From the Blitz magazine archive. First published on blitzmag.net when the site was the online home of Blitz Australasian Martial Arts Magazine; restored from an archived copy dated 2016-03-04. Words credited to Boon Mark Souphanh in the original.
The name Paul Zadro has been synonymous with martial arts in Sydney for over 30 years. Starting in kempo karate, Zadro has seemingly done it all, from professional kickboxing to MMA’s predecessor shootfighting during the art’s early days. Perhaps best known for his time as head instructor at the International Martial Arts Centre, Zadro and IMC have the unique distinction of being the oldest martial arts school in Australia, operating out of the same location with the same instructor — and they don’t look like slowing down any time soon.
Zadro, like so many others of his generation, was inspired by Bruce Lee to try his hand at the martial arts. Watching the iconic films as a child growing up in the early 1970s, it was perhaps one of the more unusual titles that provided Zadro with the impetus to venture south in search of quality instruction.
“I was really inspired by the film Billy Jack — more specifically, Bong Soo Han,” says Zadro of the renowned Korean martial artist and actor.
“I watched that film a lot and that really got me hooked on martial arts.”
Born in Innisfail in Northern Queensland, Zadro grew up at a time when martial arts schools were a rare commodity in Australia, let alone in a rural town that was infamous for being one of the wettest in the country. But Zadro didn’t let the shortage of dojos rain on his parade.
“There wasn’t much martial arts around anywhere, to be honest. We only had a choice of judo or taekwondo anywhere near where I lived. I started with Kodokan judo before I moved to Sydney,” he says.
“My family were really involved with Club Marconi [an Italian club established in the 1950s] and they happened to have taekwondo classes out the back.”
The young Zadro trained in taekwondo for several years and received his Black-belt, but his instructor then relocated to the United States. With his training unexpectedly put on the backburner, Zadro returned to the location of the club to collect his gear only to find that a new art had set up shop in the training space. A blessing in disguise, the unexpected discovery proved to be the beginning of his lifelong devotion to kempo karate.
After experiencing judo and taekwondo before finally settling on kempo, Zadro believes there were several factors that contributed to him sticking with the art. Ultimately, it was the practicality of the style that proved to be the main attraction.
“I was already pretty flexible after all the taekwondo I had done; I appreciate that taekwondo helped me with that and I still have it today. But after looking around at a few of the Kyokushin tournaments at the time, I realised that my hands weren’t good enough,” says Zadro.
“Kempo really helps the upper body; it was a very practical martial art for its time. Once I started, I was hooked. It’s been my home ever since.”
Coming up the ranks, Zadro was among the first Australian martial artists to regularly travel overseas to compete and train. His travels took him to various parts of the globe in search of the toughest fights and best instruction. Nevertheless, perhaps the most rewarding part of it all was the serendipitous exposure to new styles.
“My first travels were to the United States, where I’d compete in the international karate tournaments on Long Beach in California during the mid ’80s,” says Zadro.
“I was very lucky because I managed to fall in with a number of really great martial artists while I was there, most notably Frank Trejo (kempo karate Black-belt) and George Anderson (founder of USA Karate and USA Ju-Jitsu). It was actually through George that I began getting interested in jujutsu… I also lived in Thailand for seven months during the time before the muay Thai craze in Australia during the ’90s.”
From running tournaments across the pond in New Zealand to fighting in full-contact competitions as far away as Belarus, the Aussie journeyman acknowledges that he refined his fighting skills during those brutal fights in the US. Winning the prestigious Long Beach International Karate Championships, the US Nationals and the Masters US Open during his visits, the ‘Land of the Free’ became a valuable proving ground.
“If you wanted to compete in karate, you went to the US. That was the big thing to do back in those days,” he says.
At the height of his competitive career, the other side of Zadro’s competition coin was devoted to kickboxing. Taking up the sport during its early days, he shares memories of a tough sport still trying to find its feet.
“No one was really sure what it was; we were just trying to follow what the Americans were doing. There was an eight-kick count where the first eight kicks had to be above the waist or you lost points,” he recalls. “Guys would kick eight times really quick at the start of the match,” he laughs.
“I had about 10 fights, and then I really got into promoting. I didn’t like what the circuit was like at the time.”
An elite martial artist in his own right, Zadro was no stranger to the brutality of training and competing, but recognised that he was perhaps one of the minority. With only a handful of martial artists prepared both mentally and physically to test themselves in competition due to its rough nature, he felt that the abundance of full-contact competition during the ’80s and early ’90s was doing more harm than good to the martial arts’ growth.
“I’m guessing only five per cent of martial artists were equipped to take the punishment of full-contact tournaments,” says Zadro.
“Kids, women, and people who wanted to compete without getting beat up so they could go to work the next day — they didn’t really have anything that catered to them.”
Zadro wanted change and needed a framework for his proposed karate tournament facelift. The Internationals at Long Beach format proved to be the perfect fit, and with Sydney as the hub for the new competition circuit, the World Cup was born.
“Here I am today, still going after 129 tournaments,” he says.
To go with his exploits as a tournament organiser and promoter, Zadro also began his teaching caper at a young age. With his original taekwondo master relocating to the US, Zadro got his first chance to teach martial arts as a fresh-faced 16-year-old, jumping on the opportunity to teach out of a community hall at Kemps Creek. With the hall owned by the parents of a few of Zadro’s younger training buddies, he took the juniors under his wing as his first students.
“I didn’t even have a driver’s licence, so one of the mums of one of the kids from my school used to drive us out to the hall,” he recalls.
“I’d train one of the kids and his friend from 7pm to 9:30 a few times a week. Naturally, we started to grow. The guys started bringing their friends, their friends brought their friends and girlfriends — we just kept going up.”
