Italian soldiers are facing the embarrassment of being beaten up daily by a 77-year-old Japanese grandmother.

This article is compliments of www.telegraph.co.uk I had to share it!



Martial arts expert Keiko Wakabayshi, nicknamed the "Samurai Granny", has been hired by the country's military to train recruits in hand-to-hand combat.

Miss Wakabayshi, who stands exactly 5ft tall, looks tiny compared to her charges who are mostly over 6ft.

But the pensioner is a trained master in an array of martial arts disciplines including jujitsu, jojitso, kenjitso, judo, kendo and karate.



She wipes the floor with soldiers of the Folgore brigade at their barracks in Livorno on a daily basis.

Miss Wakabayshi was born in Japan but now lives in Northern Italy.

She tells her students to look at her and believe that nothing is impossible.

After flooring an opponent she tells them: "Don't think it's unbelievable. The physique doesn't matter."

Sparring is regarded as the most effective method of teaching martial arts and senior Italian military officers hope the experience of being humiliated by Miss Wakabayshi will toughen up their soldiers.

Miss Wakabayshi trained for many years to achieve her level of expertise and believes she can carry on defeating brawny soldiers for years to come.

The term martial arts is synonymous with the Far East, but actually derives from Mars, the Roman god of war and literally means the "arts of war".

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Testing times in Noosa at Karate Budokan!

Day 1.

Saturday of the Karate Budokan International, Noosa Winter Black belt grading has come to an end with all of the candidates exhausted and also relieved to have completed 60% of the test.
The 1st day consisted of 90 minutes of Kihon (Basics) and Ido (combinations), this was followed by 60 minutes of Kata performance.
This grading we have 7 candidates for Shodan (1st Dan) and 2 candidates for Nidan (2nd Dan).

Some of the emotions on display were nervous anticipation, excitement, fear, confidence and of course focussed energy.

A lot of the friends and family in for support were displaying more nerves than the candidates!
Also completing the 1st day of the grading was Students testing themselves in anticipation of being invited to the Summer Black belt grading in December.

All of the Noosa members of the Queensland team trained as part of their preparation for the National titles in Perth.
The energy on the tatami was great and contagious.

3 candidates are testing for their junior Black Belt, these three young boys have come all the way through the KBI Little Legend program and are now on the last stage of achieving their long awaited Junior Shodan, this is a great achievement for these young Karateka to display the focus & determination required to reach this goal.


Day 2.



Sunday was an amazing climax to this fantastic test of endurance, skill & determination that is the Black belt. The day started with our candidates demonstrating their proficient self defence, covering defences against strikes, grabs, chokes, head locks, kicks & knives!

This was finished with a display of self defence against two attackers, very entertaining & inspiring. The self defence was followed by the kumite drills which is a very demanding effort displaying endurance & perserverance.

Then the test finishes with the required 5 one minute rounds of Jyu Kumite (Free sparing), awesome effort, courage, versatility & skill was on display. Some of our candidates had to contend with the best fighters KBI has, these are National & Australian open champions!

They came through with class, extremely exhausted, emotions were running high, as was sore bodies & fatique. However the smiles from the knowledge that they had made it was fantastic an memorable.
A Black belt is definitely something that you earn but more importantly it is something that you become, it's far more than just a cloth around your Dogi.

So as the weekend came to a close we had seven extremely tired deserving new Shodans and two new Nidans, with a Dojo full of family, friends and fellow Karateka cheering them on. It was also wonderful to see the look of satisfaction and pride on the faces of the Senseis that had helped our candidates achieve their Karate dream.

We would like to wish Jake Lowe, Patrick Gelling, Grant De Chastel, Lara Pogson-Manning, John Studdock, Aprile Nuske & Sophie Wrigley a warm welcome to our KBI Black belt family. Mitch Lollback & Luke Walker now as you are a Nidan the journey gets bigger & better. Well done everyone!


Until next time.

Yours in Karate,

Shihan