Career
Often called the "Arrow Catcher", and referred to as a ninja, Kelly is renowned for his fast reflexes, in particular his ability to catch fast moving items. He has made numerous television appearances. Kelly became interested in martial arts as a child after watching fights by Bruce Lee and Muhammad Ali.
Kelly started catching arrows at his annual martial arts night in 2000, getting the idea from watching the feat performed in the film The Last Dragon.
I first got out a stopwatch and found that if you press it fast enough you can use it to test your reflexes, my average start-stop press was 1/200th of second, we blink at 1/300th. So I thought it could be possible to catch an arrow.
After working out the stance and the hand technique, training myself to open and close my hand over 70 times in 5 seconds, I worked out how to master catching arrows, both sighted and blindfolded. That year he also broke the record for most tennis balls caught in one minute whilst blindfolded, catching 11.
By February 2012 Kelly had obtained 29 world records, and had 3 still pending approval.
On " Day" in November 2012 he obtained the record for the most targets hit by a blowgun in 60 seconds, hitting 23. In 2014 Kelly obtained the record for the most coach qualifications across multiple sports, being a qualified coach in bagua, association football, kung fu, mixed martial arts, ninjutsu, qigong, rugby union, rugby league, tai chi and tai chi dao. Kelly appeared on the "Ninjas 2" episode of Mythbusters in 2008 to test whether an arrow could be caught in mid-air, whether a ninja can deflect an arrow with a sword and kill the archer before they can reload, and whether a one-inch punch could render somebody unconscious.
Whilst Kelly is able to catch arrows, he could not do so under full-combat conditions, so Mythbusters declared that myth "busted".
Kelly was able to deflect an arrow with a sword and "kill" Adam Savage before he could reload, thereby confirming that myth. Given the amount of force Kelly could generate with his one-inch punch, the Mythbusters team declared it is plausible that someone could be knocked out with the punch.
He has appeared on episodes of Ripley"s Believe lieutenant or Not!, Stan Lee"s Superhumans and Time Warp. Kelly was born and raised in Armidale, New South Wales.
He went to school at O"Connor Catholic College.
He states he only eats meat and potatoes, and has never eaten fruit or other vegetables in his life. Kelly attributes his fast reflexes to a combination of genetics and his unusual diet. Kelly teaches kung fu classes at Duval High School in Armidale several days a week.
Also a very humble person who isn"t up himself at all.