Hans Menck (3rd dan karate, 2nd dan
aikido) is the founder of FreedomSchool. He has been
practicing martial arts for 30 years and in the last ten years he has trained
extensively under some of the world’s best masters in China, Japan,
Europe and Australia.
He is a professional automotive design engineer and has been working abroad to
fund his martial study expeditions and the FreedomSchool
project. It has been his dream and mission to study under the best, to bring
the knowledge back to South Africa,
and to create a space in which martial arts can be promoted in Africa. The result of this dream is the Freedom School of
Martial Arts.
Training History
1980 – 1986 Sensei Hans Menck's martial arts training started in at the age of 7. At that time his family had relocated to the Cape Province of South Africa and he was often bullied in his new neighbourhood. He wanted to become strong to defend himself. His father had practised judo in his student days and encouraged Hans to start practising judo at his school under Sensei Jan Olivier.
Judo is a great martial art for children and Sensei Olivier, or “Oom Jan”, was a particularly good teacher. Hans enjoyed it from the word go. Judo is a form of Japanese wrestling that concentrates on throwing and ground fighting. He continued to practise judo for five years. As his confidence grew the bullies stopped picking on him, but there were times when he had to fight and the judo skills helped.
The breakfalling skills he learned in judo saved his life a few years later when a car pulled out in front of him and knocked him off his bicycle. He flew over the car and landed in a dive-roll, unscratched.
1986 – 2000 Hans' judo training ended in 1986 when he saw two films that influenced him greatly: The Karate Kid and Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon. He wanted to learn how to kick and punch and he wanted to find a Mr Miyagi who could teach him the mystical art of karate! So he started practising gymnastics and karate.
Shihan Kenny Uytenbogaardt
His first karate style was Goju-kai. After 2 years he changed to the full-contact style Kyokushinkai and trained under Sensei Willi Morell-Stinson. His progress was rapid and she invited him to start training under her teacher, Shihan Kenny Uytenbogaardt. When Sensei Willi left for Johannesburg in 1989 Hans took over the teaching at her club and continued training under Shihan Kenny.
Shihan Kenny Uytenbogaardt gave Hans his foundation in the external martial arts. His training was extremely demanding and he used to push his students beyond the point of exhaustion in almost every class. Hans learned how to persevere and he became strong and flexible as a result. In his high school days he used to get up at 5 and do one hour weight training and one hour running before school, then after school he would either teach karate or cycle the 7 km to Shihan Kenny’s dojo. This was in South Africa’s apartheid time and Shihan Kenny ran a completely multiracial dojo. Hans was the only person in his school that had black friends back in those days. Shihan Kenny believed in the “brotherhood of Kyokushin”, which means that hard training unifies people from different walks of life.
1991 - 1997 After school Hans joined the navy as a midshipman at the South African Naval College in Gordon’s Bay. He continued training karate by himself and tried to make it to classes when he had a weekend off. At the end of 1991 he graduated as an officer in the SA navy and also graded to shodan (black belt) in karate.
In 1992 he started studying mechanical engineering at Stellenbosch University. He continued to train and teach karate. Has graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1997. He also graded to second dan in Kyokushin karate. It was a very hard grading, he could not walk for days after the grading.
During his student days he was involved in a fight that made him feel that he lacked something in martial experience. There was a student brawl that he should have avoided. An aggressive rugby player attacked Hans with a bowling punch. Hans knocked him unconscious with a round house kick (jodan mawashi geri). He was very worried that he had injured his attacker seriously. It turned out later that he was ok. But Hans felt that his action in the fight was to aggressive and he started wondering about martial arts that could resolve conflict without harming the attacker. Hans later found that answer in aikido.
1998 - 2002 After serving in the navy for another year he left to look for work in the United Kingdom and eventually became an automotive surface design CAD modeller.
In 1999 he started training aikido in Essex under Sensei Glen Smith and continued practising karate on his own. Hans also started learning Tai Chi In a London chinese restaurant on Sundays. At that stage he went through a hard emotional time following a relationship break up. Alone and depressed in a strange country, his martial arts training helped him to stay together and pull through that time. Every night after work he would go out and train by a pond in a nearby park and come home covered in duck dirt.
Christian Tissier
When Hans got transferred to Paris, Sensei Glen suggested that Ihe should go and train under the famous French aikido teacher Christian Tissier. Sensei Christian Tissier is a very inspiring aikido teacher. His level of skill is very high and his weapons work is superb. Hans became very engrossed in aikido. He had to learn how to relax and get rid of the tension of years of full-contact karate training.
In 2002 he quit his job and went to Paris to train aikido fulltime. He lived in Christian Tissier’s dojo and slept on the tatami (training mats) for the next 10 months. In this time he concentrated mainly on aikido, but also studied Okinawan Kobudo (karate weapons), some Brazilian Jujitsu and Katori Shinto Ryu Kenjitsu (sword), and continued training in tai chi and Kyokushinkai karate. He was training hard and was continually nursing injuries that seemed to be migrating from one body part to another. He made some good friends in Paris. At the end of his stay he graded to shodan in aikido under Tissier Sensei.
2003 - 2004
Kristana Loken and the Menck brothers
In 2003 he returned to South Africa. Hans started teaching aikido and karate in Stellenbosch and Durbanville, and also started doing stuntwork in the movie industry. In his short stunt career he had a fight scene with Jan-Claude van Damme in Wake of Death and he was stunt choreographer for sword fight scenes in Curse of the Ring, working with Kristana Loken and Julian Sands.
