Although Sensei Bateman did not know it at the time, but ever since his school days he has been interested in the martial training of weapons.

During his time in senior school he had the chance to learn the western art of fencing, using the foil. Much like his karate and kobudo, he became obsessive with the weapon, and eventually was awarded a Gold level. Although fencing did not have a belt system for progression, the students were awarded Bronze, Silver and Gold levels as they became more proficient.

After "mastering" the foil Sensei Bateman tried the Sabre, but eventually found the Epee was the weapon he like the most. Mainly because the target area for scoring covered the whole body and the practitioner had to be skilled to prevent from being hit, not just on the body or head, but on the toes or just over the guard on the wrist.

It was not until he married that Sensei Bateman became interested in karate. This was purely by chance, as his son, Stuart, wanted to learn. So it was a natural progression that sooner or later his love of the weapons art would eventually lead him to discover "Kobudo".

Like most martial artists he was buying the magazines and reading them with interest. These were planting the seed of kobudo training, seeing the adverts and reading articles of practitioners handling weapons, such as Bo, Nunchaku and the Sword.

During his teenage years he was always mesmerised by the Legendary Bruce Lee swinging around the Nunchaku in his films. So he wouldn't mind having a go himself. So Sensei Bateman set out to learn something about Okinawan weapons. Initially this came from various seminars given by Karate instructors, but he wanted more. This information came from books on the individual; weapons, such as the Sai, Bo, Nunchaku and Tonfa, but he soon realised that he couldn't learn from these.

Sensei Bateman really needed to learn from a trained instructor, but not just from a seminar; he needed a constant progressive training regime in a particular style.

So it was in 1993 that he set out to find a style of Kobudo. His searches lead him to two different styles, the Ryukyu Kobujutsu (Sensei Julian Mead) and Matayoshi Kobujutsu (Sensei Albie O'Connor). The Matayoshi system was fairly new to England and the only dojo, run by Sensei O'Connor, was down in Essex. He thought it would be a good idea to get in on this new system in the earlier stages of it being introduced to England. So in 1993, Sensei Bateman made his first trek down to Essex. He spent a long Easter weekend on a private course with Sensei O'Connor learning Matayoshi Kobujutsu. He trained from 10 am to 4 pm over the 4 days, and from 7 to 9 pm on two evenings. There was a lot to take on board, the Hojo Undo (supplementary exercise) for Bo and Nunchaku, and the first Bo kata known as Shushi no Kun. In addition to this, the system had the theory and philosophy associated with it. So there were tests on theory to be passed as well as the practical. Once back at home he put aside two training sessions a week to go over what he had learnt. Then he was back down to Essex to go over this knowledge and to take more on board. He openly admits that he was lucky in that both his wife and son were training in martial arts and they did not mind him putting in this dedication to training.

Because of this he was able to go on these expensive training sessions every 4 to 6 times a year. They were always based on a private one-to-one session, and I was drilled over a period of 4 years. Sensei Bateman states that: "Sensei O'Connor always made sure my technique was correct before I was allowed to progress".

Sensei Bateman made Shodan, in 1997, and was able to start his own classes, here in the North East of England. In fact Darlington had the second dojo in England teaching the Matayoshi Ryu Kobujutsu. He was already instructing in karate, so some of his karate students were able to participate in kobudo. He says that: "We were a small group at that time, as we are now, but training every Monday evening and Saturday morning".

Every 4 months he invited Sensei O'Connor up from Essex to instruct on seminars and carry out a gradings for his students. However, he still continued to travel down to Essex for his private lessons, and training with Sensei O'Connor's group of students. Over the next two years, Sensei O'Connor had invited Shihan Mikio Nishiuchi to conduct a weekend seminars. Nishiuchi Sensei was the head of International Okinawan Kobudo Association (IOKA), and a student of Takashi Kinjo, 8th Dan, and Shinpo Matayoshi, the son of the founder of the style. It was O'Connor Sensei's contact with Nishiuchi that they were able to plan a trip to Okinawa (4 weeks in total). Nishiuchi Sensei introduced them to Sensei Kinjo, and they stayed at his dojo as uchi deshi (live in students).

They trained during the day and evening, then after class they laid out their futons to sleep on the dojo floor. Sensei Bateman states that their typical day was as follows: 7 am wake, dress, make breakfast and clean dojo.

9 am go down to the local shop for a slab of ice (2 foot in height), break it up and put it in a carboy with water for drinking during training.

10 am get changed into our Gi and start our private lessons with Kinjo Sensei.

12.30 pm change and go out for lunch with Sensei.

1.30 pm back at dojo more training until 4.30 pm 4.30 to 7.30 pm Free Time, go out in Naha and eat or look around.

7.30 pm Train with the class till 9.30 pm.

9.30 pm to 10.00 sit around with the students and Sensei and talk about everything and anything.

10.00 pm go to the local laundry and wash our gi's and clothing.

11.30 pm back at dojo for sleep.

Some of the evening classes involved training in Uechi Ryu Karate.