L–R: Master Noguchi Michiro,
Casimir and James SumaracNEWS & EVENTSReal first aid for Raw Combatives
Melbourne’s Raw Combatives hosted Ben
Krynski of Real First Aid at their club ‘The
Garage’ in Glen Waverley to deliver Level
II first aid and CPR (cardio-pulmonary
resuscitation) training on 25 March.
Along with their chief instructor Jim
Armstrong, the Raw students worked through
a series of realistic self-defence-related
scenarios such as treating a knife slashing
victim to control their bleeding, and attendingto a person who’d been bashed with a
baseball bat to manage their wounds and
administer CPR.
As well as learning how to deal with
the after-effects of violence, Raw students
learned how to manage an epileptic fit via
a restaurant role-play, how to recognise
an anaphylactic reaction and administer
an EpiPen (epinephrine auto-injector), and
how to manage and cool the wounds of a
burns victim.
All the scenarios incorporated stage make-
up and props to make the injuries hyper-
realistic, adding to the learning experience.
“All of the scenarios had a lot of detail in
them, from the make-up used to the backstory
given to those involved in the scenario,” said
Armstrong. “After every scenario there was a
detailed debrief of what happened, what was
done correctly and what could be improved
upon, which helped all of the students take
on board the lessons learnt.
“In the self-protection world, we’re all
taught how to strike, defend, identify pre-
incident indicators, de-escalate confrontation
and how to become a ‘hard target’ —
among many other things — but we at Raw
Combatives feel it’s more important to learn
how to help others, as to us this is true
meaning of self-protection.”
Armstrong added that the course was
“by far” the best of many he’d done over 30
years. “The information given was driven by
base principles, which made it much easier
to understand and retain,” he said. “The big
difference between this course and others
on the market was not only the principle-
driven delivery but the in-depth scenarios
that were run.”Competition
down, martial
arts up: poll
Recent polling of Australians by the
Roy Morgan Research institute shows
that just one in five Aussies now
regularly play competitive sports — a
drop of 27 per cent since 2001.
According to Roy Morgan’s survey
on people’s sporting participation
habits, over the past 15 years more
people are walking for exercise,
jogging, cycling, hitting the gym and
doing yoga, but fewer are playing
sports with a win-or-lose outcome.
There were some notable exceptions,
with soccer becoming the most-
played competitive sport in Australia
with 623,000 participants country-
wide (205,000 more than in 2001),
with basketball and athletics also
recognised as being on the rise. Roy
Morgan’s summary of the survey also
stated that martial arts was notably
gaining in popularity but included
it in the ‘competitive’ category —
perhaps not recognising that the
vast majority of martial artists do
not compete.
The finding in martial arts’
favour, however, reflects the recent
AusPlay survey by the Australian
Sports Commission (ASC), which
listed karate as the 12th most
popular out-of-school activity
among children, with martial arts
generally ranking 20th.Jim Armstrong looks
the part for a first-aid
training scenarioVisiting karate master tests locals
During his recent visit to teach Down Under,
Japanese Goju Kensha karate master Michiro
Noguchi awarded Dan-grades to 17 Australians,
including host Kyoshi James Sumarac, now 8th
Dan, his wife Shou Mei, 5th Dan, and son Casimir,
who was the last of five Sumarac children to have
been awarded 1st Dan Black-belt.
“All my five children began their karate training
at the age of five — the reward is they are taken to
Japan by their father for training and sightseeing. It
is a Sumarac tradition,” said Kyoshi Sumarac.
As well as training at the Sumaracs’ Wu Lin
Retreat dojo in Lancefield, Victoria, Casimir also
trains in Melbourne under his father’s senior student
Richard Kay, 6th Dan, in both karate and Systema.Casimir was one of a group of Goju Ryu Kakurin
Kan International members who were tested on
kata, application basics and sparring at the group’s
annual training camp in November 2016. To receive
their diploma, they were then required to perform a
kata in front of Noguchi Sensei in April.
“Dan gradings are not usually given on one
performance, rather over several weeks or, in most
cases, months,” Sunarac explained. “Each applicant
is invited to perform different aspects of their
grading requirements at different appearances,
which helps to give me a clearer picture of their
requirements or strengths. If I am not satisfied with
an item, they can repeat it or it may delay their
certification. This way there are never ‘failures’!”10 ƫđƫ333ċ (%06) #ċ*!0 | (^) BLITZ & PIECES