Craighall Park karate school teaches you to be the best you can be

You should imagine with all your mind, believe with all your heart and achieve with all your might.

This is the maxim of Els Karate in Craighall Park, where karate students are taught to be good people, and having to fight is already a loss.

“Karate is a Japanese martial art that gives one a balanced mind, morals, character, sincerity, effort, respect for others or etiquette, and self-control,” said sensei Andrew Els of the karate school.

The third dan black belt explained that he trained his 90 Craighall Park students, and his 40 students elsewhere, how to diffuse situations and avoid fights when they could, but also how to win fights quickly when they could not be avoided.

The dojo is based at St Teresa’s Foundation Phase but sometimes Els takes his students to a quiet green area near Braamfontein Spruit to practise kata (patterns or movements), fighting and other physical activities that build strength.

“I have been doing karate for nine years and love that it teaches you how to defend yourself without hurting someone too badly,” said junior black belt student, Bradley Becker (14).

Mila Bitter (13) also has a black belt and is a national champion in kata as well as kumite.

“I have learnt perseverance and to try my best always,” she said, joking that the worst part of karate was the push-ups she had to do.

Bitter’s younger brother, Marco (10), also does karate and has earned himself a brown belt.

He said he and his sister sometimes sparred but she always won.

“One day I will beat her,” he smiled.

Also read: Two siblings at Greenside High School excel at karate 

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