Graham Slater

Master Instructor

Graham started his martial arts training in England in 1973 inspired by Bruce Lee and the need to defend against the ever increasing, violence by gang warfare on the streets of Liverpool, UK. He started by learning from books and soon tracked down a local Goju Karate school to train at. In 1975 he immigrated to Australia with his family and quickly found a Kyokushin Karate club to train at for the next 4 years. During that time, he also trained at a Kickboxing gym and in Ju Jitsu with a friend.

The Kyokushin club closed in 1979 and Graham moved to another club, Shotokai Karate (UK Harada Sensei style), where he achieved his black belt in 1981. He ended up taking over this school and operating two branches teaching five days a week, whilst working full-time at a food distribution warehouse.

In 1982 Graham he quit his day job to become an aerobics and gym instructor at a local gym. He moved his local club to the gym and was now operating full-time. This was a unique time for Graham because the training in anatomy, physiology, sales and marketing were exceptional through the gym chain. Through this, he was able to build a large member following and train himself up to six hours per day.

As Graham was now running the Melbourne Shotokai on his own, he needed to keep developing his skills. Purely by chance, he connected with a Japanese Shotokai Karate group in country Victoria. From this relationship he was invited to join the Australian team to visit Japan in 1983. He returned with his 2nd Dan under Sensei Yasuo Ikeda  (Soyo Juku - Shotokai). Training in Japan was nothing like he had experienced before, but fortunately he had been preparing for 6 months in the lead up. His preparation included running up to 7 classes of aerobics and karate each day, along with his own gym workouts. In Japan training was one pace, flat out until you drop, then get up again until you drop again and so on. Normal training was once per day, but Graham was instructed by Sensei Ikeda, to attend all three sessions each day. This was beneficial in building his relationship with the club and quickly developing his skills.

Profile from https://www.martialartsaustralia.com.au/about/graham-slater

"I put people into the reality that you're not going to go from zero to hero in 5 seconds; you've got to put the work in" - Graham Slater

Graham Slater - Training / Media History through publications