Karate WSKF Shotokan Mike Dukas
Congratulations to the following people who took part in the “Black Belt Grading” held in
Langebaan South Africa during the Black Belt Seminar on 24th February 2012.
They were awarded grading status as follows:
Shodan
Jan Marx (Junior)
Lizaan Van Eeden
Sandan
Jan Marx Sensei
The 1st WSKF South African National Seminar held from 24th – 26th February 2012 proved to be a resounding success!!!
The location was the beautiful Cape West Coast – a great venue within the West Coast National Park.
Special thanks to Jan Marx Sensei for organizing the amazing venue and all the delicious food etc.
The Seminar was very well supported, with members from all the areas attending.
Everyone agreed that this event should be an annual event – the venue will vary to give other areas a chance to be the host area.
Mike Sensei explained that this Seminar concentrated on standardization of the WSKF Syllabus.
Due to the fact that the Langebaan Dojo was the host area, all members from that area were invited to attend the Seminar on Saturday.
This would give them the opportunity of training with the top Instructors and with the Black Belts from other areas.
There was a great spirit of camaraderie and friendship among the karateka from all areas, resulting in fun socializing after all the hard training.
What a successful tour our team had in Japan. We are so proud of every one of the members who took part in the WSKF World Championships and also the Technical Seminar. To the parents that toured with the group, all I can say is that you have now experienced a karate tour – not full of luxuries, but good camaraderie and karate spirit!
Herewith some feedback on the sequence of events:
Technical Seminar conducted by Kasuya Sensei was conducted in true Japanese style. Kasuya Sensei was very strict on the floor but friendly off the floor. It was a great experience for all who attended and everyone felt that they were “beginners” again!
Werner Pretorius and Brandon Shepherd graded for Shodan (1st Dan) under the Japanese Instructors and the comment from Kasuya Sensei (WSKF Chief Instructor) after our boys graded was: “Standard of a very high level”.
We are very proud of them both.
Congratulations to the two Individual Kata medalists:
Chezan Nel who won a Bronze medal and to Palesa Mafereka who also won a Bronze medal. You girls are both stars.
Well done to the participants in the Team events:
Boys Team Kata – Bronze medal i.e. Brandon Shepherd, Johnny Kuhn and Daniel Nunes.
Girls Team Kumite – Silver medal i.e. Chezan Nel, Wenette Jordaan and Marelie Botha.
What a wonderful surprise we had when the award was announced for the “Best Competitor of the Tournament” and it was won by our own Bryan Sensei. Bryan Sensei commented later that the award meant more to him than the 2 medals he won i.e. Silver for Kata and Silver for Kumite. What an achievement!
To all parents and karateka, please believe me when I tell you that good basics will deliver results. Bryan Sensei is a true example of good basics.
To all the other competitors who did not win medals – please remember that we are very proud of you as well. Experience gained will make you stronger for future events. Remember what I always say “Learn to lose gracefully and then it is easy to win gracefully”. Keep training.
Brandon Shepherd and Ewald Van Zyl have been awarded South African National Colour and will be representing South Africa at the Commonwealth Karate Championships to be held in Australia. Congratulations to you both, there is no bigger achievement in any sport than to represent your Country. Elandi also attained a 3rd place at the trials and will also be taking part. We know you will make us all proud!!
The KSA (all styles) Cadet, Junior, U/21 and Senior Championships will be held in Port Elizabeth on 9-11 June 2011. All members who qualified to be included in the Gauteng South Province Team, please confirm with us urgently if you are able to attend.
The WSKF World Championships will be held in Tokyo, Japan in August 2011. If you are interested in being part of the team, please speak to Mike Sensei or Bryan Sensei about your eligibility to be part of the team. Urgent as we have to book flight tickets and try to get accommodation.
The Gauteng South Provincial/Invitational Tournament will be held end of August or beginning of September (details to follow)
Patricia Shepherd has kindly offered to lead a Committee to organise a Golf Day on Friday 5th August 2011. The funds raised will be for our team members who will be traveling to Japan for the WSKF World Championships. Letters with all the details will be circulated within the next few days. We request that all members help the Committee to make this event a success.
Congratulations to all our members who won medals in the recent Karate Academy S.A. Championships. We feel proud of all our members.
The 2010 Prize Giving was held on 4 February 2011.
We wish you all the very best for the coming year. May you be blessed with everything good, and may our dojos grow from strength to strength.This year is going to be a jammed packed year again!!! Lots of great tournaments locally and internationally coming up. We hope that many of our members will take part in them and enjoy the experience.
The event was a great success, but we do realise that this is not a good time to hold the event due to many of the juniors taking part in athletics during this time of the year. We will endeavour to hold the 2011 Prize Giving in October this year.
The 2010 year ended on several positive notes for the Dukas karate Institute.
During August 2010 Ewald Van Zyl made us very proud by winning a Bronze Medal for Kumite at the KSA South African Cadet and Junior Championships held in Port Elizabeth. Congratulations to Ewald.
