By Chia Zhi Jie
When one thinks of a karate class, the picture that comes to mind is usually a group of kids with a plethora of belt colours, maybe even a few black belts, standing in neat rows, shouting as they throw punches.
Karate in this day and age has gained a somewhat negative impression. It is known as something kids do for a few years, get a black belt and move on to other, more contact heavy martial arts.
Zhi Jie grew up in that environment. His parents enrolled him into a karate class at the local community centre when he was a kid. He was inspired by the vision of elevating karate’s reputation to rival the stereotypical “tough and effective” image that Muay Thai, Boxing and Kickboxing has. His goal was to capitalise sport karate’s evasiveness and footwork by importing aspects of boxing and kickboxing to make the style practical.Despite having a background in Go-Ju Ryu, he drew very little from that school, instead drawing from his experience as a competitor in sport kumite and amateur kickboxing.
The belt system in Fight Spur differs from what you’d typically find in traditional karate organisations. In traditional karate, a first-degree black belt denotes “basic competency”,in which a student has learnt the fundamentals and is now ready to pursue advanced training.
At Fight Spur, this level of skill is represented by the blue belt. Black belts in Fight Spur denote a much higher level of technical and practical skill.
Promotions are based solely on performance and competency; they do not have tests or gradings. Instead, instructors monitor the students’ progress and promote them once they reach the required proficiency. Student scan earn 4 stripes on each belt before being promoted to the next belt. Stripes on a black belt represent the degrees (1 to 5).
Fight Spur is a karate school in Singapore that combines the core principles of sport karate,kickboxing and full contact karate, creating an effective and efficient system geared towards self-defence and competitive fighting.It incorporates sport karate’s long range attacks, distance control, timing and footwork, with kick boxing’s long combinations, short range attacks and conditioning. This is a martial art designed to impart effective skills, and is applicable in both full contact and sport karate competitions.
We routinely compete in both Karate and Kickboxing competitions.
Martial Arts Magazine Australia 
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