Steve Arneil was born in South Africa in 1934. At the age of 10, his family moved to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), and he began training in Judo and boxing. His mother made him stop boxing, but he continued studying Judo.

Training:

At age 16, he was selected to represent Northern Rhodesia in rugby. By the age of 17, Arneil had earned black belt status in judo, and he had also practiced Kenpo and karate. He moved to Durban, South Africa, for tertiary studies in mechanical engineering.

In Durban, Arneil trained at a judo dojo that also offered karate training. He made a practice of going down to the harbor and asking arriving Japanese people if they practiced karate; if they did, he would invite them to train at the dojo. In 1959, Arneil left South Africa, bound for Southeast Asia.

Styles and rank:

He trained in a few karate styles, including Shotokan, Wado-ryu, and Goju-ryu (under Gogen Yamaguchi). In the course of these studies, the name “Oyama” was mentioned to him by several people, including Yamaguchi, and this aroused his curiosity. In January 1961, through Donn Draeger, Arneil began to study Kyokushin karate under Masutatsu Oyama.

Arneil was promoted to the rank of 1st dan. in Kyokushin karate on 15 May 1962 and attained 2nd dan. on 16 April 1963. He was later ‘adopted’ by Oyama, to allow him to marry a Japanese woman in 1964. Arneil estimated that he trained an average of six hours each day during his time in Japan.

100-man Kumite:

On 22 May 1965, Arneil became the first person to complete the 100-man kumite after Oyama himself. The 100-man kumite took him around 2 hours and 45 minutes to complete, with each round scheduled to take 1 minute and 30 seconds (but around ended if he managed to knock down his opponent). In an interview in 2005, Arneil said, “I did not have to beat everyone I fought, that would have been ridiculous! I just had to keep going; I had to have the spirit not to give up, no matter what they threw at me.” On 10 July 1965, Arneil was promoted to 3rd dan. In May 1966, Arneil received a promotion to the rank of 4th dan.

Coaching:

From 1968 to 1976, he was the Team Manager and Coach for the All Styles English and British Karate team which, in 1975/76, became the first non-Japanese team to win the Karate World Championship.