Kellie, Australia
Kellie from Victoria, Australia, tells her story of leaving a domestic violence relationship and the role karate played in her recovery in this weeks GKR Stories.
**Content Warning – this story describes details of Kellie’s personal experience with domestic violence**
I began my training with GKR Karate around 6 months after my 10 year old son Heath had started.
Heath had been bullied at school and I loved watching him thrive at karate. I’d trained in martial arts before and was starting to feel the ‘itch’ coming back with each class I watched. Finally, in February 2017 after enough watching, I turned up in my gym clothes and said, “I’m joining in today Sensei. Is that ok?” and that is how my journey with GKR began.
Three months after starting karate, I gained the courage to ‘walk away’ from the children’s father and my relationship of 24 years and marriage of 17 years.
The weekend of my yellow belt grading the children and I were in refuge. My half-sister had taken us in and provided us with food, clean clothes, a warm place to sleep and an ear to listen. Sunday morning came and I summoned the courage to get in her car and leave my safe haven to go to grading.
I remember being so self-conscious of my shaking hands. I recall a Sensei walked past and said “It’s ok, relax. You’re doing great!” Little did he know that I wasn’t worried about getting the moves wrong, I was fighting a raging fear of whose face would appear in the crowd and what might happen if they showed.
I made it all the way through the grading with Heath on the sidelines cheering me on. With my yellow belt in my hand, it was like level one had been unlocked and I’d found the passion I’d forgotten about since I’d walked away from martial arts at age 13.
My younger daughter joined in eventually and karate became the glue that held us together, karate was our constant.
Sometimes, in the early days, I would take Heath to class but I wouldn’t train, as I’d spend my training fee money on food when the monthly Food Bank visit was too far away. Thankfully, the generosity of my GKR class mates allowed me to still train on many of these occasions and I will be forever grateful for their care and consideration. Most importantly, my friendship base was growing without any restrictions on who I was ‘allowed’ to speak with.
We moved to the northern suburbs a little before COVID hit. Then, fresh out of Covid an opportunity came up to teach a GKR Karate class 10 minutes down the road. The welcome we all received from the students and other instructors was amazing.
When I graded to Shodan Ho, most of my family were there to watch, along with almost every Karateka friend I had met along the way. The room was full and so was my heart. My hands no longer shook either. As time went on, the worries of what went on in our background would melt away with each class and my ability to trust slowly returned.
Fast forward to the present day and I am now the Dojo Manager of the Wallan Dojo in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. We have big goals for our dojo and all of our amazing students. With the support of Sensei Jason and Sensei Steve, I finally feel like I am running towards something, instead of running from it.
Simply put, GKR Karate saved our lives. I now support and sustain our family home myself, without any additional assistance. The future is bright for us and I’m excited for what’s next. We can’t thank Kancho enough for creating GKR for everyone.
Watch Kellie tell her story in the video below…
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