Instructor Biography - Antonia Rodriguez
I was born, Antonia Patricia Rodriguez, in Jersey in the Channel Islands on 30 December 1978 to an Irish mother and a Spanish father. While growing up I joined various clubs and groups from Ballet & Majorettes to the St John’s Ambulance. Although I have always had a passion for dance it wasn’t until my older brother James Rodriguez was leaving Jersey to live in New Zealand, and grading for his own purple belt that I discovered Kenpo and really found my niche.
Kenpo in Jersey has a very colourful past and I’m not going to go into this here, suffice to say Kenpo was very popular with a number of active Clubs and a large pool of black belts.
I was nearly 12 when I began my journey (December 1990) and we were part of the IKKA at this time. My instructor was Mr Graham Lelliott. Luckily for me Mr Lelliott’s club was a 5 minute walk from my home and I looked forward to training every week. Tuesdays & Thursdays just couldn’t come around quick enough.
I was savvy enough not to tell too many people that I had started Karate until I reached around junior purple or blue and I could do a reasonable attempt at giving back any cheek that I got from the boys on the school bus!
As time went on and throughout my junior grades I graded every six months until I was 16 years old and converted to the senior syllabus. I will never forget this grading as the highest grade on the test was an adult purple belt, I was going for Senior third brown and had to do all the techniques one after the other from blue up to third brown, together with forms, sets and sparring. It was a great test and although I went from having four black strips on my brown belt to have having one – I felt like a queen.
I tested for my Black Belt on 25 May 1996 in Norrkoping Sweden. I was 17 and tested along with two other students from our club, Chantal Bougard and Anna Leatt (now Taylor). It was a fantastic trip – nothing quite beats your Black Belt test, it’s a wonderful moment in any martial artist’s life.
I continued training for sometime but stepped it down a great deal due to exam pressures at school. I then started my working life as a trainee accountant, which required night school and days at college and my Kenpo training really suffered. I felt I was at a time I could take a step back – I knew my Kenpo family would be there when I was ready to return.
Meanwhile in Hamilton New Zealand, James, my brother had been growing the awareness of Kenpo down under and had a thriving school, in which I taught when I visited him. We would work out and despite not training regularly I never forgot those forms!
My instructor and by this point, my good friend, Mr Lelliott left the Island of Jersey to live in Fresno California. The Club which I had known for so many years had changed and was left in the capable hands of Mr Paul McMurray.
Fast forward a few years and returning back to consistent training I travelled to Ireland to attend the European Kenpo Camp in Portumna, Co Galway in March 2004. It was at this training camp that I met Mr Darren Mahony, a meeting that was to take my life in a very difference course! I had been planning to leave Jersey and join my brother in New Zealand however, I had fallen in love and Ireland was to become my new home.
 Antonia Mahony Click to Enlarge |
In August 2005 Darren and I did a world tour, starting in South America. We sent out mails to many Kenpo people wherever we were heading and we met some great people and I would like to mention just a few here. Rodrigo and his wonderful wife, Paula in La Paz, Bolivia. Rodrigo is known as the Bolivian Bear – a great man with some very talented students. We taught 4 separate adult and junior seminars in Rodrigo’s school and some of the attendee’s included students of Ju Jitsu, Aikido, Tae Kwon Do and of course Kenpo. Carina, a Kenpo Instructor in Buenos Aires who we had a couple of good work outs with, once we got past all the trophies! Francisco Espinosa and Sergio Correa in Santiago, Chile. We really had a great time with these guys, so open and welcome to new knowledge and different ways to do things in the system. Very humble people and treated us so well. We worked out in Francisco’s school in Maipu and our stay there culminated in Darren teaching a seminar to about 30 Kenpoists ranging from 6th Degree Black Belts to Yellow Belts. From South America we moved onto New Zealand and trained regularly with my brother and his students. We also organised bringing in Mr. Angelo Collado to teach some seminars as well as teaching ourselves.
Then we were on to Australia were we met up with Mr. Tony Billman (who we nick named Billabong) in Melbourne – a truly great guy (and another great woman as a wife, Liz), both full of enthusiasm for Kenpo. We worked out in Tony’s school and taught some classes here too.
In July 2006 while on a beach restaurant in Thailand, Darren popped the question and so we were engaged when arriving back to Ireland in August 2006.
Darren and I both grated for our next grade (2nd Black for me and 3rd Black for Darren) in December 2006, ten and half years after my last grading – I was petrified but successful. I vowed never to leave it so long again!
After moving to what we now call home in Co. Laois, Darren and I took over Portlaoise Kenpo Karate in June 2007. The club has continued to grow and has benefited from having both male and female instructors. I’m really looking forward to our new premises and developing the wonderful talent that we have in our club members.
The story continues………………………
Antonia Mahony
July 2009
