Untitled Page

International Budo Federation
Australia

WALDEMAR VON SZLAGOWSKI

In memory of Wally - Father of Australian karate

Waldemar Von Szlagowski, born 1925, was killed in a car accident at 84 years of age on the 11th of February 2009. He opened the 1^st Karate club in Australia and the 3^rd Judo club but little is known of his contribution to the martial arts, yet in karate circles from the 1950’s his club had a fearsome reputation as a no nonsense contact style where many would seek to improve or test themselves. Wally’s principles continue to this day with the newer generations.

The early 1960s by one of his students - Rob Dobson (March 2009)
I joined the Blacktown Judo & Karate Clubs in the early 1960s training in both Judo and Karate. I quickly found Karate much more to my liking and dropped the Judo.
Wally Szlagowski was the chief Karate instructor and at the time was probably in his late 30s; although he was not a large man, he was all muscle and very powerful. Many of the students described Wally’s fists as ‘battering rams’. We soon found out why when we visited Wally at home and saw part of his training routine; he was doing partial bench presses of more than 500 pounds weight, which we believe was in excess of the world bench press record for his weight at that time.
Wally was a humble man and would always welcome new or improved techniques into the style. The Blacktown club encouraged visitors from other clubs and especially from visiting Japanese ships. If a visitor knocked someone down with an excellent kick or punch, you didn’t make the excuse that you were having a bad day; you tried to learn the new technique.
We always trained on the concrete outside of St Patricks hall, doing push ups on our knuckles on the concrete; it was not uncommon for visitors or new starters to tear significant chunks of skin off the soles of their feet when sparring or doing Kata's.
I recall Wally breaking house bricks; first one at a time, then two at a time and then three bricks stacked one on top of the other. When I saw him setting up the three bricks I thought that he was crazy and would never do it, but break three bricks he did!
The Blacktown club was always a tough club, the unwritten rules were that you should hit your opponent but not cause any permanent or serious damage; broken ribs were OK but not broken arms, legs or jaws. We always had bag training to ensure that we held our wrists straight when we punched and similarly so for our kicking.
We often went somewhere different to train, I remember sparring with Wally in the surf and discovered how slippery things can get when I blocked one of Wally’s punches which slipped straight off my blocking arm and onto my nose; I now have a permanent reminder of that day.
Sparring was mandatory with everyone required to spar with three different opponents at each training session. We often had to spar one handed with the other hand holding our belt behind our back; we then had to swap and spar with the other hand. At other times we sparred two on one; it was initially surprising that the ‘one’ did so well and we learned to keep the ‘two’ in each others way.
Wally had a great breadth of knowledge and for example even taught us how to defend barehanded against dog attacks; we would have other sessions where we were attacked by someone wielding a chair or baseball bat - anything goes.
The most important lesson I learned from Karate, mainly from sparring, was that ‘either the problem will beat you or you will beat the problem’. This ‘never back off’ approach allowed me to progress on to a very successful career; success that I would not have been able to accomplish had I not trained under such a gifted and tough Master as Wally Szlagowski.

There were many sources for this information, compiled from stories told by past students and taken from early newspaper articles and magazines. The Slagowski Karate Association continues to this day and there are many other instructors of Wally’s lineage.

Wally, as he was affectionately known, started formal training in judo in 1949, soon after arriving in Australia from Prussia. Wally continued training in this art until the mid 1960`s, reaching 3rd Dan by the “Challenge” method and was also graded in jujitsu.
Wally’s formal training in Karate began 1950-51. His first instructor was an American serviceman Wally referred to as Mr. Martin. Mr. Martin was part of the occupation force in Okinawa after W.W.2 and was a direct 2nd Dan student of Master Yasuhiro Konishi, founder of Shindo Jinen Ryu Karate. He was a frequent visitor to Australia when Wally met and began training with him. This was the conduit of contact for information using photo’s with their written instructions and film. Mr. Martin presented Wally before Master Konishi in writing and by Super 8 movie and as a result he was awarded Shodan Rank in 1960-61. With his grade, he was given a badge, and three others of the same, from the Shindo Jinen Ryu School denoting his Shodan grade. Mr. Martin returned to America and after many years and due to the language barrier contact was lost and his school came into it’s own as a free and independent Australian entity.

During the 1950’s Wally blended Karate and previous combat experience with his Judo and Jujitsu. He taught others in his or their backyards, in parks and in fact anywhere at all possible (at that time the martial arts were not understood by the average citizen and it is believed Police were called on at least one occasion to attend to “men fighting”. It was during this time that Wally performed with a visiting Japanese 2nd Dan (style unknown and who was an Officer on a visiting Japanese Defence Force Ship) at an official Dept. of The Interior government function in 1954/5. Australia’s “first Karate photo” comes from that event. Wally and his students visited the docks over many years and introduce themselves to any Japanese ship in port seeking experience. They were often received with friendship and respect. This had a strong effect in altering the style and made it more practical.
Occasionally, visiting Martial Artists would seek out Wally and his students, one being Sifu William Cheung, of Wing Chun fame, and Peter Oberekan.
Wally Szlagowski was, along with others such as Merv Oakley, Serge Martich-Oesterman and others, a founder of the Australian Black Belt Association, an organization that predated F.A.K.O. (now A.K.F.).
In the past there have been rumors that Wally was a Kyokushinkai stylist. That is not correct. However it is true that Wally and his student, George Pandu did affiliate with Kyokushinkai-Kan for a year or two around 1965. They did not, however, continue with this preferring to remain autonomous and Australian controlled.

Many thanks to John Cook, Secretary of the SKA and Bruce Freeman for their support in my efforts to highlight Wally Szlagowski’s life, a pioneer in Australian Karate. Above is some of the training correspondence sent to Wally and below is part of a syllabus released in the 1970's.

Many men may travel any given path, but only one can be the first to tread it.
In Australia, and in Karate, that man is
Grandmaster Waldemar Von Szlagowski - the Father of Australian Karate.

Home
Info.
- About IBF
- Policies
- Forms
- Shop
- Officials
Members
News
- Newsletter / latest
- Events / Calender
Links
Articles
- Publications
- Gallery
- What is Martial Arts
- What is Kosen Judo
- People
Contact