GARY Thompson has shown that, even later on in life, a dream can be achieved. He was recently graded by Gareth Tennant and presented with his black belt.
While Gary is well-known in terms of his business, PG Glass, what may not be so well known is how hard he trained for his belt.
Gary and his wife Gwen are emigrating to Scotland next Monday. He has trained for his black belt for four years, showing extraordinary commitment.
He put in all the evening training and then went the extra mile, doing secret training over the weekends.
Gary took up karate later in life and his only regret is that he did not start it when he was in his youth.
He says it feeds his soul, and he lives for it.
Needless to say, he wore a grin from Cape to Cairo when he had the belt securely in place.
Gareth put things in perspective. “On average only three in 100 people who begin this journey of self development get to this level. It’s worth noting that Gary started and achieved this in his 50s, showing that there is some truth in the saying that it’s never to late to start something,” he said.
He is the founder of Kaizen Karate, and is 6 Dan.
“Of course, karate is interpreted as ‘unarmed combat (empty hand)’. Kaizen’s meaning is gradual improvement on a daily basis. My style of training is Eurocentric in nature but always with the backdrop of karate’s traditional Japanese roots,” he explained.
He added that the principle issue of his training is to always ‘keep it real’.
He felt many karate instructors had a tendency to drift into a near delusionary style of teaching. “This was instrumental in me developing my own system,” he said.
Next year he has an exciting three month introduction course that focuses on the use of weapon and shield. “It’s a passive aggressive system called Impenetrable Fortress,” he said.
