Moffat – ‘Injuries and pain won’t stop me’
For Moffat Senyatsi, a brown belt in shorin kempo, karate keeps him grounded and strong in the highs and lows of life
POLOKWANE – A media liaison officer for the Capricorn District Municipality, Senyatsi says he attributes his endurance and successes to discipline he acquired in karate.
“My love for karate started when I was very young. We would find a good spot in a mountain at home and just train by mimicking moves we saw in movies. In 1998, we founded a proper dojo at a school that was 7km from home. So after school, we would walk there and back, every day,” he says.
That was when Senyatsi was recruited to Kyokushin Karate by sensei Kenneth Kgaabi, who was the dojo head and instructor in Moletjie.
He went on to join a different style, Ishhin-ryu dojo at the University of Limpopo between 2002 and 2004, which he left after the completion of his studies and found another dojo in Seshego, Kyokushin in 2005.
He explains that he took a long break when he became a journalist as he was looking for a good dojo with a good teacher. “Parents whose little ones want to take martial arts must find out if their kids are being trained by a good teacher. Because martial arts has a very strong influence on an individual’s train of thoughts, ideological outlook and psychological posture; and therefore a bad teacher can progressively brainwash the little ones so badly and that is a disaster,” Senyatsi explains.
His quest for a good club led him to another different style when he later joined Eksteen Bushido Freestyle Karate-Do in Polokwane under sensei Henri Eksteen.
“This was a freestyle with some JKA/Shotokan influence and I enjoyed the challenge and experience. I trained varied karate styles but Kyokushin became the mainstay in my life. I can train any karate style and within weeks I would have a hang of it,” he quips.
He says he was recently graded brown belt and it was the toughest test ever, very hectic which lasted four grueling hours.
He says brown belt comes with serious pressure because one needs to train and conduct themselves like a true brown belt and one need to be tougher than a black belt. Even in the dojo during sparring, a brown belt is expected to make a junior black belt feel insecure and that will make you a good black belt when the time comes.
“No sensei wants to give a black belt to poor lazy candidate.
