1. NORTHERN PEN, MONDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2011, PAGE A7
More than just Martial Arts
Mixed martial arts instructor Chris Wall with two of his students, Marlene Donovan
and Dustin Rumbolt. JURIS GRANEY PHOTO/ STAFF WRITER
Chris Wall has many reasons to thank Eph Patey. Not only did the retired school teacher
give Mr. Wall a chance to continue his education in Kenpo and Jiu Jitsu, he also taught
him a lot about life. “We used to talk a lot about life, about philosophy and about martial
arts,” Mr. Wall said. “He was kind of a father figure for me.”
The pair met about five years ago when Mr. Walls’ martial arts left St. Anthony with
work commitments after only a few months of training.
“All I wanted to do was train to get my black belt,” he said.” I fell in love with martial
arts.” Faced with limited training opportunities on the Northern Peninsula, Mr. Wall was
going to give up on it all together when he was approached by Mr. Patey, who had
recently retired as a school teacher.
He said if Mr. Wall truly wanted to continue training, he would guide him. The pair
trained in Mr. Patey’s living room four nights a week for three years straight.” I ate,
breathed and live Kenpo,”Mr. Wall said.
“It was an interesting journey; I basically condensed 12 years of training into three. “Now
he’s attempting to do the same for students in St. Anthony. As so often happens, having
briefly opened a martial arts school several years back, life and work got in the way of
training, but he has returned to bring his mixed martial arts to the masses. Philosophy of
his classes, held Mondays and Thursdays in the Lions Centre, is simple. “This isn’t about
being better the person next to you, this is about being better then you were last week,”
he said.