Mount Gambier Martial Arts Academy has welcomed five new members to its black belt ranks following a successful grading.

Mount Gambier’s Liam Povey, Lachie Clements, Wes Dalton and James Scott and Naracoorte’s Steve Anderson passed their shodan grading (black belt).

A week before the exam they had a gruelling five hours of grading requirements to get through which involved basic fighting techniques, fighting combinations, focus mitt drills, clinching, fight simulation test, takedowns, grappling pressure drills and a fitness test.

The academy’s Sensei Greg Povey said a week later they had to finish the grading by making their way through 40 fights each.

“They had to do the full 40 no matter what the body and mind was telling them, they could not give in or stop,” he said.

“They had to do 10 grappling rounds of five minutes with a one-minute break each round.

“There were then 10 Kyokushin rounds of two minutes, 10 Jissen Kyokushin of two minutes and to finish off it was 10 MMA rounds of two minutes.

“They were exceptional and I’m very proud of them all.”