While many businesses are taking time off during the Christmas/New Year period, Success Martial Arts on Union Street, South Lismore is celebrating the success of five of its Lismore karate women who overcame the odds to lead the NSW team to victory in the National All Styles Martial Arts Australian Titles a few weeks ago.

That in itself is a great feat, however, when you consider their training school was closed for five months due to the February 28 mega flood, it has even more meaning.

Success Martial Arts owner and trainer Richard Marlin told the Lismore App a lot of people who were competing kept their training up at home.

"They kept training and going to competitions so it was almost like the competitions was their training."

To compete in the Nationals you first have to qualify through a number of rounds in competition then towards the end of the year each state will hold their State Championships which is followed by the Nationals.

(Congratulations to (left to right) Danielle Hall, Rebecca Lindsay (holding up the shield,) Andrea Balen, Deborah Lindsay and Melissa German).

Success Martial Arts has been operating for 38 years in March 2023. In that time, Richard says the club has always been successful in tournaments not just nationally but internationally. In fact, Richard himself has been to the World Championships and still competes.

(Manager Lisa Marx and Richard Marlin inside Success Martial Arts)

The South Lismore location had never flooded before until February 28 so, like hundreds of other businesses, Richard lost everything. Not that it was into the hundreds of thousands like others but it still hurt. Richard showed the level of the 2017 flood which was a step below the floors surface, the '17 flood was 11.59 and the record 1974 flood of 12.15 may have seen a little water on the training floor.

"It actually came 2.25 metres above the floor level, we lost everything, all of our mats, training pads, computer gear. It took us five months to clean up and reopen."

"Our landlord owns a few properties in South and he said this one fared better than any other. So, they were busy trying to fix the other buildings so we just got on with the job of cleaning and repairing so we could reopen."

"The main problem was getting the power back on."

Richard thought ahead of the game for the day that he could reopen by ordering his training mats and pads a few days after the flood hit.

Success Martial Arts has about 120 students that range in age from 3 to people in their 60s led by Richard and Lisa Marx. Lisa recently won the Outstanding Employee Award for the Northern Rivers Business Awards.

On top of helping with the cleanup of Success Martial Arts, Lisa had her own cleaning to do at home as she lives in South Lismore too and only recently moved back into her own home.

Success Martial Arts is closed over the Christmas/New Year break and will reopen on Monday, January 9.

Richard's core message is to educate people so they get confident enough to come in and find out what it's all about.

Some of the benefits of karate, as Richard explains is focus for the kids and a challenge for the adults in a safe and fun environment.

"Parents generally want their kids to be more confident or more focused. They want their children to have the wherewithal to be able to get ahead and be socially competent."

"We have had kids that are shy or whatever and it lifts them up then it takes other kids that are scattered and all over the place and brings them focus. It's like self discipline and self confidence are two sides of the same coin."

"Adults come in for different reasons. They come in because the've never found anything else that does the same thing for them. It gives them a sense of purpose or a way to look after themselves and use their limbs and their body like they never would have, a sense of control, challenges to do stuff they never would have though they could do."

"That's what we're really about."

If you would like to explore Success Martial Arts more, Richard has an introductory program where you get a tour, a private introductory lesson, an evaluation on attitude, desire, confidence, reactions, balance, coordination, flexibility and ask what your goals are.

"Based on that we recommend the program that is best suited for them and takes into account their budget."

You can read more via their website.