Total Submission is Witpoortjie’s very own Kickboxing club.
Established just seven years ago, the club has grown in leaps and bounds, producing national champions.
With Darin Opperman as head coach, assisted by Jared de Wet, Waldo van Wyk and JP Jacobs, club members are ensured to get the best from their club.
The club offers a variety of fitness, conditioning and special training modules. Amateurs are welcome where self defence is taught.
Opperman has a wealth of experience in martial arts, having trained in Karate, Chinese kung-fu and wrestling before settling with kickboxing.
“I have tried most combat sports and kickboxing is the toughest because it’s a contact sport, there is not going soft. You go hard or you go home,” said Opperman.
The head coach has travelled as far as China where he participated in the World Kickboxing Championships in 1992 before deciding to take a step back and go into coaching. He jokes that he is too old to compete in tournaments.
“I enjoy coaching more but it’s not possible to be a player coach because I have to be at ringside when my pupils are competing and give them all the support I can. I have been a part of many clubs and when I decided to open my own club, people thought I wouldn’t last but it’s already been seven years and we are still standing,” he said.
Another reason that Opperman decided to coach was because of the pressure other clubs would put on young amateur kickboxers, but now that has changed with the World Association of Kickboxing (WAKO) and Martial Arts South Africa which the club falls under.
“Some of the clubs that I’ve been to would pit a junior against a senior, which I never felt comfortable with but now things have changed and the sport is much safer now then it was before,” he said.
Antoinette Visser, a rising star has been training in the sport for three years. The 19-year-old has represented South Africa against Mauritius in 2010, going on to become a national champion. She also won the Gauteng trials twice in a row between 2011 and 2012.
“Learning the sport is fun and I’ve learnt how to defend myself. I am currently on purple belt and Ill be going for brown 2 belt in May then hopefully get my black belt in November. My goal in the sport is to open my own kickboxing club and share my knowledge about the sport,” said Antoinette.
The club does not do their own grading, instead, they travel to Pretoria where they show off the techniques they have learnt to WAKO representatives who will then decide if the pupils are good enough to go onto the next grade.
The club are currently preparing to send 12 of their members for a competition at Pretoria’s show grounds in March.
Opperman is proud of his club and another source of pride is his 12-year-old son Dillon, who already has a black belt. Dillon started the sport at five years of age and now teaches the juniors in the club.
“I was proud when my son got his black belt because I was 18 when I got mine and he is 12. My son has the potential to become a professional in the sport but that is up to him to decide,” said Opperman.
In March, the club is offering a free month for all those who are interested in joining but would like to assess whether it is suitable.
Training is Mondays and Wednesdays from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. For more information, contact Darin Opperman on 081-401-2020.
