A Modern Boudicea

Back in the times of the Romans there was a woman of the Iceni tribe that rose up against them and almost brought the mighty Roman army to its knees. Her name was Boudicea (or in the modern parlance Boudicca) – either way she was an amazing warrior and one that many future warriors have compared themselves to. Queen Elizabeth 1 was fond of quoting Boudicea’s name. In modern times, Margaret Thatcher was compared to the ancient Iceni queen.

In the world of UK martial arts, one name stands out as a true female warrior in the guise of Boudicea. Her name is Anne-Marie Wright. Anne-Marie has been training in the martial arts for 12 years and in that time has a remarkable record.

In a three year period from 1994 to 1997 Anne-Marie was competing in the WEKAF sanctioned tournaments both at home and abroad. In that time she won the British, European and World Championships; she never placed lower than second in any tournament she entered and was the top rated fighter in each of the three years she competed. In December 1996 she became the first, and to date, the only female Black Belt at my school, Unified Fighting Systems. This was followed in 1998 with her Black Belt in Doce Pares, under no less a luminary than Grandmaster Cacoy Canete. Two years later he promoted her again, to 2 nd Grade Black Belt, a feat not managed by any other woman in the UK. In 2002 she scored another first as the only woman from the UK, to date, to be graded under the IKAEF (International Kali-Arnis-Eskrima Federation) at a week long training camp that was held in Germany. In 2003 Anne-Marie also became the first woman in the UK to be awarded her Apprentice Instructor certificate in Jeet Kune Do under Richard Bustillo. I’m sure it won’t be too long before her Associate certificate follows.

What makes Anne-Marie all the more remarkable is that she has done all of this and raised two boys, Cavan who is 16 and Kristian who is 14 on her own, without any help from the boys’ father. A divorce when the children were small was not a happy event. She made the choice to raise the boys until they were old enough to be left alone a little more after school and returned to full-time work in 2001. She has made an equally astonishing rise here too. Beginning as personal assistant to the Chairman of a UK soccer club her next career move was in the world of construction. There she made her mark as the office manager of a $150 million project and her latest move is also in construction running the offices of another large company.

Anne-Marie is an amazing woman. She has a drive about her that is rare in any individual, let alone a mother bringing up two boys. It is her sharp mind that has made her who she is. In martial arts it’s not enough to punch or kick or stick-fight or wrestle, Anne-Marie analyses what she is doing so if she makes mistakes she learns from them and that helps her to grow.

I have been fortunate to be her instructor the whole time she has been training and I have seen her grow and mature from a raw White Belt all the way through her achievements. What was evident right from the beginning was that she was (and is) a worker. She never took the easy route. Although she has been very fortunate not to have anything more serious than a torn hamstring she has certainly taken her share of bruises, scrapes and cuts over the years. She stands at 5’4” and is quite small framed yet she has always given as good as she got. In the times when the classes have been saturated with males, Anne-Marie never ducked sparring. Even in the British Team training when we all fought each other (all weights) she would be willing to fight the heavyweights, so that no-one ever did her any favours. The pinnacle of this came with the victory at the 1996 World Championships which were held in Los Angeles. It was good to watch her here too. In her semi-final Anne-Marie had beaten the 1994 Champion, Jackie Kulp, but she didn’t take her eye off the prize. When the final came up she spent fifteen minutes in total silence focussing on the fight at hand. The result was a resounding victory over Christine Pepper and gave Anne-Marie the coveted trophy.

For many a man, me included, they would say that this was the pinnacle of their martial arts life. But for Anne-Marie, although the World title was important, it is not actually the highlight of her martial arts career to date. In 1982 the BBC commissioned a series about martial arts that was shown around the world; it was called ‘The Way of the Warrior’. One of the episodes featured Grandmaster Cacoy Canete and the Doce Pares school. The show led to the worldwide expansion of Doce Pares. Also featured in the show was GM Cacoy’s daughter, Kitty. It showed Kitty as a very pretty girl who couldn’t get a boyfriend as the Filipino boys were scared of this tough Eskrimador. When Anne-Marie hadn’t been training very long I showed her the tape of this show and Kitty left a big impression on her. In 1999 we travelled to New York for a Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do training weekend. It was during this weekend that Anne-Marie met Kitty and the two got on very well. A weekend of drinking coffee, hearing Kitty’s tales and going shopping is what Anne-Marie remembers as the highlight of the martial arts career to date. Why? She had met this female martial arts icon that she had thought was as tough as nails and Kitty had accepted Anne-Marie with warmth and friendship. To Anne-Marie it meant she had been accepted by the hierarchy as a warrior, but also as a decent and good person.

I think in this one example you can see what makes Anne-Marie unique. It isn’t only her toughness, her titles, her awards or even the fact that she has managed to keep her looks throughout the years of training. It is the way her mind works. It is that factor that men from all styles and walks of life should be aware of. That it isn’t the pen that is mightier than the sword, it is the mind.