Mike Foley Sr began training in Kenpo Karate in January of 1976 at Memorial University under the instruction of Peter Walker.Prior to that he was an athlete in high school who played just about every sport available, some well, some not so well, he doesn't mind admitting. An unsuspected but emerging talent at that time was the ability to organize activities, fundraise for sports equipment, and help to get things started when needed.When his high school burned down he was in a unique position to organize the high school winter indoor sports for his school as the teachers had enough on their plates at the time. From there it was on to developing the summer rec OFY govt sponsored phys ed programs.
In 1976 he started in his true calling, the martial arts, and has been active ever since then.
In 1977-78 after training intensively in Montreal he moved from yellow through brown belt in 6 months, spending 30 hours a week on the floor.
From 1978-91 he competed in over a hundred karate competitions and place 1st-2nd or 3rd in 75 of those, 5 in the brown belt division and 70 in the Black belt arena. He placed first in Black Belt fighting at the Kenpo Nationals of the day in Montreal. In addition there were a number of second and third place finishes nationally in events packed with 30-40 other Black Belts.
As an organizer/ builder he established clubs in CBS,Mt Pearl,Bonavista, Clarenville,Lethbridge,Old Perlican,Western Bay,Carbonear,New Harbor,Cowan Heights,Spaniards Bay and taught summer programs in several dozen smaller communities around the Avalon peninsula.
At last count he has organized and held upwards of 150 karate competitions for students to take part in the sport.Two of those until very recently were the highly popular 'Battle on the Rock' and Iceberg Classic'...open events that saw upwards of 350 competitors and as well mainland competition coming in to take part in the Black Belt divisions.
Over the years, 4 of the students he has taught have reached the pinnacle of their sport with gold medals won at the world championships. Information can be found about those students under the genealogy section of this site.
In 2007 he was instrumental in having the govt of NL Government grant PSO (prov. sporting organization) status to the sport of Kickboxing. As the first president he co-organized (along with the nat'l president) the first 3 events in kickboxing to be held in NL.
Also in 2007 he, along with his 3 eldest sons brought to NL Master Pedro Sauer of Gracie Jiu Jitsu fame to the province and so began a close collaboration with his schools and the technical excellence found in that art under the guidance of Professor Sauer. At this time he is very busy helping 4 of his sons establish themselves as teachers and leaders in the NL martial arts community. Each of those have their own schools and are teaching in St Johns,Kelligrews,Spaniards Bay and the Goulds. With a schedule that has averaged 1200-1500 classes a year(30-35 per week) its estimated that Mr Foley has taught somewhere in the neighborhood of 40,000 classes in that time.It is said that mastery of a subject or a profession takes usually in the range of 10,000 hours or more.He will admit, as his instructor once told him, that some days he doesn't feel like much of a master. However his true calling and what he still loves to do is teaching martial arts, and teaching the kids is what he loves doing most of all.
Now in his early 50's he has two great passions in front of him.
The first is re-introducing the philosophies of the martial arts back into the curriculums of his schools and hopefully into the communities in which his schools touch. In the age of mindless video games on one hand and the the UFC fighter wanna be culture on the other, there is something missing, something left behind that our society could really use at this point in time. Ideas such as chivalry, respect,community, service, etc are needed ,and can be taught to strengthen students, especially young students, minds as they train their bodies.
His second great passion is seeing his schools remain as successful as they have been so as to enable his grandchildren to continue in the Foley tradition.Strong, healthy, positive, caring young men and women who can make a difference in the lives of those around them through the martial arts.
A quote from Mahatma Gandhi sums this philosophy up: "Be the change you want to see in the world".
Mr Foleys sincere wish is for his family, his wife of 30 years and 5 sons, even in some small manner be successful in ushering in that change.
