On 1 June 1970, Bob Jones opened a training hall on Elizabeth Street in Melbourne, Australia. The system he taught there was called Zen Do Kai. More than five decades later, it operates across over 1,500 training centres in Australasia, New Zealand, Israel, Spain, and Mexico, and its technical lineage runs through some of the most accomplished martial artists and combat sports competitors in the world. This is its history.
Before the Dojo: The Security Industry and the Problem of Real Violence
The origins of Zen Do Kai are inseparable from the professional environment that shaped its founder. Bob Jones began his career in dance hall promotions and the security and manpower industry in the early 1960s. Managing crowd control in volatile nightlife environments gave him an immediate, practical problem that conventional martial arts could not solve: how do you neutralise a violent person quickly, in a chaotic situation, when the techniques you have been taught are designed for controlled sparring?
The organisational infrastructure that would underpin Zen Do Kai's growth was already taking shape during this period. On the day of the John F. Kennedy assassination in November 1963, a pivotal meeting catalysed the formation of Bob Jones Security, a nationwide company that would grow into the Bob Jones Corporation (BJC). In 1973, the BJC secured a contract to provide security for the Rolling Stones' Australian tour — the beginning of an eighteen-year period during which the corporation protected nearly every major international musical act touring the country, including ABBA, Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, and Joe Cocker.
The people who executed those contracts became the first generation of Zen Do Kai black belts. Because they faced the real threat of violence nightly, every technique in the emerging system was subjected to immediate pressure testing. What did not work under those conditions was discarded. What remained was the foundation of ZDK.
Three Mentors, One System
Jones began his formal martial arts training on 3 March 1965, at a hall in East St. Kilda. Three mentors, encountered sequentially through the mid-to-late 1960s, contributed distinct dimensions to what would become Zen Do Kai.
Jack Rozinsky, a Tae Kwon Do instructor Jones met in 1965, provided the physical foundation: linear power, explosive striking, and demanding physical conditioning. Rozinsky's classes were, by historical accounts, exceptionally raw and gruelling. Tino Ceberano, a master of Japanese Goju-Kai karate encountered in 1966, introduced the psychological and organisational framework — rank hierarchy, breathing mechanics, and crucially, the administrative model for mass-producing clubs across suburban Australia. Jones served as a white belt assistant under Ceberano before moving into suburban teaching. Sal Ebanez, met in 1968, completed the triad with a spiritual and ethical dimension: the principle that devastating physical capability must coexist with empathy and servant leadership.
This three-part inheritance is preserved in ZDK's emblem: a triangle of red (physical), yellow (psychological), and blue (spiritual), surrounding a central white circle representing the synthesis of all three — what the organisation terms the white circle of karma.
1 June 1970: The Opening
Zen Do Kai — translated conceptually from its Japanese roots as "the best of everything in progression" — was never designed as a closed system. From the outset it was built on a different premise: that no single martial art contains all effective techniques, and that the only valid test of a technique is whether it works under real pressure.
The early syllabus was a raw amalgamation of Goju-ryu karate strikes, Western boxing, Judo throws, and wrestling takedowns. Training involved heavy contact, explicitly designed to forge mental character and simulate the dynamics of real-world confrontation. The practitioner base was overwhelmingly adult males working in security, which meant the system's evolution was driven by people with a genuine professional stake in whether it worked.
Growth in the early 1970s was accelerated by the broader cultural moment: the international spread of Bruce Lee films and kung fu television series created widespread public interest in practical martial arts. Zen Do Kai — pragmatic, physically demanding, and clearly not a sport karate style — attracted students who wanted something harder-edged than what the traditional dojos were offering.
The Full Contact Era: 1976 and the Birth of Australian Kickboxing
By the mid-1970s, the system's architects had reached a conclusion through years of sparring: traditional point-sparring, in which action stops after a single strike, was inadequate preparation for continuous, multi-strike altercations. The solution was to adopt Western boxing's framework — ring, gloves, continuous action — and add the kicks of traditional karate, restricted to above the waist.
On 9 September 1976, the Bob Jones Corporation staged Australia's inaugural Full Contact Karate event. The two-fight card featured Dave Berry against Glenn Ruehland at middleweight, and Dennis Dunstan against Bruce Hylands at lightweight. Both Berry and Dunstan won, and the new format was established. Zen Do Kai had created what it called "Australian Rules" kickboxing.
The same era produced a parallel innovation: TAG (Tactical Adventure Games), an early force-on-force simulation using gas-pressurised rifles firing vegetable-dye pellets. ZDK clubs formed ten-member tactical teams that competed nationally. It was an early precursor to modern simunition training, and it reflected the organisation's ongoing interest in applying martial principles beyond the traditional dojo context.
