Kenny Walton - Past, Present and Future
If anyone mentions the TAGB or Taekwondo in general then the name, Kenny Walton instantly comes to mind. Throughout the last few years Kenny has proved himself to be the most versatile fighter that British Taekwondo has ever produced. lf he is competing in the ring or on the mat, regardless of the association or the rules, Kenny Walton is setting the route which other Taekwondo practitioners are already beginning to follow
Bob Sykes: Kenny when did you start training in Martial Arts and in what style?
Kenny Walton: I started training in Taekwondo in March 1974, the reason I started training was because my sister asked me to go down to the local Martial Arts club, as it was called then, so I said I would if she paid my training fee, as being only fourteen at the time I didn't have any money so she took me along and that was it.
Bob Sykes: What views do you have about the lack of media attention the Martial Arts get?
Kenny Walton: This is one thing that really gets to me, the other sports like football, rugby and cricket everybody seems to do that, nowadays people are looking for a different type of sport or discipline and Martial Arts is becoming a very popular one, because it is possible for women, children and men to train in it where as, if it's football it's just men and children so this opens up new family routines where they can all get together. When you look at the media, if a club wins a grading award or if you have got some champions, usually the local papers will keep in touch, but the papers can only do so much when it comes to the big ones i.e. the radio and television, then we are classed as minority or novelty sports and this is one thing that gets to me so much, reason being I have contact with lots of physio people and people in sport and when they see us train and they see how much we train in Martial Arts, they see that we are training harder than the professional football players and they are getting all the money and all the media coverage and we are just classed as a novelty act for half past six on the news, and a little spot on the sports shows. In America you find that they get a bit more coverage. I think over here the media still tends to be blind folded and thinks we are just a bunch of people who run around in our pyjamas throwing our arms and legs about and I can foresee in the future, if it is marketed right, that Martial Arts in general will have a good media coverage which is going to sell us to the people, and they are going to say that yes, these Martial Artists do train hard and it's worth taking up this type of thing because it's a dicipline, it's a way to keep fit and it's a personal goal.
Bob Sykes: A few years ago you had a short career in Full Contact, did this change in any way the way you trained?
Kenny Walton: I remember a while back someone asked me if I'd like to take part in a full contact match, before that I'd only ever seen a little bit mainly on T.V., this was again a novelty thing which had been on World of Sport, it looked very similar to the continuous sparring that we did in Taekwondo itself, of course with Taekwondo you just make touch contact, so this of course changed everything I had to do as far as training was concerned. We started off, thats Kim Stones and I, by going down to the local boxing club, down at the plant at Doncaster, it was there where we worked out alot on the bags, we did this because we knew it would help, firstly with the continuous sparring and secondly if we were going to venture into full contact. I knew I would have to make my hands work much more effectively, so it was important to learn to jab, cross and hook, to be a more all round fighter. What we found with full contact is that its not like sport Karate, its more like life on the streets, if someone hits you on the street they are going to try and knock your head off and it's just the same in the full contact ring. I found it to be like boxing but with a greater degree of difficulty, a greater degree of fineness and again more fitness is required. If for example you tried kicking a bag and punching a bag at the same time it's much harder than just punching it, you ask any boxer.
Bob Sykes: Now retired from the full contact ring do you have any future plans of a comeback?
Kenny Walton: After we did the T.V. pilot film for combat Karate I realised that I'm not built for full contact. I can still take a shot but after continually taking shots I can foresee that it would not in the long term do me any good. When I was 13 I was hit in the face with a six iron and it smashed in all my cheek bone and to this day even in the semi contact if I get a hard back fist, ridge hand or punch to the face then the cheek bone swells up and impairs my vision. Apart from that I think I'm now a little bit too old for full contact but if I was given my time again, then yes, I would go the full hog, only train harder than I did before.
Bob Sykes: As you well know Henk Mayer is world champion both ITF and WTF, do you yourself have any goals in this direction?
Kenny Walton: Unfortunately, the politics between the WTF styles and the ITF styles in this country are very backward, we generally can't enter the WTF tournaments. We once had a chance to go to a WTF selection, we had one of their high ranking people come up and he did a training session with us and we found that we could adapt to the WTF style of fighting quite well, I see that versatility is one of the TAGBs main strengths as we can adapt to any style of fighting, be it full contact, karate, points fighting or continuous fighting with the body armour on. It's a shame about the politics because it's no good us training then going to the selection and not being chosen because we are from a different association. I think that we would have a good chance of being picked for the Great Britain team, we would need a year os so in WTF competitions to get some experience, then I think we would have a good chance of doing well at it. It's not just me, there are others in the TAGB who could definitely do WTF style and ITF style and do well at them just like Henk has. Bob Sykes: What sort of advice would you give to anyone reading this article who may be having difficulty developing the kick efficiency? Kenny Walton: In the classes I run we have quite W a lot of older people who seem to find the stretching quite difficult. 1 The thing to remember is, everyone will improve in time, you must learn to take everything slowly, don't think because this week you can't get your leg above hip height you're never going to get any better you must get to the classes early and do ten to twenty minutes stretching before the class starts, get a partner to work some wall stretching routines with you or even get a mark on the wall and every month or so try to get your leg a little higher and gradually you will get better. Don't be scared to sit at home and while watching T.V. just work your head down to your knee or anything like that, if you just expect to train once a week and get supple or be like an elastic band then you are only kidding yourself, so what you should do is just put a little bit of time in every day, be it down at the club or at home you will improve, but you must always remember to warm up correctly before stretching so as not to pull muscles.
Bob Sykes: Plans for the future?
Kenny Walton: The TAGB is holding a world championship which will be open to all styles of Taekwondo, so I will be working very hard for that. We recently had a very good run in Germany beating the Germans and the top Dutch teams, so I'm hoping to be successful at middleweight in the world championships. The team will consist of people like, Kim Stones, Tony Sewell and myself, who will make up part of the five man side, so we are hoping to win the first open style championship for Taekwondo that's open to WTF, ITF any style of Taekwondo regardless of association. I'm also looking for success as far as my schools are concerned, making sure people get as much out of Taekwondo as I have, because when I first started I found that Taekwondo was a little bit limited but I think with mixing with other styles and finding what they have got going for them, so now the students are better, they get more out of training, they get their money's worth, so hopefully the school will get bigger and better. On the media side of it I'm working with other Martial Arts to promote full contact, karate and points fighting, so that the media don't look at us as a novelty act or two bit sport. I want them to see that there are people who really do work hard, I will do anything, put myself out, I don't have to be paid for anything, l'lI just go and do it and show them that we are not trying to rip anyone off, and Martial Arts have got a good name and that every style has got something to offer somebody in the street, so that at the end of the day the television will look at us as true sportsmen.
