It’s hard to believe that Calum Robb is just a student.

After all, there aren’t many young adults lugging books and backpacks around that can also claim to be at the very top of the tree in one of the world’s toughest and most popular sports.  But that’s exactly what Calum is.

In November he travelled to Japan to compete in the World All-Style Karate Championships.  And even though he was a part-time amateur competing against highly paid professionals, he managed to come back with a bronze medal, cementing his place as one of the most formidable karate athletes on the planet.

Now, when the word karate is mentioned, a generation of us will think no further than Mr Miyagi, ‘Daniel-San’ and the famous crane kick, all courtesy of the cult-classic Karate Kid movies. 

But as In The Winning Zone sits down to talk with Robb at Heriot-Watt University, where he is studying as a scholarship student for a PhD in Comparative Immunology, we discover that isn’t quite the case in the non-Hollywood context of the sport.

“Everyone thinks karate is like that because of the films, and people ask you to do the Karate Kid and do the crane kicks, but it is nothing like that.”

The films certainly gave a tainted view of the sport, but at the same time, the popularity of the sport probably owes much to the films.  And there is no doubting that while there may not be too many dramatic crane kick victories, the sport is certainly not for the fragile amongst us.  At its heart, after all, it is fighting.

“Karate is basically kicks and punches and a little bit of throwing,” explains Robb.  “You can kick to the body or to head, but contact with the head or face has to be in control.  To the body it doesn’t really matter that much, you kick or punch as hard as you want, but to the face you must control it, just below semi contact. 

“I have been fighting since I was about nine-years-old.  I generally try and hit as hard as I can to the body.  I have broken somebody’s ribs before and you can get disqualified for excessive contact through the body, though it generally doesn’t happen at the highest standard.  Everyone gets winded.  You break your ribs all the time, but you don’t even know it until you come off because of your high adrenalin.” 

Indeed, standing at six and a half feet and muscle-bound, we certainly get the feeling that Calum, from Haddington, East Lothian,  doesn’t practice for his sport by waxing cars, painting fences and catching flies with chopsticks, à la Karate Kid.

“I train 20 hours a week.  I train at Meadowbank Monday and Thursday nights and have Scotland squad training on a Sunday, which used to be once a month increases to weekly in the lead up to major competitions. Then Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays I am at the gym. I train at North Berwick gym and also I have to come to gym sessions here on Tuesdays and Thursdays as part of my contract and scholarship.”

Most impressive of all Robb’s feats is that he is in the premier league of international karate whilst being completely amateur in an environment populated by professionals.  His scholarship funding helps him out to an extent, but it is worlds apart from some of his rivals.

“It helps me a little bit. They do as much as they can because I am one of the top scholars, but when you look at it, I always have to go over the water to compete.  So if you look at Europe, you have the German, French and Spanish Opens and if you think about one of them, it is about £150 for the flight then another £100 for accommodation, and there is about ten of them a year.

“Fighters from the likes of Italy and Spain are professional, but I have beaten most of the top boys.  I have beaten World Champions and I know they are professional.  It would be good to be able to train four times a day every day like them.” 

Competing at tournaments around the world, as an amateur athlete Robb finds it difficult to combine his studies with his sport, not to mention the financial issues that come with such an itinerary.

“My Dad had a great police pension, but now he is back working again to see me through university.  I have had to switch to a part time PhD.  I am abroad 16 or 17 times a year with my karate, which works out at a cost of something like £13,000 a year to them.

“I really enjoy it but it is so hard just now to get any work done.  I have been doing my first year report now for the last two months and it should have only taken me about two weeks!”

Although it is one of the UK’s top participation sports, karate doesn’t enjoy much of a profile in the competitive arena, which consequently means it receives very little media interest.  In the past, Sky Sports have shown tournaments, but only to a limited extent.
 
“The thing about Karate is that a lot of people do it, but publicity-wise we don’t put it out there enough.  But if it gets included in the Olympics then obviously we will be able to tap into the sources of funding.  Sportscotland [the governing body for sport in Scotland] did fund us but they have cut the funding now because they are channelling it for the Olympic Sports. 

“However I believe that the IOC [International Olympic Committee] are having a review meeting next year in Copenhagen for karate to be included.  It looks like it will be either karate or squash that is added to the London 2012 sports roster.”
 
A medal in 2012 is a realistic prospect for 23-year-old Robb, who has been in dominating form over the past few years since turning senior.  This year alone, amongst numerous others, he has won the Commonwealth Karate Championships (Elite Heavyweight), the British All-Styles Championships (Male Open Weight) and the European  and World ‘Wado’ [his specialist style] Championships (Senior Heavyweight).  That he was disappointed to come home from the World Championships with just a bronze is testament to the level that the young Scot operates at.

 “I’ll be 27 in 2012, so I’ll be just peaking,” enthuses Robb, though he is yet to be convinced that his sport will actually be given the Olympic go-ahead.  “You know what these things are like.  In Olympics you hear all these rumour, but it is still a huge target for me.  That is where you want to be at, the Olympics.”

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