Naming the Sport: The World Kickboxing Association
In 1978, American promoter Paul Hanson — then president of the World Karate Association — invited Jones to Los Angeles to represent the organisation in the Pacific region. At the time, the sport was being marketed as "Full Contact Karate," a term Jones considered inadequate and likely to limit the sport's commercial reach. During those negotiations, Jones coined the term "kickboxing" and persuaded Hanson to rebrand under the banner of the World Kickboxing Association (WKA).
Jones secured the exclusive rights to operate the WKA across the South Pacific and Australasia. He and his associates authored the formal written rules for the sport, establishing the WKA as the first and — in the organisation's own assessment — most globally respected sanctioning body in kickboxing history. In 1980, Jones partnered with Paul Mazluk, manager of American kickboxing star Don "The Dragon" Wilson, to establish the ALL STARS (Standardized Tournament Australian/American Ratings System), which gave Australian and New Zealand fighters a pathway to international rankings and world title challenges.
Leg Kicks and American Rules: 1983
The transition from full contact karate — which restricted leg attacks — to a more complete striking system came through direct contact with American fighter Benny "The Jet" Urquidez, who was building a reputation as the premier kickboxer in the world in the early 1980s. Following correspondence with Urquidez, Zen Do Kai in early 1983 formally integrated low kicks (leg kicks) into its competitive format, operating under what it termed "USA (American) rules."
The change was technically significant. Allowing full-power strikes to the legs altered stance mechanics, distancing, and defensive checking across the entire system. It moved ZDK's competitive framework further from its Goju-ryu origins and closer to what would become recognisably modern kickboxing.
Sityodtong and the Muay Thai Integration: 1986–1990
By the mid-1980s, a pattern was circulating in international combat sports: Western kickboxers who travelled to Thailand were losing badly to practitioners who used knees, elbows, and clinch techniques — tools that no kickboxing ruleset in the West had prepared them for. Jones and senior instructor Rod Stroud recognised the structural gap.
In 1986, backed by corporate sponsorship connected to Australian businessman Alan Bond and West Australian Premier Ray O'Connor — the occasion being Bond's America's Cup defence — Jones and Stroud embarked on a global martial arts research tour. In Amsterdam, they trained at the Vos Gym under Dutch coach Thom Harinck, one of the most influential Muay Thai and kickboxing coaches in Europe. Harinck's advice was direct: abandon limited kickboxing rulesets and train with all eight weapons — fists, feet, knees, and elbows. The logic he articulated, and which has since become central to how ZDK frames its training philosophy, is that it is easier to hold back a trained technique than to produce one under pressure that you have never practised.
A Chakuriki gym fighter named Tekken Donmez pointed them to the source of his own technical sophistication: Sityodtong Camp in Pattaya, Thailand, under founder Sennin Yodtong. What followed was not a single visit. Between 1986 and 1988, the BJC made twelve trips to Sityodtong, embedding themselves in the camp's training environment to learn the art from its source.
Rod Stroud led the integration of the Thai clinch, upright grappling, and knee strikes into the Australian ZDK syllabus under what the organisation termed "International Rules." The subsequent addition of elbow strikes completed the transition to "World Rules" or Thai-fighting. In 1990, the techniques were formally introduced into Zen Do Kai classes across Australia — after a deliberate period of quiet trial in Western Australia, Stroud's base, to gauge reception before a wider rollout.
The technical content adopted was comprehensive: multiple elbow lines (front round, back round, straight, over-top, uppercut), switch and blitz knees, alternating knee sequences from the clinch, defensive leg checks against round kicks and front kicks, and the round-based, pad-heavy training methodology that Muay Thai brought with it. BJMA's own historical record states that Muay Thai training has been included in ZDK's regime almost daily ever since.
Anticipating the UFC: Grappling Integration in the 1990s
As ZDK's striking system approached a high level of sophistication, senior instructor Rod Stroud identified a serious vulnerability: Zen Do Kai black belts were formidable on their feet but severely limited if a confrontation moved to the ground. This assessment preceded the UFC's 1993 debut — the event that made the same point to the broader martial arts world — but the BJC had already begun addressing it.
The organisation integrated grappling, positional control, and submission mechanics through seminars and cross-training with key figures in the early development of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Australia and New Zealand. John Will, a Machado system black belt instrumental in spreading BJJ across Australasia, was central to this process, along with grapplers Peter de Been and John Donoghue. The integration was mandatory, not optional, and it produced instructors who hold serious credentials across both striking and grappling disciplines.
Weapons: Escrima, Kali, and the Doce Pares Alignment
The incorporation of Filipino Martial Arts — specifically Escrima, Arnis, and Kali — into the ZDK syllabus began in November 1996 in Melbourne, driven by BJC manager Peter Shannon. The arts were selected for their emphasis on flowing combinations, economy of motion, and the systematic application of angles to armed combat at multiple ranges.
