The success of the Millicent Martial Arts Academy’s inaugural Mini Oyama Challenge will see it become a regular local event.

Under the instruction of sensei Ian McGregor 22 students aging from children through to 54 years old took part in the six-hour challenge.

The “mini” event was a reintroduction of a four-day challenge the club held prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.

“This event has not been run for a few years so we decided to do a mini version locally to see how it went,” Sensei Ian said.

“Before COVID hit we held a four-day Oyama Challenge held in Geelong by our group with up to 200 participants,” Sensei Ian said.

The recent challenge took place at Millicent Presbyterian Church Hall, with plans to hold a similar event at Allendale.

The first of three two-hour sessions were attended by junior and senior students from both the Millicent and Allendale academies.

“It was a fantastic effort from our juniors in the first session.

“A full two hours of training with 500 chudan tsuki punches.”

The following two sessions, suited for the senior participants, were guided by Millicent Gymnastics Club head coach Fiona McDonald and Rob Povey from Hybrid Karate Martial Arts School.

Ms McDonald was invited to provide technical expertise in stretching and mobility while Mr Povey demonstrated fighting skills and other tournament work.

“Fiona ran through various stretching and mobility exercises she uses in gymnastics classes, including both static and dynamic stretches, mostly aimed at shoulders, legs and back,” Sensei Ian said.

“Many of the exercises she showed also included development of strength in the muscles as well as increasing the muscle length for more range of motion.

“I asked Rob to join us as I have known him a very long time.

“His father was my original instructor in Kyokushin Karate, and we have done an event together previously which went well.

“Rob went through some reflex exercises designed to encourage moving the feet and keeping the body balanced, some variations of common kicks and where they may be used, and some fight combinations.

“Rob’s passion was in the tournament fighting aspect of karate and he excelled at it and fought a couple of times overseas.

“I find with my preference towards traditional karate and Rob’s more modern informal focus on competition fighting methods we work well together for these types of events.”

Sensei Ian said he intends to build on the initial success of the recent challenge.

“I’m very excited to do this again and improve upon it.

“I am hoping to run another event like this at least once more this year,” he said.

“The next one is most likely to be held at my other club (dojo) in Allendale.

“I’ll look at inviting other special guests.

“The same as our major event in Geelong, it may be other martial arts, yoga instructors, health and wellbeing specialists, guest speakers.

“We may even get some senior instructors in Kyokushin karate over from Melbourne and Geelong.

“I usually get them over a couple of times a year for some training sessions anyway.”

A date is yet to be confirmed for the next event to be held at Allendale.