Karate coach gets Diepsloot children active
DOUGLASDALE – Quick work of the Douglasdale Tracing Team ensures the safety of the community and arrest of a suspect.
A local karate coach has joined forces with the Shumbashaba non-profit organisation to offer free karate classes to local youngsters.
Cindy Dennil holds a second-degree black belt and has been doing karate for more than 30 years. She said the Shumbashaba Little Warriors karate programme was not aimed at teaching children how to fight others but rather to teach them self-defence tactics and discipline. “We recently started our classes to help local youngsters from the age of five in order to teach them self-defence and self-discipline.
“We don’t teach them to be violent or to fight others, which is why we go through an interview process with them before they join the class. We do this to establish why they are interested in karate. If the intentions are not good we recommend a different sport for them.”
Dennil added that next year’s programme will include taking some of the participants to watch championships and competitions in order to help them understand karate.
“We started with our programme very late this year. We are hoping that next year will be more relaxed than this year and we will be able to attend some local competitions where we can take some of them to attend. The number of children joining the class grows every day and we anticipate a bigger class next year.”
