Neil Hall: Why and when did you start training and in what art?

Shane Riley: I started in Wado Ryu Karate in 1972. My father had always wanted me to start doing Judo at an early age. This I found strange, as my father had been a prisoner of war with the Japanese for over four years, having worked on the infamous Burma Siam railway. I would have thought he would have been very anti-Japanese but he told me one that life is too short to bear grudges and you can't dwell too much on the past, you have to look to the future. I think his outlook on life has helped me in my path in the martial arts and life in general. I had seen the early James Bond films which featured the martial arts and was intrigued by the idea of the " Judo Chop". A Karate dojo opened locally and me and a friend went to have a look, we were both fascinated and joined up. After about two years I finally did some Judo. I hadn't realised how physical it was, I turned up all cocky and was battered for a few weeks by all these low grades. I suppose you could say I was cross training then but didn't know it. You did Karate for punches and kicks and Judo for throws and groundwork but it was hard at the time to mix them up, you tended to do one or the other in a situation. I don't think we had the maturity to understand and the arts at that time didn't overlap, they were taught in isolation to one another.

Neil Hall: Was the Karate and Judo training any different then to now?

Shane Riley: Judo was very vigorous 'Old Style Judo'. I went along as a young, cocky 17 year old Karate purple belt and got plastered every week for about 6 months by all the yellow, orange and green belts. I did Karate for around 12 years and Judo for 2 years, I still do a bit of Karate now, where I first met you, Neil. I have also trained in Shotokan and Shukokai Karate. The sparring in those days was always heavy, we all got battered.

Neil Hall: What was different about ' Old Style Judo'?

Shane Riley: In Olympic Judo they are all fighting for a grip, back then you just started with a grip and went for it. Also it was more technical then, more into detail, there are many changes now. It was good at the time, everything is good when you are young.

Neil Hall: Did you do any other arts before you went into Aikido?

Shane Riley: Yes, I did some Jujitsu and bits of wrestling with various people over the years, also my father took me and my older brother Boxing when I was 12 years old. He took us to an old army Boxing instructor in the works canteen, he had 2 cauliflower ears. My dad said it was for us to look after ourselves. Also when I first started Aikido we always did half an hour of grappling at the end of the class.