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Sharon Pollet THE FIRST LADY STAND"n"DELIVER
©Marc Wickert We are proud to have Sharon Pollet as the first female martial artist to feature in an article on knucklepit. 6th Dan Sharon Pollet hails from the New South Wales country town of Orange, where she helps run Pollet’s Martial Arts Academy with 7th Dan husband Ian, and 4th Dan son Ben. Sharon and Ian also have a daughter Rebecca, who is a 2nd Dan, and lives in the country town of Wadonga on the VIC/NSW border. So for the Pollet family, karate is definitely a way of life. "I first started karate when I was eighteen. My cousin wanted to try a martial art and she talked me into going along with her. In the beginning we didn’t think much of the arts because we didn’t understand what was involved, so we dropped out after one class. Then as I was walking home one day, Ian bumped into me, and we began chatting. He said I should come back to the classes, which I did, and we started going out together socially," says Sharon. Originally Sharon would just sit and watch Ian instruct, but eventually she began participating in the classes and has been hooked on karate ever since, as have the rest of their family. "Ben and Rebecca were introduced to martial arts from the moment they could walk. On one occasion, all four members of our family took out first place in the national karate championships for our respective categories, which made it a very special day."
For the past twenty-three years, Sharon’s area of expertise has been in coaching the junior students from six-years-olds up, while Ian has focused on the adult instruction. In the beginning, parents would inquire about tuition for their younger children, but Sharon believed that three-year-olds were just too young. However, over a period of years, she recognized that the demand for infant training was too great to ignore, and decided to introduce classes for toddlers from three to five-years-olds. "I had quite a few parents coming up and asking if the little brother or sister of the kids I was already training could join in the classes too. And as numbers grew it became necessary to split the classes, with a special club for the youngest ones who I referred to as ‘my little tigers’. Now when I ask them who they are, they all answer, ‘We’re the Little Tigers!’ so the name has stuck." As well as instructing the young children in punching and kicking techniques, Sharon is also assisting them in acquiring coordination and personal-development skills. At an early age, the youngsters display exceptional communication and self-reliance abilities. "The children learn a number of rules, such as that they must listen to each other and care for each other’s feelings. They learn that hands are for helping – not for hurting. All my three-year-old students can recite the Young Tigers’ code: ‘We are members of PKA (Pollet’s Karate Academy), loyal through battle, friends for life. We live to have the courage of the tiger and the heart of a lion. So here we stand with one mind and one heart, friends for life.’ This is tremendous for their memories and their confidence. And the parents of these young students are also delighted with the results."
Apart from being an outstanding instructor, Sharon is an exceptional karate practitioner in her own right. She has won numerous state and national tournaments for sparring, katas and for breaking demonstrations (six roofing tiles with a single hammer-fist). Sharon has been a pioneer for women’s karate for twenty-three years and would like to see more girls become involved in martial arts. She believes that a lot of females still perceive the arts to be a male dominated area, but if more women becoming involved, she says this stigma will no longer exist. "When I first started competing in tournaments, often there weren’t enough women to fill all the weight categories, so we’d all be thrown into one division, regardless of size, which was pretty unfair. I don’t believe a lightweight man would have been matched against a heavyweight man. Fortunately that has all changed and everyone has to compete in their own category."
Sharon says, years ago, the women used to be much friendlier and more helpful. As a middleweight, she can remember a particular meeting where she had to go up to the heavyweight division, because there weren’t any other middleweights competing, and the lady she was matched against hit her with a hook-punch, which spun her helmet around. She immediately stopped to fix Sharon’s helmet and asked, "Are you still here?" Afterwards, they laughed about it. "There was real camaraderie amongst the girls. Today the girls are out for blood, and it’s really quite vicious, whereas the men fight hard, but they shake hands afterwards, and it’s all in good spirit. I think the women need to settle down and relax their attitudes a bit. Because they’re female, the women seem to feel they have to prove a point. "In our classes we have a sixty-forty ratio in favour of the men, and the women are there for a variety of reasons, such as self-defence, fitness, and for the friendship." Sharon instructs three classes on most days, plus does her own training, which includes sparring and grappling with the male students. "I love to scrap with the boys. I don’t think any female wants to just spar with another female. I believe you have to go to the males for the extra challenge, because they’re almost always bigger and stronger, so it’s good to have them for the competition. If you only train with someone your own size or a bit smaller, your progress is going to be retarded." It’s been a pleasure having Sharon Pollet as knucklepit’s First Lady. For information on Pollet’s Karate Academy, please check this site’s Dojo Directory.
For info on Ian Pollet, check out the August/September 2002 edition of Fight Times Magazine.
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