SYDNEY -- A sport like basketball or table tennis didn't appeal to wheelchair-bound Australian Dan Bazin.

But martial arts did -- despite the obvious difficulty of the hospital administrator having to fight while sitting down.

He's done well enough to become a brown belt in the ancient Japanese martial art of Ninjitsu.

Bazin, 25, picked Ninjitsu because the rules could be bent to suit someone born with Dpina Bifida, someone who lost the use of his legs in an operation when he was two years old.

In two years Bazin has proved himself good enough to get to within shooting distance of a black belt.

Bazin said it wasn't necessary to do all the moves to become a Ninja.

"You don't need to be able to do it sometimes. Just to know how the principle works allows you to work around your disability and perform it anyway," he told Australia's AAP news agency.

"In attack I would turn sideways to minimize my profile, allowing me to counteract more efficiently," Bazin said.

He's the first to admit that martial arts are not the ideal sport for a handicapped person.

But he's insistent that he made the right choice -- and has made the very best of it. "You can have as many opportunities thrown your way but if you don't want to take them, you won't," Bazin said. "There are a lot of people who are in the same situation as me, or a lot worse off, and they can't make that decision because they've got too much stacked against them."

Ninjitsu, known in Japan as the art of stealth, was formulated by opponents of the ruling samurai warrior class. Ninjitsu warriors, or Ninja, use a plethora of techniques to hide and fight. (DPA)