When a 17-year-old Albert Mady passed the grading for a first-degree black belt in 1976, his Windsor dojo could not offer him the promotion because he did not meet the 18-year age requirement. Fifty years later, the Windsor-based grand master needed a surprise presentation for him to accept his latest black belt promotion.
During a ceremony at the Martial Arts and Health Expo held in Thunder Bay recently, Mady was promoted to a tenth-degree black belt in Isshinryu karate. He is the first Canadian to be promoted to the tenth-degree rank – known as Ju Dan – and is currently the highest ranking Isshinryu practitioner in Canada.
“It was a big surprise,” said Mady, who had not expected the promotion and had previously turned it down. “It almost brought some tears to my eyes. I told everybody ‘Those aren’t tears, that’s sweat.’ It was quite the honour.”
The lifelong Windsorite was also the first Canadian in Isshinryu karate to earn a ninth-degree black belt, and the first to earn an eighth degree. He is an expert in the fighting systems of Judo, Jiu Jitsu, Kyokushin Kai, Ryukyu, Kempo, Tuite, Shorinji-Ryu, Toyama Ryu Iaido, Kobudo, wrestling, boxing, and kickboxing.
Last August, Mady was honoured in Texas at the G.O.A.T. Martial Arts Awards, an elite gathering of grand masters, masters, and instructors recognizing the most influential and accomplished fighters in the world.
Mady credits his success in the sport to hard work and his time travelling and learning from first-generation students – people who trained directly under Tatsuo Shimabuku, the founder of Isshinryu. “I had the opportunity to meet them, train with them, listen to them, pick up skills with them,” Mady said. “I was lucky I was able to do that at that time.”
Founded around 1948, Isshinryu is an Okinawan “combat system” that was taught to U.S. marines. Isshinryu was virtually unknown in Canada when Mady started taking Judo classes at Solidarity Tower in Windsor at the age of 10. Windsor was a convenient place to learn Isshinryu because he could easily cross the border where it was taught in Detroit.
Fifty-eight years later, Mady has taught Isshinryu karate and other martial arts to generations of students: everyone from high school teens to professional fighters. “Some young kid will come in and say, ‘you trained my dad and you trained my grandfather,’” Mady said. “Then I look at him, like I want to give him a punch in the nose. What are you calling me old?”
He now teaches martial arts classes at the Constable John Atkinson Memorial Community Centre and control-and-defensive techniques classes in the Border Services and Community and Justice Services programs at St. Clair College.
