Steve Rowe talks to 

Former World Champion and Shi Kon Ladies Coach…

Tricia Duggin

Without a doubt Tricia is the most dynamic and powerful women’s world champion that I’ve ever met.  She is the most exciting fighter on the mat due to her 100% dedication and focus.  Her intensity used to give the other fighters cause to pale just knowing that they were about to face her. I’ve known Tricia since she was around 13 years old, and have to say that she is one of the liveliest and most positive people that I have ever met. 

 Tricia has helped to put Shi Kon women on the map.  She is a credit to her Coach Ian Cuthbert and has worked with him throughout her martial arts life. In this interview she describes the “roller coaster” of competitive martial arts and really has lived it through all the ups and downs with him from local to world level. 

 There is a future for women in karate in England.  We need them to fill the coaching and political roles to bring some balance to the structure.  People like Tricia with all her experience and personality are ideal to fill these roles.  Let’s hope we can find a way to bring her through….

SR  Can you tell the readers a bit about your life before you took up the Martial Arts?

TD  I was born and grew up in Hackney East London, I loved - and did extremely well at all sports, I used to be on both the girls and boys teams in all the sports, rounders, cricket, football, swimming…  the lot!

SR  When did you move from Hackney?

TD  We moved to Gants Hill in Ilford when I was 11 years old, at my high school, we had excellent sports facilities and I made full use of them!

SR  How did you get into karate?

TD  Some of my local friends and also my cousins had started, we were all good swimmers and after swimming I would go to their house and see them practicing and putting on their suits and I thought…  “I wouldn’t mind having a go at that!”

My cousin was teaching me mawashigeri (roundhouse kick) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  My local friends went to a class in Gants Hill which was literally just across the road to my house, so I joined.

SR  When was that and what club was it?

TD  It was 1983.  The club was part of Ian Cuthbert’s group who in those days was affiliated to Carl Dyer and the Inshallah group. My first instructor was a lady called Sue and I can remember in my first class wearing a lovely pink track suit with lemon stripes across the top (laughs).  Sue wasn’t particularly good at karate and I don’t think she liked me a lot, in that first session she was teaching maegeri and I ripped my lovely pink track suit trousers so badly that I exposed my underwear!

After that embarrassing start I still went back the following week.  When my cousins heard that I was training they gave me a suit that was way too big for me, it had huge flared trousers, but I loved it!  My instructor just didn’t like me and even after the first year wouldn’t let me grade.  I think part of it was because my cousins had taught me mawashigeri and after the first few weeks we began to spar and…… boom!  I hit her round the back with this kick and she really told me off!

After the kid’s class there was an adults class run by Dave Hogan, who sadly passed away about a year ago, I’d watch the class in awe…  he had people like Paul Alderson training and I’d watch the kata and sparring and was like…..  WOW!  Dad…. Dad….  That’s what I want to do!

I went to a kid’s competition run by Ian Cuthbert and did okay - Dave came up to me and he was so big…  I remember him putting his huge hand on my shoulder and said “you’re really good….  I’ve seen you at Sue’s classes” and I said that I didn’t get on with her but loved karate, so he took me in to his classes, it was the best thing that ever happened to me!

SR  What was the training like?

TD  At the age of eleven I was fighting men, women, cadets, getting punched, but….  I loved it!  I just kept going back.  I was still doing my athletics at the time, I wanted to join Essex ladies as I was representing Redbridge, I didn’t have to try too hard and still won, but I was getting bored just running around the track, karate made me work my mind, instincts and strategy much more, so I gave athletics up.

SR  What were the first tournaments that you took part in?

TD  Billy Brennan’s tournaments at Ipswich and Worthing Colchester.  There weren’t many girls competing, so they shoved me in with the men!  As I also fought men at my club, it didn’t matter to me, with hindsight; I guess that’s what helped me to develop power. 

When I started competing against women I took it easy, Dave told me to fight them the same as I fought the men and when I did…..  I started winning!  A lot of the referees hated me because of the power in my techniques and I would get a lot of warnings and so on, but my attitude was that if they couldn’t take the heat…..  they should get out the kitchen!

SR  A lot of people don’t like strong females…

TD  That’s right!  I had the same problem at school.  They liked me winning at athletics and bringing them honours, but wouldn’t give me the “colours” that I’d earned.

My PE teacher gave me a “B” in the physical education GCSE when they first came out when I had easily earned an “A” so I challenged her about it and she said that that the reason was that she thought that my friends would pick on me if she gave me the “A” that I deserved!

That was a turning point in my life, since those times I have always insisted that people give credit where credit’s due.  Often the practitioner doesn’t know that they are doing well and when they don’t get the recognition that they deserve they end up giving up training!

SR  When did you get your black belt?

TD  Oh my god…   that was another drama!  I received my black belt when I was 16…   we were still with Inshallah at the time.  I was still in Dave’s club affiliated through Ian to Carl who wanted me to train with him.  A group of 4 of us from Ian’s and Daves group went to his training sessions, as we had to, to take our black belt this is what carl said. then we had to do our written test and failed it, because Carl’s students had been prepared for the questions and we hadn’t.  We then had to kneel on a concrete floor for 15 minutes, Ian and dave asked how we had done and we told him that we had failed ian and dave could not believe it all four of us had failed, and he complained as something was fishy.

I then had to fight all the male black belts for 30 mins with a fresh fighter every minute culminating with 4 attackers at the same time at the end.  I got the distinct feeling that carl didn’t want to give me the belt, at the end we were kneeling down as they gave out the belts and they seemed to finish giving them out, stood up and shuffled their papers and appeared to be leaving, I thought I’d failed, my parents were crying and Carl suddenly said “and last but not least, Tricia Duggin”!

