Presented in Auckland,20 December 2008

Gary Polwart’s first experience of the martial arts was as a youth in Whangarei in the 1970s. Gary befriended a retired Japanese WWII veteran who trained Gary and two other boys in karate. After two years the other two had gone but Gary continued for another five years. A motorcycle accident in 1980 resulted in Gary suffering a broken neck. Ever pragmatic he went in search of a place to teach him breakfalling so it would not happen again. Still in a neck brace he entered Fred Florian’s NZ Jiu Jitsu Association (NZJJA) dojo at Glenbervie and so began a life study in ju-jitsu, starting in Kawaishi Nihon Goshin Jutsu.

Fred Florian was an early student of NZJJA pioneer, Gary Trail. A notorious hard-man, he gave Gary all he needed to know about breakfalling, including practicing falls from the roof of the Glenbervie hall! Gary was just short of brown belt, having sat on blue for eight years, when he changed to John Silson’s Whangarei NZJJA club. John was another of Gary Trail’s instructors and Gary soon attained the same grade with John. However, tensions between the two instructors caused Gary to take time out from ju-jitsu and for a time he trained in Nam Wah Pai kung fu learning their internal systems in exchange for breakfalling and grappling tuition.

In 1990 Gary moved to Auckland. For a time he trained a group of friends from a garage but, wanting something more, he went in search of Terry Evans. Gary had first met Terry at tournaments between NZJJA and South Pacific Jiu Jitsu Society (SPJJS) clubs during the 1980s. Tournaments of the time were very judo-oriented with light-contact strikes allowed but by 1986 the format had changed to better balance striking, throwing and groundfighting. Gary had inherited Fred’s love of strangling so at 58kg with the lightest weight category being Under 90kg Gary looked to finish matches quickly and often won by submission. Terry, on the other hand, fought in the Under 120kg category and above and was renowned for good throwing and groundfighting techniques.

In 1992 Gary began training at Terry’s SPJJS club (known as Barobics West Auckland Martial Arts Centre) in Hepburn Street. Two years later SPJJS folded and Terry renamed his club Waitakere Martial Arts. For the first four years Gary wore a white belt but finally gave in to Terry’s insistence that he wear a blue belt. He was graded to brown belt in 1996 and the following year became Terry’s fourth black belt when he attained sho-dan.

During the mid-90s the Waitakere club began travelling to other tournaments. One new one was Dave Millar’s mixed martial arts tournament at Hunterville and there he met Doug Bailey of NZ Jiu Jitsu School of Self Defence (NZJJS) who was one of Dave’s main referees. They met at Hunterville the following year and in 1998 Gary led a team to Doug’s Jiu Jitsu Unlimited tournament at Hastings. That tournament gave the Waitakere team good preparation for the 1998 ISJA World Games held in Canada. Gary fought in the lightweight division at the Games making it to the semi-finals but losing to the eventual gold medallist.

At the start of 1999 Gary was contacted by Doug with the idea of unifying the various ‘national’ tournaments onto a single national circuit. Gary embraced the idea and the two formed ISJA(NZ) installing Terry Evans as chairman with Gary as Secretary / Treasurer. They gave themselves just one month to get the first tournament under way and the inaugural tournament was held at Auckland with Gary as tournament director. By the end of the year ISJA(NZ) had held four tournaments and 30 clubs had participated.

The first true NZ representative team was selected from top-ranked competitors on the national circuit and travelled to England for the 2000 ISJA World Games. Gary was team manager and also refereed at the Games. The team excelled, returning with two gold, four silvers and a bronze.

By 2003 SJJ(NZ) (as it had been renamed) had grown to include the formats of Freefighting, Grappling and Self Defence, with Striking being trialled for two years. A National Championship was added to the circuit and all competitors were ranked in their divisions. When Simon Ogden began talking about taking the unification beyond sport ju-jitsu to include all forms of ju-jitsu Gary, Doug and Simon put in place the structure that led to the incorporation of the NZ Ju-Jitsu Federation (NZJJF) later that year with SJJ(NZ) becoming the sporting branch of the Federation. Gary was elected Secretary / Treasurer, a position he maintained until his retirement in 2007.

Following a back injury in 2006 Gary handed over the reAction Martial Arts club he formed in 2001 to Ben Reay. Ben was Gary’s first black belt, graded in 2003, and Hilton May became the second the following year. ReAction has been a strong supporter of NZJJF activities with Hilton becoming a Class I Freefighting referee and Ben becoming NZJJF chairman in 2008.

Gary’s vision, dedication and leadership has been instrumental in the unification of ju-jitsu in New Zealand. Working together with Doug, Gary took Doug’s ideas and policies and used his computer skills to make them reality. The database he designed recorded memberships, devised draws for three-mat tournaments, updated rankings, kept member files, updated the NZJJF and SJJ(NZ) websites and produced financial statements. The respect he earned as a tournament director of over 30 tournaments and his ability to communicate with martial artists of all levels has been a major component of the success of NZJJF. His enduring legacy, however, is the unification of ju-jitsu in New Zealand which is largely due to his vision, leadership and dedication.