Shihan Gary Viccars was born in 1946 and began training in Kyokushin Karate in 1967 at the dojo of Bill Paauw in Little Ryrie St, Geelong. That dojo produced some very high profile karate-ka including Brian Ellison, Mervyn Nelis, Brian Cole, Peter Volke, Mick Varker and Ritchie Saunders.
Who would have guessed that more than 30 years later Gary would still be training in the same style and that he would rise to be one of the most prominent Kyokushin Karate instructors in Australia.
Gary has been teaching Kyokushin Karate since 1970 when he opened his first dojo at Ocean Grove as a green belt. He gained shodan in 1973, nidan in 1975, sandan in 1979, yondan in 1983 and in 1989 he and Nick Cujic became the first Australians to ever physically undergo a test for godan. In June of 1997 he was graded to Rokudan and became the third highest grade in Australia in Kyokushin Karate in all three organizations.
In 1970 he was a member of the Geelong team that won the first ever Victorian Kyokushin Teams Championship and thus began a very distinguished tournament career that spanned the decade, both in knockdown and point system. Shihan represented Victoria a total of 8 times. He was a member of the first ever Victorian team to win an Australian F.A.K.O. Teams title ( Perth 1977) as well as placing in the top 4 heavyweights in Australian knockdown in 1977 and 1978. In those days the Australian Knockdown Championships also had a team event and Shihan was Captain of the Victorian team that was runner-up in 1977 and 1978. In addition, Shihan Gary has always been recognized as one of Kyokushinkai's best breaking technicians. He, together with Rowan Stephens and John Klose, once demolished a total of 300 cement tiles in 28 seconds. "He was also one of the first in Australia to perform the baseball bat break with a shin kick". He earned the right to represent Australia at the second World Kyokushin Championships in 1979. He had also been selected in the Australian F.A.K.O. team for the 1977 W.U.K.O. Championships. Thus he is one of the very few people to have ever been selected to represent Australia in both Knockdown and point system. In 1986 Shihan Gary completed the 50 man kumite test with Jim Phillips, Tony Bowden and Luke Grgurevic. Tom Levar, Jim Sklavos, Robert Lauretti, Naomi Wood, Eddie Sorensen & Luke Argento are the only other Australians (so far) to later duplicate this feat. Gary's achievement was all the more remarkable as he was 39 years of age at the time of the test. Gary used his trip to the World tournament (in 1979) to stay in Japan for training and became the first Geelong person to do so. He trained with Sosai Mas.Oyama 3 times a week plus many of the other Kyokushin legends. He also completed the notorious Kyokushin winter camp (his leader at this camp was none other than Akiyoshi Matsui) . Thus he is one of the few to have gained that indepth insight into Kyokushin Karate by living and training daily in Japan and personally training with Sosai Oyama over an extended period. Upon his return to Australia in 1980 he decided to become actively involved in judging and refereeing and rose to be an International referee during the next decade. He has officiated at many International Kyokushin events, including acting as a referee at the Commonwealth Championships, the All Japan Championships, the World Cup and the World Championships. In addition he was appointed Head of Referee’s and Judges for the 2006 World Cup in Sydney. Since this time he has returned many times to Japan to further his knowledge and understanding of Kyokushin Karate. He also attended the funeral of Sosai Oyama in Japan in 1994. His dojo in Geelong has always been a stronghold of Kyokushin Karate in Victoria and he has produced many fine karate-ka. He opened a full time dojo at The Arena which was described as one of the best Kyokushin dojo in the World. Unfortunately the building went into receivership and Gary shifted to the Geelong Y.M.C.A. at the beginning of 1987. In 1993 Sosai appointed Gary as a Branch Chief and since that time he has worked to develop his Branch. Shihan Gary has dojo is Victoria and Tasmania. Upon Sosai's death Shihan Gary chose to align with the Japanese Branch Chief group and he hosted that group's Australian Championships in Geelong in 1996. In 2000 the A.K.K.A held a special ceremony before the start of the Australian Championships and presented special certificates to all fighters who had placed in the Australian Championships since its inception in 1997. The certificate commemorated the fighters contribution to the development of Kyokushin Karate in the 20th Century. At this ceremony Shihan Gary was also awarded a special trophy for his outstanding contribution to the A.K.K.A. Shihan Gary also wrote a regular martial arts column in the Geelong News from 1981 to 2005 (when the paper changed it’s format). This was probably the most widely read column in the region, and the newspaper also won an award for best use of colour using Shihan Gary, Sensei Robbie Adams and Sensei Rowan Stephens on the front page in 1983. In 2005 he was elected a member of the inaugural Australian Karate Federation, Victoria (A.K.F.) Hall of Fame. The President acknowledged his contribution to the development of Karate and the A.K.F. (formerly F.A.K.O.) in Victoria and Australia. Until this time Shihan was unaware that his nickname amongst all the other styles was “The Enforcer” Shihan Gary’s list of trophies and achievements include: 1970 Geelong team that won the 1st Victorian Kyokushin Teams tournament 1977 Victorian Kyokushin Championships 2nd Heavyweight 1977 AKKA Championships 3rd Heavyweight 1977 AKKA Teams Championship 2nd 1977 F.A.K.O. Victorian Teams Championship 2nd 1977 F.A.K.O. Victorian Individual Championships 2nd 1977 F.A.K.O. Victorian Individual Championships Sportsmanship Trophy 1977 F.A.K.O. Australian Teams Championships 1st 1978 Victorian Kyokushin Championships 2nd Heavyweight 1978 AKKA Championships 4th Heavyweight 1978 AKKA Teams Championship 2nd 1978 F.A.K.O. Victorian Teams Championship 2nd 1979 AKKA Teams Championship 2nd 1979 AKKA Championships 4th Heavyweight 1979 F.A.K.O. Sports Expo Tournament 1st Heavyweight 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979 -Victorian Team member to F.A.K.O. Australian Championships 1979 Team member F.A.K.O. Victoria versus Indonesia 1979 Australian team to World Championships Referee at every Australian Championships since 1984 1986 Referee at Asian Pacific Championships 1988 Referee at Commonwealth Championships 1995 Referee at All Japan Championships 2000 – 2004 Referee at World Championships 2002 – 2006 Referee at World Cup 2006 - Shihan Gary was promoted to the rank of 7th Dan after a grading test conducted by Kancho Matsushima 9th Dan and Shihan John Taylor  8th Dan. He is now one of the top instructors in the World”.
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