Thus, the International Martial Arts Centre (IMC) was born. Still going strong, Zadro is currently the owner of three top-class martial arts centres that cater to over 800 students. It hasn’t been smooth sailing from day one, however. Zadro himself acknowledges that a lot has changed since the 1970s in the realm of martial arts and keeping a malleable mindset is important to the school’s long-term success.
“Back in the ’70s, most of the guys doing martial arts were guys who wanted to fight. It was old-school — you were bare-knuckled most of the time. Naturally, there were a lot of injuries because of the hardcore nature of the training,” he says.
“The dropout rates in martial arts schools back then were a lot higher because of injuries. The attitudes of trainers were also very different. You had to almost earn your right to be trained by some guys.”
Zadro was not the only one to recognise that the status quo was not conducive to student retention and longevity. He believes that the nature of martial arts training everywhere began to change around two decades ago.
“There was a huge attitude swing in the ’90s; all of a sudden people were about the martial arts lifestyle and the development of character,” says Zadro.
“I had been around tough guys all my life. I began learning martial arts as an eight-year-old in a class full of warriors, but I definitely noticed a paradigm switch during this time.”
Getting its birth in 1979, the IMC is still running out of that same location in Kemps Creek, making it arguably Australia’s oldest martial arts school operating out of the same location. Zadro recognises there are masters who have been teaching longer than he has, but to his knowledge (and mine), none have managed to keep a school going in a single location with the same instructor for as long he has — an achievement that brings him a strong sense of satisfication.
“I get to wake up every morning, do what I love and get paid for it. That is the definition of bliss, isn’t it?” says Zadro.
“I’m lucky to have likeminded people around me as well. Guys like Anthony [Perosh] and Peter [Graham] have been great to be around with throughout the years.”
Estimated to have trained close to 20,000 students during his time as an instructor, Zadro nominates UFC star Perosh, world champion kickboxer Graham and muay Thai champion Alexei Pekarchyk as being among his most successful students. Despite their contrasting fields of competition, Zadro feels that there is something innate that ties all these fighters together.
“There’s definitely an attitude and a passion that sets champions apart from the rest. You can almost feel it from the day you meet them,” he says.
“If you put these guys in front of a heavy bag and tell them to practise a side-kick, you can come back half an hour later and they’ll still be throwing that same side-kick. Also, they don’t have the same concept of fear as everyone else. Some people, when they encounter a bigger, stronger opponent, all they can think about is if they’re going to come out of it in one piece. On the other hand, you have guys that are already thinking about how they’re going to defeat the monster on the other side of the ring before the bell’s even gone. If you look at Peter [Graham], for example, you pretty much have to be holding him by the shorts to keep him out of the ring!”
Nurturing students is one thing, but Zadro can also lay claim to nurturing the growth of the Australian branch of the International Sports Karate Association (ISKA). One of most prominent global martial arts associations and established in over 80 countries, the ISKA remains a strong presence in the Australian karate scene thanks to Zadro’s work as Australian president and NSW director. Born from his creation of the World Cup karate tournament in Sydney, he hopes the ISKA can continue to expand with the help of a unified approach.
“I want to implement a universal ranking system that could tie all the big tournaments together — namely the big five tournaments worldwide. That would be so much more attractive to spectators and sponsors,” he says.
“Hopefully, one day we can see guys who can’t quite make it into the UFC or other big MMA organisations competing in ISKA tournaments to make decent money. I think we’re definitely moving closer to making this a reality.”
It may come across as puzzling to some that Zadro would associate the brutal, full-contact beast that is MMA with the non-contact sport-fighting approach seen in the ISKA. However, in an age where martial artists are often quick to label one another, Zadro believes the rise of MMA and various reality-based self-defence (RBSD) systems have in fact worked to improve the standard of non-contact competition.
“At IMC we’ve been doing MMA and shootfighting since the early ’90s. We’ve always had these things going on. Currently, we have karate, MMA, jiu-jitsu and kickboxing,” he says.
“But you know what? I think MMA and RBSD have only worked to enhance what we do in ISKA. If a young kid loves watching the UFC or Bellator but his parents don’t want him competing in MMA when he’s seven years old, nine times out of 10 they’ll put him into something like karate or taekwondo. So overall, participation across martial arts increases. There’s no downside.”
Overseeing an ever-changing martial arts landscape over the best part of 35 years, Zadro feels that Australia is currently in good place. Spearheaded by a solid cavalry of passionate teachers and practitioners, much like himself, he feels martial arts in Australia are currently at a ‘world standard’. However, he believes that some other top countries for martial arts may have in fact lost their way in the pursuit of innovation.
“Australia is at the level where there are so many passionate people teaching great martial arts,” he says.
“Of course, there are some elements that could be better. However, after travelling throughout the world with ISKA, I think what we’re doing in Australia is the right balance. In many ways, some countries like the United States are trying to regress a little and find what they’ve lost.”
Zadro singles out an incident during a recent visit to the US as his moment of realisation.
“Ultimately, parents want their kids to be able to defend themselves when they learn martial arts. But, I feel that in many places they’ve moved too far into the aspect of character development that their losing the essence of self-defence,” he says.
“I was visiting a school in LA and there were a few kids who were Black-belts. We were out the front of the school waiting to go inside, and I saw this bigger kid come along and clock one of the Black-belt kids. He burst into tears on the ground and I’m standing there thinking ‘Gee… that black belt around the kid’s waist didn’t really mean much.’ That really reminded me not to lose sight of what we’re trying to do as martial arts instructors.”
Even after four decades, Zadro hasn’t taken his eye off the goal yet.
More restored features are listed in The Blitz Archive.