Adventures in a dojo
So I gritted my teeth and continued, and before I knew it, the session was over.
It has taken nine months for this journalist to finally succumbed to the pressure of joining a sports club.
Ever since I started working at the Record as a sports journalist, teams and their coaches have asked me to join their club on numerous occasions and I have declined each time.
What they don’t know is that while I’m there, at their club, after hours highlighting their achievements; tomorrow I will be at another club after hours doing the same thing.
That is how my week goes. However, I’m not one to shy away from a challenge so after finding out that an article idea of mine had already been done by my predecessor, I found myself agreeing to join a karate club.
So at 6.30pm I arrived at the Horizon View Karate Centre and just as I’m about to get out of my vehicle, I receive a phone call about a body that has been found in De La Rey. This was ironic given that on my first night of joining the club, something would happen to remind me why I have always declined joining clubs.
Since I was already in the car, I had to channel my inner Michael Schumacher and get to the incident swiftly and arrived back in Horizon just after 7pm.
As I entered the dojo, Sensei Wendy Wannenberg, a sixth dan in karate greeted me and sent me to a beginners corner with three other novices.
Here, brown belt karateka Hope Kotzè was patiently waiting to teach us the basics.
From learning Oi Zuki, a normal punch to Age-Uke, a rising block, Kotze was patient.
While they looked easy enough to emulate, as I have watched countless of karate movies and covered numerous karate tournaments, doing them was a whole different matter.
For some reason, my limbs just could not execute these seemingly simple moves and frustration started to creep in.
But then I had to remind myself that I’m participating for fun and I will not get things perfect the first night.
That was until we tentatively moved on to Soto-Uke which is an outside inward forearm block, Uchi-Uke, an inside outward forearm block and a Mae Geri, a front kick.
It was at this point that I regretted my decision and was close to marching out the door when I stopped to look around.
No matter how tough it was, everyone around me had smiles on their faces and seemed to be enjoying the hard physical training they were doing.
As I was leaving the dojo, Sensei Wendy told me not everyone starts out as an expert and that everyone started where I was.
Now that I have experienced the excitement of being on the mat, working hard to remember the Japanese phrases and memorising the techniques, I started regretting not joining a sports club sooner. But then again, it takes nine months to give birth to a baby and it took nine months for this journalist to join his first sports club. Every Monday and Wednesday from 7pm I will be sweating it out at the Horizon View Karate Centre.
Want to receive news alerts via WhatsApp? Send us an SMS/ WhatsApp message with your name and cellphone number to 079 414 6709.
Familiarise yourself with our WhatsApp service disclaimer.
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at roodepoortrecord@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.
For free daily local news on the West Rand, also visit our sister newspaper websites Randfontein Herald, Krugersdorp News and Get It Joburg West Magazine
Remember to visit our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages to let your voice be heard!
