
“We started studying Ishin-ryu about
nine years ago and as soon as we started we were pretty
much doing five classes a week.”
It was the competition part of martial arts that struck
Des. In the beginning he joined for the fitness aspect,
however fate stepped in. His instructor Sensei Bruce
Hyland was the Victoria AKF karate coach and with the
level of competition available he was intrigued by competing..
“I was really surprised I was training so much,
but Sensei Hyland was such a great motivator and he
didn’t push us. His enthusiasm for the sport really
rubbed off on me,” he says.
When asking Des about his first competition he laughs
and admits he was pretty shocking . However, there was
passion there and after about eighteen months of sparring
and working in the gym he started to win fights.
Earning his black belt in three and a half years, Des
was competing regularly in the AKF. In 1993, his instructor
handed him forms in regards to the NAS competition and
mentioned he might like to try this one.
“I
did battle from the start in the NAS, even though I
had been doing a lot of other competitions. The different
styles and refereeing, the techniques that can be thrown
and the different angles that come in, does take time
to get used to. I eventually got there and I enjoyed
it so much I have competed ever since.”
Having the NAS nationals earlier in the year worked
well for Des as, like most of us, he is far more tired
towards the end of the year. Training quite heavily
in the gym, he didn’t have as much time to focus
on his style as he would have liked, but had the chance
to do a lot of boxing.
“I always work
on my boxing because it helps me move a bit better and
I can really judge where a punch is coming from. I’ll
also do a bit of Aikido and grappling, but my main focus
is Ishin-ryu.”
With a successful NAS competition record behind him
including four national team titles and a number of
runner up places, every year he also tries to enter
as many categories as possible and this year competed
in the Veterans, the Men’s Open, the Under 70kgs
and the Teams Event.
“Without a doubt
it is better to be in more divisions that just the one.
It was a bizarre day though, the person I lost to in
the Open was the same person I lost to in the Veterans
and I only had my weight division left. I got through
there but to tell you the truth I really just wanted
to go home, luckily I had a few friends to help me along
and they got me back up again.”
Coming up against Simon May from Victoria, Des had both
wins and losses against his opponent, but was confident
he could take out the fight. “It was actually
a hard fight. He is a very fast and quick fighter and
comes from a traditional style as well,” he reminisces.
The traditional style of Ishin-ryu Karate originated
in England by Sensei Tiggy Donovan and is one of the
only styles founded outside Japan that is a recognised
martial art in Japan. It is based on three styles Kyokushin,
Shotokan and Wado-ryu and is a very good competition
style all over.
Des has been running his own club, Ishanryu Karate Cranbourne,
for over four years and believes it is something he
has always wanted to do. “Since I became a brown
belt I really likened to the idea of teaching and it
all started from there.”
With students ranging from five to forty-five, although
his interests were based in the competitive side of
the art, he doesn’t like to push his students.
“If you push your students to compete you will
lose them all. If you keep them strong in the style
they will be good competitors anyway.”
Running a competition course in January for all styles
and all levels, Des believes his time to step out of
the ring is now. After years of competing in the NAS
he wants to retire on a great win. “I’ll
still be involved in the NAS for sure, but I don’t
think I will compete next year. Going out on a high
is definitely the way to go about it.”
By Elisa Tubecki
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