HIGH on the back wall of Dave Owen's Combat Arena 2, at Winners 2000 gym on Teignmouth Road, is the slogan 'Je Suis Prest'.

It is written across the bottom of a giant logo promoting the arena, and means 'I am ready'.

It was the slogan on the cap badges of the Lovat Scouts – an elite British Army unit first deployed in the Second Boer War.

And it is also a slogan Owen himself has on his skin in the form a tattoo honouring his dad Sid – who was recruited into the unit during World War II.

A karate instructor for 32 years and boxing trainer to a raft of professional fighters, Dave mentions the phrase halfway through our interview, pointing to the giant slogan on the back wall.

"This is all for him," says Owen, meaning his dad, and motioning to the arena behind him.

A Yorkshireman who first took up karate more than 40 years ago, there is a flicker of emotion on his face as he says it.

His father died last year, but not before telling Dave the tale of his recruitment into the Lovat Scouts and his involvement in the war.

"They spotted him like a football scout would spot a footballer," said Dave.

"He had to go and do all sorts of specialist training, from mountain climbing to skiing."

Dave's father also revealed to him a secret mission which took their unit into the Italian Alps in 1944 – with the aim of kidnapping Italian leader Mussolini.

"He never told me about it until last year – it's just incredible," said Owen.

"They were dropped into the Italian Alps by parachute; he told me he had 12ft wooden skis and a Bren gun strapped to his back.

"They killed a load of Germans on their way to this mountain hideout – it was like 'Where Eagles Dare' – but by the time they got there, German stormtroopers had already gone in and got him out."

Now 57, the slice of Owen's family history doesn't relate directly to his life as a sportsman, but it is a revealing clue to his background – and his incredible life.

Having started his working life in the coal pits, Owen has turned his love of training into a full-time job as karate instructor and boxing trainer.

He has mentored world, European and British champions – and won medals at three world championships himself.

It was Owen's father who first got him into contact sport, taking him to a boxing and wrestling club in Brampton Ellis, south Yorkshire, while Dave was still a schoolboy.

"It was a snooker hall which had a boxing gym upstairs," said Owen.

"I was just a schoolboy, and used to get into a lot of fights obviously."

It was several years later that he had his first taste of karate at a club at Wath-on-Dearne.

"There was a working men's club, which you trained in when you started," he said.

"When you were good enough to you went up the road to the grammar school to train."

It was to be his first step into a sport in which he would excel.

Owen has since competed in the United States at three world championships and, as an instructor, mentored numerous other championship winners.

Six decades of karate has also seen Owen train Royal Marines in 'close-quarters battle' – despite being a civilian – and get professional boxers to fighting fitness.

Owen said that karate has gone through a dramatic rise of its own.

He added: "It was before Bruce Lee – I remember when Enter the Dragon came out in 1973 there were queues out of the hall to train with our karate club.

"We had to pay 10p for our training sessions back then."

Owen now takes charge of up to 17 training sessions a week – divided between karate, boxing and circuits – and adds his own daily workouts on top.

Hard graft is at the essence of Owen, who spent nine years working as a coal miner after leaving school.

His memories of that time include his involvement in the strikes of the early 1970s which left his family effectively living in poverty.

"It was just the hardship – especially with the strikes," he said.

"I was on the picket lines and getting 50p a week. We were going on the coal heaps and getting shale to burn as fuel.

"We found a seam of coal in a hillside – I remember digging it up and selling it for 20p a bag."

Admitting that his progress in karate was 'pretty slow for the first five years', Owen nonetheless became a black belt, gaining his first dan grade in 1975.

Around the same time, he began training under a schoolteacher – and karate expert – from Okinawa, Japan.

Under this expert tutelage, Owen developed skills which would eventually see him become Federation of Shotokan Karate national grand champion in 1987 – winning team, kata and kumite gold medals.

But before that, in 1979, Owen moved to South Devon, believing the weather would be warmer, and there would be greater opportunities.