In 2003 he started practising contemporary Chinese Wushu under Sifu Ashley Branford in Cape Town. Wushu training is demanding physically and develops precision and dexterity in movement. Sifu Ashley has a very balanced approach to teaching, combining forms training with Sanshiao training (full contact competition fighting).
In 2004 Hans graded to 3rd dan in Kyokushin karate under Kancho Hatsu Royama. At the end of 2004 he injured my knee during aikido practise and had to get an operation and could no longer teach. It was time to find a “real” job again, so he left to work for Ford Australia in Melbourne.
2005 - 2008
Hans arrived in Melbourne on crutches but started training again as soon as he could. He had long been interested in the mysterious art of Baguazhang and was very fortunate to find a great bagua teacher in Melbourne – Master Liu Deming. Master Liu is also a teacher of Xing Yi, Liu He Tanglang and the rare martial art Ziranmen (nature style). So Hans was very pleased and immediately started training under Master Liu. Master Liu introduced him to the internal martial arts. He made Hans realise that he had to start training right from the bottom. Hans felt like he didn’t even know how to walk or stand properly! The process of learning to relax was very difficult. Master Liu is a teacher and a guide. Hans was very fortunate to train under him for two and a half years.
In Melbourne Hans also learned a rare internal martial art, You Long Gong Taiji, Swimming Dragon Skill, under Master Li Yong Liang.
in May 2007 Hans left Melbourne and went to Beijing for 2 months to study Bagauazhang, Xing Yi and Liu He praying mantis under Master Han Yanwu, training brother of Master Liu Deming. He also studied Chen Style tai chi under Master Zhang Gwang Ping.
Masters Han Yanwu and Liu Jingru observe training
July 2007- June 2008
From China he returned to France for one month of Aikido training with Christian Tissier Sensei.
Thereafter he left for Munich where he worked as a BMW design engineer for the next 10 months. He continued to train every day, mostly punching bags in a kickboxing gym, or training by myself in the Munich parks. He joined the Wuyuan school of Wushu for a few months’ tai chi training.
July2008 – December 2008
Hans returned to Paris for full-time aikido training with Christian Tissier and his senior students at the Cercle Tissier dojo . He continued solo training in the parks of Paris and met two good neijia teachers in the Luxembourg garden: a man called Charles who helped him with his posture and a man called I-He (One Harmony) who helped him with his understanding of Xing Yi. I-He's advice to Hans was "body empty and arms like noodles".
Twice a week Hans joined a group of Katori Shinto Ryu taught by Jean-Paul Blonde. His constant advice to Hans was "keep your body empty" and "arms like a 75 year old man".
A turning point in Hans' training was meeting Maul Mornie and training with Maul. Maul Mornie teaches Silat Suffian Bela Diri (SSBD), a highly effective fighting art which has been passed down in his family for generations. It is primarily a knife fighting art. Hans did only four workshops with Maul Mornie, but these were enough to change his understanding of martial arts and his aproach to training. Hans is proud to have been selected as the South African representative for SSBD.
Hans' sincere thanks to all his teachers.
Kenjitsu training in South Africa
2009
Martial art travels:
Before returning to South Africa in November 2009, Hans
spent a year travelling and training under various exceptional masters.
He spent six months training aikido and kenjitsu under
Christian Tissier in France,
earning his second dan black belt in aikido. He continued his studies of silat
(SSBD) under guru Maul Mornie in various locations in Europe.
In China
he studied swimming drogon skill (you long gong tayji) under master Yu Anren
and Zhu Ming, shaolin xin yi ba under master Wu Nanfang, and neijia gong-fu in Beijing under master Han
Yanwu. He also used his time in China
to explore the two most famous martial art holy mountains- Song Shan (shaolin)
and Wudang Shan (taiji). On these expeditions he studied China’s rich cultural, spiritual
and natural heritage.
In Japan
he studied aikido under various masters at the aikido world headquarters, elements
of neijia gong-fu under master Su Dong Chen and he taught taiji in a park in Tokyo. He also spent two
weeks backpacking in the mountains around Kyoto
and visiting the original aikido dojo of Morihei Ueshiba in Iwama.
During his year of extensive training Hans found a deeper
understanding of the technical, medical and spiritual aspects of the martial
arts and he found enough self study material to keep him busy for the rest of
his life.
Returning to South
Africa:
On his return to Cape
Town, Hans wasted no time in his effort to establish a
martial arts school. He found a suitable training space in Woodstock and assembled a team of the best
young martial arts teachers that he could find.
Hans Menck 
Dream and Mission
Hans arrived in Melbourne on crutches but started training again as soon as he could. He had long been interested in the mysterious art of Baguazhang and was very fortunate to find a great bagua teacher in Melbourne – Master Liu Deming. Master Liu is also a teacher of Xing Yi, Liu He Tanglang and the rare martial art Ziranmen (nature style). So Hans was very pleased and immediately started training under Master Liu. Master Liu introduced him to the internal martial arts. He made Hans realise that he had to start training right from the bottom. Hans felt like he didn’t even know how to walk or stand properly! The process of learning to relax was very difficult. Master Liu is a teacher and a guide. Hans was very fortunate to train under him for two and a half years. 
