SIFU MELVYN HOGAN

Founder of Warley Martial Arts Centre & Ho-Gar Kuien

The object of this page is not to tell you how good I am or how many competitions I have won, instead I would like to give an insight to my own personal experiences with in the martial arts (both good and bad) and hopefully they will inspire others to keep going even when they feel like giving up.

Over the years I have gained something that is worth more to me personally than any trophy or belt in the world. I have overcome personal difficulties and achieved things that I never thought possible through sheer determination and perseverance and talking and listening to my instructors.

My first experience of martial arts was in 1981 when I joined a local Karate club teaching Enshin Rye. In 1985 I joined Dudley Martial Arts Centre learning Lau-Gar kung fu under the supervision of Sifu Bernard Chong and Sifu Ken Holt, from my first lesson I knew that this was what I wanted to do.

I must admit that I was not the best of students, some of the techniques did not come easy and there were times I felt like quitting, but in 1990 passed my 1^st Degree Black Sash. I was over the moon; I had often seen the Black grades training and always thought that I would never get that far.

1992

I opened my own martial arts club, Warley Martial Arts Centre, with the permission of Master Yau (the head  of the Lau-Gar system) teaching Lau-Gar Kung Fu. This was also the year that I decided to further my training by learning Lau-Gar Kick

1993

This was a big year for me, passing my 2^nd Degree Black Sash in kung fu and 1^st Degree Black Belt in Kickboxing.

It was while I was training for these two grades that I decided to train with the full contact fighters to help build my stamina and improve my sparring and boy was that a shock! Anyone wishing to perfect their one-touch (points) techniques should get in the ring with a full-contact fighter, it a different world and it was the turning point of my life.

At thirty-two years old I had no intentions of entering the ring, most of these fighters were between 18 and 25 years old but I still learned a lot from them, they were always willing to give me advise and show me the “tricks of the trade”.

After seven years of fighting semi contact, I considered myself a pretty good fighter, not one of the best, but I could fight with the best of them, but compared to these guys I was a nothing, they were good. I soon learned that a real fight does not stop because you landed one (scoring) technique; they were throwing six punches to my one.

The first time I fought with them, I was expecting them to go in for the kill, that was to come later, but to my surprise they where very controlled, fighting semi-contact but using full contact techniques, but this didn’t stop me getting a battering. I remember trying to “Blitz” my opponent (run at him and try to score a point), he just side-stepped and hit me in the stomach and I hit the floor gasping for air. He pointed out that I he had only tapped me and that I had run onto his punch, I never tried that again.  

I had many a battering during my time with the full contact fighters, from black eyes and bruises to being knocked out and concussion. There was many times I felt like quitting, not because of the beating, I was expecting that, but more out of anger and frustration at myself for not being able fight them at their level, I was using everything I knew and none of it was working, then during one sparring session my opponent landed full blown kick to my thigh, the pain shot straight through me. I took off my gloves, threw them across the floor and hobbled out of the gym, with tears running down my face, it was the final straw, I was never going to be able to fight like them, I was so angry at myself.

It was then that my instructor, Sifu Ken Hoult grabbed me by the back of my t-shirt, dragged me back into the gym and said, “you will fight!” so I put my gloves back on and thought “right I’ll fight and if I get battered it’s your fault”. This may sound nasty and a bit extreme, but looking back afterwards he knew I had it in me and this was the make or brake point for me.

I went out there and I fought my heart out, by the end of the round we both had black and blue but it felt great, everything seemed to just fall into place. It was after this I realised it was not so much that the semi-contact techniques didn’t work; it was re-assessing how to use them, using body and footwork and learning to fight in close and use tactics. After this I really learned how to fight enjoyed every minute of it, my only regret now is that I never entered a full contact competition.

Training in full contact made me see how many of the techniques that we had been practising up and down the gym actually worked in a real fight, it gave me a whole new insight to the martial arts as a whole, I came away a different person with new ideas and thanks to Sife Bernard Chong, Sifu Ken Holt and to all fighters for sharing their knowledge with me (and the batterings they gave me), I developed Ho-Gar Kuien.

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At the end of this year I broke away from Lau-Gar for personal reasons and introduced my own style of Ho-Gar Kuien, which was based on my experiences in both kung fu and kickboxing, into the club.