After taking up a job as a steel fabricator, Owen continued his karate training, but having tried out a few local clubs, decided to form his own.

He was soon teaching groups of up to 50 students at Warberry school.

"I looked around and trained at a few clubs, and someone asked me to start my own club," he said.

"By then I was a second dan – I think now it stipulates you have to be a third dan, but karate wasn't as popular then, not down here.

"Up north we had some big clubs."

After working for Nortel for 18 years, and then becoming a self-employed plumber, Owen became a full-time martial arts coach and boxing trainer three years ago.

In what he labels 'the hardest sport of all', Owen has professional fighters including Gareth Hogg, Ben Wakeham and Kristine Shergold in his stable.

Shergold narrowly lost on points in a bid for a world title at super-featherweight against Lyndsey Scragg in Wolverhampton in 2009.

But Shergold's progress is made more difficult as she is the only female boxer in her weight division in the country – meaning she has had to travel to Finland and Belgium for her most recent fights.

Owen said he first became involved in the sport when he was invited to improve boxers' flexibility.

He also holds regular boxing-themed fitness sessions at his studio, called 'Fighting Fit'.

"I started training with Gerald Boustead – he originally asked me to get the boxers more flexible," said Owen.

"At the time we had four of the best boxers in the South West.

"I trained with them for about five years and then took my professional licences up.

"It was then that I opened Combat Academy 1 in the town."

Owen's original academy – in a hall behind The Venue nightclub – ran for four years before the lease ran out and was not renewed.

In January last year, Owen opened Combat Academy 2 at Winners 2000.

Including a boxing ring in one corner, and punch bags lining another wall, the huge space has seen plenty of action from champion fighters in both karate and boxing.

Owen explained: "I've had over 160 British champions on the karate side – plus world champions and European champions."

He mentions Jordan Todd and Cory Cuff as some of his best pupils, while Tracy Kite (now Bond) won 14 FSK British titles while under his training.

Owen has achieved plenty himself too – as his biography, in a leather wallet near the entrance of the gym – spells out.

Since his first competition win at the South Yorkshire Karate Championships in 1973 (first in both junior kata and junior kumite), Owen has won a considerable haul of titles.

He was first in kata at FSK British championships for three straight years between 1987 and 1989, and was also kata champion at the European championships in Ireland in 1990.

He was part of the team which finished second in the FSK World Championships in Las Vegas, also in 1990, a feat which he repeated as his second world tournament, in Los Angeles in 1991.

In his last world championships, when he returned to Las Vegas in 2002, he finished second in the men's kata section.

His physique – which looks years younger than his age – shows his clear dedication.

"I've been running at 12 o'clock at night, while everyone is in their beds, because I'm passionate about fitness," said Owen.

"I train every morning with weights and circuits. I don't feel any different to when I was 20. If anything, I'm stronger now, and I'm bench-pressing 320lb at 12 stone in weight."

Owen is also passionate about karate taught properly, as he believes there are too many imposters among so-called karate instructors.

He urges anyone who doubts him to come and take part in one of his own sessions, and see for themselves.

Owen recalls one man who did exactly this, and was impressed.

"He said that he had done karate at another school, but it was nothing like this," explained Owen.

"I've got a woman who is 63 in my class, and he said he wouldn't like to tangle with her.

"You get a range of people who just think it's karate – but it puts people off if it's not really good."

He added: "Boxing is the same – I've been doing it for 24 years but I don't call myself a top-class instructor.

"People have to be careful when they are choosing a club. They want to have a look around."

As for his own reason for teaching, Owen does it simply for the joy of passing on his skills to others.

"I would say I'm proud of my students. I've got people who have studied for 30 years. That's the proof of a club: It's not a flash in the pan.

"The mixed martial arts stuff is strong at the moment, but karate has always been there, and so has boxing.

"I teach for the pride in my students. They all come out as good characters, and are all good people.

"It's character-building, and hopefully they will carry that on into their job or family lives."