Matthew Ball

BJMA Affiliated Club:
Somerville Martial Arts Centre (SMAC)

From my first night of training in Zen Do Kai , I knew I had found the right pastime. I had no great passion for ball sports and as such did not enjoy them much. We had just started year 8 and a friend asked if I wanted to try a martial arts class with him, I had no idea what it would be like. It sounded like a fun challenge.

So I went to watch, in my stretch acid wash jeans – yes these were a real thing, and as is the case, the instructor strongly suggested to join in. I cannot remember everything from that class but I do remember doing squats with someone on my shoulders (and marvelling at just how much stretch these stretch jeans had) and getting winded 5 times.  “Yes, I will be back next week.” I said – and I have never stopped.

In 1994 I started training in Arnis with Robert Halaijian and Peter Shannon and in 1995, I travelled to Thailand with BJMA to study Muay Thai and daily Arnis sessions with Peter. Over the next couple of years I received my level 1 Instructor in BJMA AEK.

I fell in love with Muay Thai on this tour. I have had the honour of running yearly tours to Thailand since 1997. I have coached students in 100’s of boxing and Muay Thai bouts including local, interstate and overseas. I have cornered my students at WKA World Championships in Spain and Italy, receiving silver and gold medals. We have had some great fights in Thailand and, a highlight, coaching Tum Winner Muay Thai to two World Titles in USA, one at Madison Square Garden in New York, the other on Lion Fight.

In 1994 I started to plan how I could make Martial arts my career and entered a number of business writing competitions to get me on the right track. In January 1996, I became a full-time martial arts instructor. In 2004 we moved into our full time training centre, SMAC Gym at Somerville, Victoria.

Whilst training in Aikido with Soke Bob, he suggested we should look into a Russian Martial Art he had been following called Systema. After some research I found an instructor that was going to be visiting Australia in 2007. His name was Alex Kostic and I was able to take part in three days of training that altered the way I look at martial arts, body, mind and spirit. The following year,  eight of us, including Soke Billy, headed to Serbia to train with Alex. After a number of years I was presented with my International Instructor level in Homo Ludens Systema and BJMA Systema. Billy and I have returned to Serbia three times so far and Alex has run seminars at BJMA clubs in Australia every year since 2008.

In 2012 Soke Billy and I participated in a 5 day intensive instructors course in Krav Maga and over the next 12 months, with Andrew Barram and Ben Coleman, created BJMA Krav Maga. This syllabus has continued to evolve and with the partnership of Steve Furmedge and Bill Foukas, joining the leadership team, it has become the fastest growing system in BJMA.

Bob Jones Martial Arts has given me so much and I see my role as making sure I give, encourage and show people what Martial Arts can do for them. I continue to look at ways to improve, gaining skills locally and traveling the world. I still feel new to martial arts and every week I see something I don’t know and want to learn.

I have taught multiple seminars in almost every state of Australia and internationally in New Zealand, USA, Serbia and Thailand.

The instructors who have had the most influence on me have been Nigel Kendall, Billy Manne, Steve Nedelkos, Bob Jones, Arjan Sityodtong, Alex Kostic, Richard Norton and many, many others have helped filled in the gaps.