By April 2000, the BJC formally aligned with the Doce Pares system under Supreme Grandmaster Dionisio Canete, incorporating single and double stick fighting, staff, palm stick, dagger, and close-quarter trapping into the curriculum. The transition toward weapons training was accelerated by a real-world catalyst: the stabbing murder of an eighteen-year-old ZDK black belt named Nick Serrevski. The BJC responded by intensifying knife defence training nationwide, moving away from classical weapon forms toward reality-based edged-weapon survival — built on the principle that you cannot defend against a weapon you do not know how to use.
The K-1 Connection and Global Competitive Impact
As kickboxing grew into a major international televised sport in the 1990s, centred on Japan's K-1 organisation under promoter Kazuyoshi Ishii, ZDK's established relationships with the international combat sports community placed its people at the highest levels. When Australian kickboxer Stan "The Man" Longinides headlined the inaugural K-1 promotion in Japan in 1995, his management insisted on an Australian judge at ringside. Bob Jones served in that role — a ringside judge at the genesis of what became the dominant striking organisation in the world for the following two decades.
The broader competitive legacy of ZDK across Australian and New Zealand combat sports is substantial. The WKA infrastructure and kickboxing culture the BJC built in the South Pacific created a regional competitive ecosystem that proved highly productive. New Zealand's King of the Ring eight-man kickboxing tournaments, run within a striking culture shaped by the early ZDK pioneers, produced fighters of world-class calibre. The combat sports culture of gyms like Auckland's City Kickboxing — which produced Israel Adesanya, the undisputed UFC Middleweight Champion — is a downstream expression of the transition from point karate to full contact to Thai boxing that Zen Do Kai drove in the 1980s. The research report notes this connection explicitly, though it is a cultural and institutional lineage rather than a direct club affiliation.
At the individual level, ZDK has produced demonstrably elite competitors across multiple disciplines. Kai Asakura, a ZDK black belt, has competed in the UFC flyweight division and held the Rizin Fighting Federation Bantamweight Championship. Kaela Banney, trained by ZDK veteran Rob McIntyre in Gladstone, is a two-time professional MMA champion in the XFC Atomweight division, holding black belts in both ZDK and BJC Muay Thai.
The Organisation Today: BJMA at Scale
The Bob Jones Martial Arts (BJMA) organisation today operates over 1,500 training centres across Australasia, New Zealand, Israel, Spain, and Mexico. Its curriculum encompasses Zen Do Kai freestyle martial arts, BJC Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Escrima Kali, and BJC Krav Maga, among other disciplines. Grading at senior Dan levels requires demonstrated cross-disciplinary competence under physical duress — the examination format tests fighters, not just technicians.
The organisational reach is evident in Tasmania, where ZDK dojos operate in Cygnet, the Huon Valley, Ranelagh, Montrose, Lower Longley, Hobart, and surrounding areas. Regional instructors are kept connected to the evolving curriculum through an active seminar circuit featuring senior figures from the wider BJC network.
The organisation's civil and philanthropic profile has grown alongside its martial one. Between 1990 and 1996, Jones and colleague Dave Hedgcock worked with Victorian Police and the Hoteliers Association to draft what is described as the world's first formal crowd control legislation, shifting the industry's language and standards from "bouncers" to trained crowd control operatives. At the 40th anniversary celebration in August 2010 — attended by over 400 people at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, drawing practitioners from every Australian state and New Zealand — proceeds were donated to the Royal Children's Hospital and the child-abuse prevention charity Childwise.
The Philosophy in Practice
Zen Do Kai's defining characteristic across fifty-five years has been its refusal to treat its own syllabus as settled. The system's name — "the best of everything in progression" — is both a description and an obligation. Each major technical evolution followed the same pattern: sustained exposure to a new discipline, rigorous testing of its components, and formal integration of what proved effective.
This produced a distinctive kind of organisation. Unlike systems that derive authority from lineage or tradition, ZDK derives it from demonstrated efficacy. The question that drove every major curriculum decision — from the adoption of boxing mechanics in the 1970s, to Muay Thai in 1990, to BJJ in the 1990s, to Escrima Kali after 1996 — was the same: does this work? That question, asked seriously and answered honestly, is what the organisation was built on and what has sustained it.
A Note on the Historical Record
The account above draws primarily from BJMA's own published historical narratives, BJC institutional sources, ZDK syllabus documents, and contemporaneous martial arts media coverage. These sources are credible for the broad timeline, the key personnel, and the sequence of technical evolutions. Where the record runs thin — particularly in the internal organisational mechanics of the 1970s and 1980s, the precise circumstances of Richard Norton's early involvement, and the deliberative processes behind major curriculum decisions — this article does not speculate. The available record supports the main account. Finer details await researchers with access to BJMA's private archives.