Like most young 80s kids, Carl Van Roon wanted to learn karate. Thanks to hit movies like The Karate Kid, martial arts had crane-kicked their way to the top of the era’s pop culture. 

However, fearing he’d start busting out karate chops on his sisters, his parents said no. Ironic, given that the fundamentals of martial arts lie in respect and that you only ever use your training when under threat.

“That’s spot on,” he laughs. “It's pretty common if you go into a combat sport-orientated gym that the most dangerous people in there are the ones that are the most friendly and gentle.”

Seeing that his interest in the sport was more than just a passing fad, his parents relented, taking him along to lessons at a school near their Mt Eden home as soon as he turned 10.

Since then, Carl has gone on to win 11 world championships, appear as a stunt performer in movies like The Hobbit, become an international coach and open his very own school, Van Roon Martial Arts, right here in Uptown.

“Things have come full circle,” he smiles. “It's been a really good journey back here. We're in the community and we feel really proud of what we help people achieve, whether competitive or recreational, young or old, or whatever background they come from.”

With his overflowing trophy cabinet, you might think his school would have a laser focus on competition and achieving. And while he is coaching students for world championships in Korea and Portugal later this year, his heart is in ensuring his dojo is a welcoming place for everybody in the community that he grew up in.

“My dad came to New Zealand from Europe in the post World War II years. He couldn't speak English and had to learn how to fit in and culturally integrate,” he explains. “I saw so many different people from so many different backgrounds and watched him help others integrate into New Zealand society and that's part of what we do as well. We have everybody from two- and three-year-olds all the way up to grandparents. They’re all training, but with different goals and backgrounds. It's reflective of the community we have. Every race, religion and background comes in.”

He has a team of coaches taking the classes, but he’s always out on the mats, talking with the students.

“I enjoy trying to learn a little bit of everybody's language and their culture,” he says, before grinning and adding, “and their food.”

“It's easy to find your community and humanity when you share a mat together, share space together and pray together,” he continues. “You find common ground naturally. It’s something that is unique and I enjoy it.”

The benefits of martial arts go beyond the physical, but it’s those limitations that often prevent people from starting, like a belief that they’re too old or too unfit. 

“I'll speak to people who have that mindset. It’s a backwards idea. This is the way you get fit and more flexible. It’s the whole point!”

Van Roon Martial Arts has been open for eight years and is so integrated in the community that he often bumps into his students whenever he’s out and about, popping to the shops, getting sushi or walking his daughters to school.

The philosophy of his school is “a place where tradition meets innovation”. Competing at the top international level ensures that they’re on top of all technological advances and training techniques, but his heart lies with the proud tradition and mana of martial arts.

“They’re timeless, universal principles: respect, courtesy, compassion. The mental strength and spiritual alignments. Those things don't really change,” he says. “That's what we base everything on.”

Then, with a chuckle he says, “that’s why it’s called martial arts and not ‘fighting sports’.”



Van Roon Martial Arts offers kickboxing, Taekwon-Do and mixed martial arts seven days a week.