Roodekrans karate students excel
Provincial and National colours awarded to students
Ten students from the Roodekrans Karate dojo were recently rewarded for their hard work when they received their Provincial and National colours.
“We had a quite a few students that participated in the recent Japanese Karate Association (JKA) championships, and I am very proud of their achievements. The competition at these tournaments is always very strong, and for students from a club as young as ours, it was phenomenal for them to have been able to participate and achieve podium places,” a proud sensei Petra Smit said.
Raelene Grace McKinley, Chanté Visagie, Sean Venter, Leandra Oosthuizen, Liam Poustie and Ian Venter all received Provincial and National colours in either JKA or Shotokan, or both. Annette Venter and Ryan McGowan received their National colours in Shotokan, while Nathan Poustie was awarded with Regional coulours for JKF.
Diaan Blignaut received Provincial colours for WKF All Styles Karate.
Petra could not stop smiling when asked about the dojo and her students and she said, “For me it is all about teaching them love and passion for the sport. It is amazing to see the children’s faces when they participate and achieve something. Yes, sometimes there are tears as well when it did not go too well, but then we use the opportunity to build them up. I try to never break them down.”
She added that karate can be a very harsh sport that takes a lot of dedication and hard work, but she always tries to make training fun by incorporating other elements. “That is how you enable them to love the sport, and, in the end, that is what is most important to me,” said Petra.
Petra – who is now a fourth Dan Black Belt – has been doing karate for the past 30 years, and said, “It has always been a dream of mine to have my own dojo, and I will never look back. But, we do not only do this for money, it is all about love for the sport and the people.”
Although the dojo is mainly a karate centre, they also offer self-defence classes, Krav Magav and awareness classes for the community. The community classes are free of charge and usually focus on anti-hijacking techniques, self-defence and much more.
See video here:
Classes are offered from Monday to Thursday. For more information, contact Petra on 082 772 7644 or send an email to roodekrans.karate@gmail.com.
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