YOU’RE not just fighting your opponent, you’re fighting the whole country.
That is the daunting situation that awaits Hollie Rawle and Dana Kranzkowski after being selected to fight in the Samurai Cup in Japan next year.
The promising Kyokushin karate duo were noticed during their first full-contact bouts in Sydney earlier this year, earning them a ticket to the spiritual home of their form of martial art.
For Kranzkowski the chance to push herself in one of the most demanding martial arts was one she couldn’t pass up.
“It’s quite exciting, I’m really looking forward to it because it’s something not many people get to do,” Kranzkowski said.
“I think we’ll have some hard training coming up in the next six months.”
For Rawle, the fact she has taken to the full-contact sport has raised a few eyebrows from people who thought they knew everything about her.
“They don’t expect it from me because of the way I look, so they get a bit surprised when they find out what I do,” Rawle said.
“When I first started I didn’t expect to keep going. I didn’t think I would be going to Japan either. It just started out as a fitness thing and eventually you grow to love what you’re doing.”
Three-time Australian champion and Sixth Dan Shihan Jim Phillips, who saw the girls’ first full-contact bout, said he was very impressed with the determination both combatants showed.
“They breed those girls pretty tough in Griffith,” Phillips said.
“Their attitude is what really hit me first, they never say die and they are very positive about that they do.
“Even in that first fight, Hollie was throwing up five minutes before, but she just wanted to get in there and that’s something you can’t teach.”
Phillips, who just returned from this year’s Samurai Cup, said Rawle and Kranzkowski could expect a less than hospitable reception when they line up against an Asian fighter.
“When the Japanese come up against a foreigner, they feel they have to win not just for themselves, but for the whole country as well,” he said.
“There were 3000 screaming Japanese watching on, and they are talking about making it even bigger next year, because there have been so much interest around the tournament.”
However, they won’t be walking into the biggest fight of their careers cold, with Phillips expected to
enter both Griffith fighters in a number of tournaments, including the Australian titles, to prepare them for the fight of their lives.
After they touch down in Japan, Rawle and Kranzkowski will undergo an intense month of training where they will learn from some of the finest teachers in the world.
Phillips predicted the girls would come back from Japan changed people, not just fighters.
Second Dan Senpai John Rawle said the trip overseas would be
the trip of a lifetime for his daughter and Kranzkowski, saying it would open their eyes to how other
countries teach their promising fighters.
“The Japanese girls fight in a very different way, they are in your face all of the time and you need a crowbar to stop them sometimes,” Rawle said.
“They’re also very tough, they hit the pain barrier and just keep going through it.”
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