Paul and Lynne wanted to give their grandson Cooper a gift with a bit of a difference for his eighth birthday, so they signed him up for karate lessons.

“Lynne and I decided that it might be a good present for Cooper to get him along to it,” Paul said.

“(To learn) a bit of discipline and things like that.”

Paul and Cooper’s younger brother Arlo were soon attending Terang Funakoshi Karate Club alongside their grandfather, who was participating in a sporting activity for the first time in “many, many years”.

While Arlo, at six years old, is one of the youngest in the club, Paul, at 64, reckons he would “have to be the oldest”.

“I mainly did it because I needed some exercise,” he said.

“It’s good for that. It’s got variety and teaches you different things of value.

“For me, it’s mostly been that the discipline side of it is good. That’s the side I would enjoy the best.”

Paul said he liked the opportunity to spend time with his grandsons in a sporting pursuit.

“It won’t be too long ’til they won’t want to spend time with me,” he said, laughing.

The greyhound trainer admitted it took him “a while to get used to it”, but after a term of training and attending his first tournament as a spectator on the weekend, he is now working towards making his competition debut.

Cooper and Arlo, who both attend St Colmans Primary School, have taken well to their new sport.

Cooper said he had enjoyed his first term-and-a-bit of learning karate, especially because of the environment he learns in.

“You don’t get to hurt people, so everyone is safe,” he said.

Arlo said he enjoyed learning the different types of punches and kicks.

The trio’s sentai Peter Conroy said the Herrys’ situation was rather a rare one in sporting circles, but showed one of the beauties of karate.

“It’s an absolute eye-opener for me,” he said.

“I’ve got a number of fathers who come along with their children and a number of mothers who come along with their children, but Paul is the first one in my experience to step up as a grandparent, which is a great achievement.

“It’s a massive, massive challenge for him physically as well as learning all the technical stuff like the kata, but it’s great to see a grandparent giving it a go.

“It’s a testament to the nature of traditional karate – if you were doing boxing or full-contact karate, there’s no way someone like Paul would be able to take part like he is.

“But the reality is he’s coming along, he’s training every week and he’s getting stronger and fitter.”