Shane Dorfman Sensei brings honour
JOBURG – Shane Dorfman Sensei, owner of Dorfman Karate attended the Karatenomichi World Federation (KWF) World Karate Cup in Chitose, Japan, last year, bringing great honour to his name and the dojo that he runs with his father.
Shane Dorfman was the holder of the rank of 6th Dan. The Dan is a ranking system used by many Japanese organisations and Korean martial arts in order to indicate the level of a person’s skill.
The day before the KWF World Karate Cup, an international Dan examination was held. Although Dorfman was allowed to attend, the process was not easy as a number of strict rules, including a minimum age requirement of 50, meant that some rules had to be broken.
Legendary world chief instructor of the KWF, Mikio Yahara Sensei, was quick to list Dorfman’s career attributes and contribution in a director’s meeting, in the hope of persuading the organisation to let him attend, despite Dorfman only being 40 years old. Yahara pointed out that ‘age did not concur with the rules for attempting the 7th Dan examination’, resulting in unanimous approval from the directors.
Dorfman did not disappoint the faith that was put in him and passed with top marks and was even asked to give a demonstration at the World Cup. No westerner has ever been asked to present the main demonstration at the World Cup, as this honour is usually bestowed on Yahara Sensei himself.
During his stay, Dorfman also did another linked examination to qualify as an International A class Examiner. He is only the third westerner to attain this trio of achievements, the other two recipients being his 8th Dan father, Malcolm Dorfman, and colleague 7th Dan Marco Fanicchi.
The father/son team of Malcolm and Shane were presented with an even greater honour, as they were given the licence to grade South African members to the higher Dan levels and other benefits for karate in South Africa.
