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Mark (now 6th Ji), with his son Sebastian (now 5th Ji)

I became interested in sport during 1970 when I was about 8 years old. This was the year I discovered football; first Chelsea Football Club, and later during the World Cup, Brazil. With my friends I would play football in the streets for hours, trying all the little tricks we had seen the Brazilians do.

When I was 10 years old, a new television series started, it was called Kung Fu and starred David Carradine. About this time I also saw film posters of a Kung Fu master called Bruce Lee. It would be a long time before I watched one of his films, although I do remember World of Sport showing Bruce Lee fighting a Tang Soo Do and Aikido Master called Chuck Norris in a film called Way of the Dragon. Other films and television series would also show martial art moves, as the western world went Kung Fu mad.

I will never forget the episode of Steptoe and Son where the old man and his old friends defeated some gangsters using Kung Fu skills learnt watching kung fu films at the pictures. Although Karate and Kung Fu was shown in film and on television, there were few people teaching the martial arts in my era; the only martial art you could study at the time was Judo.

Mark and son Sebastian

After leaving school in 1978 I went to work in a metalwork factory, and being small for my age I became a victim of workplace bullies. I stopped this by working out with weights and studying Karate from a book written by a British man. After putting on a stone of muscle and learning a few tricks from the book, people soon left me alone.

Mark and Sebastian (father & son) enojoy training together at Master Goward's (5th Duan) Epsom classes

Over the next ten years I kept my fitness up with running, a number of martial art styles and cycling. My achievements in cycling were going well with a best time of riding 25 miles in a fraction over one hour but this progress was brought to an end by problems with my breathing.

During the year 2001 my son Sebastian began to show an interest in martial arts, during a visit to Banstead Sports Centre. We saw a leaflet for a martial art called Tang Sou Dao. Sebastian started lessons the next week under the tuition of Master Adam Goward. I watched a number of lessons and indeed a grading before deciding to study myself. We both enjoy the lessons as Master Goward always seems to come up with different training approaches every week. We recently competed in the National Championships which we enjoyed greatly, meeting people from other clubs and making new friends.

Life comes full circle with my son now interested in martial arts. I hope Sebastian and I will continue to achieve the much-prized Duan grade.

Master Adam Goward, 5th Duan (centre)
with his students Sebastian Hancock (5th Ji) (left)
and Mark Hancock (6th Ji)

Tang Sou!

April 2003

Photographs permission of Mark Hancock