Name: Memoirs of a Karate Fighter
Author: Ralph Robb (Author)
ISBN: 9780955216923

Memoirs of a Karate Fighter book cover

Memoirs of a Karate Fighter

Author(s): Ralph Robb (Author)

Publisher: Raldon Books
Publication Date: 1 Aug. 2006
Language: English
Print length: 192 pages
ISBN-10: 0955216923
ISBN-13: 9780955216923

Book Description

Memoirs of a Karate Fighter is a gripping and hard-hitting story of karate training in one of Europe’s toughest dojos during the 1980s. The author is the novelist Ralph Robb, who, in his much younger days, was a Wado Ryu karate champion (UKKW 1982) and a European all-styles silver medallist. Ralph gives an insight into the training methods and philosophy of the Wolverhampton YMCA karate club which was once the top club in Britain. The YMCA won innumerable tournaments but amongst its greatest achievements were two All-styles British Clubs championships, five UK Wado team titles and one Shotokan national team championship (1976 GB Shotokan Karate International)- the only team in the history of British karate not to practise that style ever to do so. Within its ranks were one world, twelve national and three European champions.
Ralph also tells of the fights that happened outside the dojo: how the club provided doormen who cleared a nightclub of a criminal gang and how they took on one of the country’s nastiest and most violent football hooligan crews.
Ralph provides a vivid description of what it was like for him and his pregnant girlfriend as they started life together in a high-rise flat in an area in which the National Front was very active; and the tragic descent into mental illness and subsequent death of the training partner who was also his best friend.

Editorial Reviews

Review

An exciting and informative read written with passion and precision, that
presents a type of ‘hard’ karate which is now almost obsolete in modern
society. — combat magazine november 2006

Inspirational and thought-provoking. It is a life worth reading about and
Ralph Robb’s writing is compelling as it is impeccable
— irish fighter magazine december 2006

It’s not just the karate that impresses but also the humanity throughout this well-written memoir . . . A fascinating insight . .
— martial edge november 2007

From the Publisher

Ralph Robb employs his considerable skills as a novelist to give the reader a powerful story about violence, redemption and brotherly love. He takes us on a journey in which we see a youngster inured to violence and surrounded by crime slowly develop into a man with a sense of who he is and his role in the world.
In the best book Ralph has written so far in his seven years as an author, he provides the reader with an insight of how the discipline of karate and the bushido code saved at least one young man from a life of crime.
Memoirs of a Karate Fighter will appeal not only to the current crop of martial artists but also all those 40-somethings who were caught up in the kung fu craze of the 1970s.

From the Author

My original idea was to write a novel with a karate theme but with the encouragement of my publisher I decided to write an autobiographical account of my time practising karate. Sometimes it was a very painful experience for me and now with the hindsight of 25 years it is easy to see how some of the opinions I had about the world and karate were wrong – although a few may have been right. A lot of the views about karate in the book are – and were – not mine but I have done my best to convey the thinking of the time, as in the case of women competitors. Personally I never had a problem with it but it is easy to recall how many I knew did.
Quite obviously, I have made mistakes in my life, as every young man does, but perhaps what I wish to convey, is that despite all its problems and often very petty prejudices and squabbles, the practise of karate was a very positive influence in my younger life.
On reflection my tournament successes mean very little, it is what I learned about life that was the greatest prize I attained.

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