After that debacle Dave and Ian left Inshallah and formed the UKA and then affiliated to Shi Kon, I obviously went with them and consider it the best thing we ever did!

SR  How did you get on to the National Team?

TD  Through a lot of perseverance!  I didn’t realise how much I’d done until I read the record that my parents had kept.  I remember fighting Molly Samuels one year at Crystal Palace and she threw a gyakuzuki (and her gyakuzuki’s were like bombs!) and I blocked it and did uraken over the top,  she came up to me afterwards and said that was really good and suggested that I went to squad training.  I said that I would go but I was too young to go for selection.  It was at Barking Sports Centre and I was a bit despondent because I couldn’t go for selection at that time. 

Eventually I went to Glasgow and won a bronze at the British Championships, I was so nervous, I always have been before a bout, Ticky has often had to jump out the way when I’ve suddenly had a “nervous vomit”!  Anyway, I was laying by the side of the area and I fell asleep!  As the competition was running late and i had been waiting for  a long time so The referee’s had to wake me up to tell me that my bout was on!

Ian Cuthbert took me to the Dutch Open and I did well there, realising that the standard and toughness was different at European level than it was in England!  I felt that I was doing well in England and discovered that in Europe, you had to virtually kill someone with control to get a point!  It was then that I realised that if I wanted to be a European or World Champion that I had to raise my standards to match.

We then did a Wado championship in Paris and started going to the Czech Republic, where you still teach, and then I started to fight that way in England where I received endless warnings for excessive contact!  But I persevered.  Women’s fighting here in England is still the same, the referee’s expect too little and don’t allow a fight to “grow” and yet we have some great female fighters.  Tanya Weeks and Katrina Lowe are fine examples of great English female fighters that end up limited by nervous refereeing.

SR  I have to say that at the Commonwealth Championships in Manchester, in my opinion, the ladies fighting was actually far superior to the men’s!   Tell the readers about training on the squad and the World Championships…

TD  The first World Championships I attended was in SPAIN and it was great!  Pre training was in the sunshine and I was at 19, the baby of the squad.  I hadn’t represented England at any other international events and had been projected straight into the World Championships.  I was surrounded by Augustus Paul, Mervyn Ettiene, Wayne Otto, Willie Thomas and training was good!  Two or three training sessions a day, running in the SAND– it was hard!  I’ve never been “super fit” but I believe that if you have the right mental attitude it’s a large part of it.  Now the point scoring has changed, you have to be fitter and have a greater repertoire of techniques.

I shared a room with Molly Samuels, I was a bit homesick, but could see that it was a great opportunity.  Molly won a gold there and so did I!  She really helped and supported me.  I thought that I would only be on the bench, I was so surprised to compete!

SR  I can still the elation when you came back!  It was a great day for England and  Shi Kon, as well as yourself.

TD  I still get goose bumps when I think of it!  They were golden times, the reign of both the men and women’s English teams was brilliant.  I just knew that there would be many more from then on and there was!  In the World Championships in ’92 I won gold, 94 silver, 96 I won both the team and individual gold in South Africa ’96 in Brazil I got silver in the team and bombed out in the individual because of my Achilles.  In between I won many other European and international medals.

SR  What made you stop in the end?

TD  Damage to my Achilles tendons.  Ticky’s had the same damage.  The operations were painful.  They did one leg and then wanted to do the other, I said no….  I’ll put up with the pain. 

SR what sort of work do you do?

TD  I teach karate at Covent Garden and at Wanstead and do other private work, I’d love my own place like you’ve got here and would love to coach the women’s team.  Ian Cuthbert and I have been on a roller coaster ride of karate and tournament and I really value his friendship and coaching alongside a host of other good people that I have around me.  The camaraderie on the squad was great.  Tanya Weeks lives around the corner to me and is a good training partner and friend.

We need more recognition of our past athletes to keep them around in karate and utilise their talents and skills – so many of them just seem to disappear…  There must be some kind of process that could be devised to train them in coaching and help develop the up and coming youngsters in the sport.  It seems such a waste.

SR  Where are you going next?

TD  I’m also going to private shoe school as i like designing shoes, my partner is a well renowned shoe designer.

SR  What are your thoughts on women’s karate generally?

TD  We need to identify and promote talent amongst women.  We do have a lot of strong ladies in the sport and we need to train them as coaches and on the political scene to represent our gender.  It is still far too male dominated. 

SR  You were a highly successful competitor. You’re a highly successful coach in your clubs and on the Shi Kon squad, you’ve spent  a lot of time with all the top coaches and competitors, wouldn’t you like to be the England women’s squad coach?

TD  You’re right, I do have a lot of experience and am keen to get more, I feel that my time spent in the sport so far has given me the necessary base to move forward and contribute to the up and coming competitors.  I enjoy coaching on the Shi Kon squad and I don’t think it would be out of place to say that we have the most successful squad in England at the moment.  I would like to climb the ladder and contribute as far as I can and England squad coach……  I’d love it!

I’d like to thank Ian Cuthbert and the late Dave Hogan for all their help, then Ticky, Vic Charles and Abdu Shah, Mervyn Ettiene, Wayne Otto, Willie Thomas and Molly Samuels for all their help and coaching over the years.

Finally I would like to thank my parents who have contributed to my development for so many years and given their whole hearted and open support. and my partner for all the support

SR  Thank you Tricia