In September 2010, members of the Vanderbijlpark and Vereeniging dojos received their Gauteng South Provincial Colours when they competed in the KSA Childrens Championships held in Pretoria. Well done to Marike Stols, Wenette Jordaan, Tanja Stevenson, Justin Van Jaarsveld, Jared Edson, Tristan Basel, Liam Alyward, Sithembiso Madondo, Daniel Nunes and Bradley McCleod.
The Provincial Championship that was held at the Olympians was very well organized and all the invited dojos enjoyed it very much. Well done to the Gauteng South Committee for organizing and staging the event.
A Black Belt Grading was held in Johannesburg on 9th October. Congratulations to Sensei Bryan Dukas for achieving his Go Dan (5th Dan); Jean-Pierre Van Niekerk, Thomas Van Niekerk, Marten Van Wyk on their Sho Dan (1st Dan); together with young Werner Pretorius and Mieke Van der Merwe on their national Black Belts.
KWF World Karate Championships
The year started off with a great event. During March 2009, members of the area took part in the KWF World Karate Championships held in Norway.
Brandon Shepherd proved his ability by winning a Gold Medal in the division Open Male Kata 12-13 years thus making him a KWF World Champion! Other members who excelled at this event were Marten Van Wyk who achieved a bronze medal in the same division. Brandon Shepherd, Marten Van Wyk and Ewald Van Zyl then went on to win a Silver Medal in the Goodwill Junior Team Kata division, as well as a Bronze Medal in the Goodwill Team Kumite. Sensei Bryan accompanied the team to this event.
Jean-Pierre Van Niekerk, Thomas Van Niekerk, Werner Pretorius and Marike Stols from the Dukas Karate Institute achieved the greatest honour a sportsperson can achieve when they were awarded National Junior Protea Colours, and represented South Africa at the Commonwealth Karate Championships, held in Pretoria in September 2009.
They excelled at this event. Marike was the shining star who came back with a gold medal for kata in her age category. Jean-Pierre, Thomas and Werner won the bronze medal for Team Kata in the Senior Division.
During September 2009 the Institute had the privilege of hosting a group of Japanese Karateka who were in South Africa on a friendly tour. It was great to train with our Japanese friends and exchange training techniques with them. The karateka are well known to a group of the members who regularly train in Japan.
Brandon Shepherd, Ewald van Zyl and Marten van Wyk, were part of the South African team that participated at the 5th KWF World Cup held in Norway during March.
Gauteng South Provincial Colours during 2009
Brandon Shepherd, Ewald Van Zyl, Ryszard Zywotkiewicz, Teresa Zywotkiewicz, Thomas Van Niekerk, Tiaan Dickson, Werner Pretorius, Jean-Pierre Van Niekerk, Johnny Kuhn, Morne Engelbrecht. These karateka represented the Province at the KSA National All Styles Junior and Cadet Championships held in Durban during April.
Calin Oscroft, G.J. Stols, Justin Van Jaarsveld, Liam Aylward, Marelie Botha, Marike Stols and Michael Kuhn represented the Province at the KSA Children’s Tournament held in Cape Town in October.
As in the past, Sensei Mike Dukas (7th Dan) and Sensei Bryan Dukas (4th Dan) together with all their Instructors are planning to put a lot of effort into the development of traditional Japanese karate in the Province during 2010.
Brandon proved to be one of the stars of the SA team. He won a gold medal in the Open Kata 12-13 year division, making him the 2009 KWF World Champion in this division. Marten brought home the bronze medal in the same division. Brandon, Ewald and Marten won a silver medal in Goodwill Junior Team Kata. Brandon and Ewald took a silver medal as part of the Goodwill Junior Team Kumite.
(Front f.l.t.r.) Teresa Zywotkiewicz, Tatjana Radojevic-Rogowski (Team Manager), Brandon Shepherd and Johnny Kuhn (Back f.l.t.r.) Thomas van Niekerk, Ryszard Zywotkiewicz, Werner Pretorius, Tiaan Dickson, Ewald van Zyl, Morne Engelbrecht, Jean-Pierre van Niekerk and Sensei Bryan Dukas (Coach)
Ten karateka from the Vaal region recently received Gauteng South Provincial Colours after being selected to represent the Province at the Karate South Africa (KSA) National All Styles Junior and Cadet Championships. The championships were held in Durban at the University of KwaZulu Natal from 17 to 18 April.
The team did the Province proud.
Ewald van Zyl won a bronze medal for kata in the Cadet (14 – 15 year) division.
Thomas van Niekerk, Jean-Pierre van Niekerk and Werner Pretorius won a bronze medal for unison (team) kata in the Cadet division.
Sensei Bryan Dukas was selected as the South African Protea Team Captain during the World All Styles Karate Championships held in Tokyo, Japan during November 2008.
This is the first time that a karateka from Gauteng South Province has held this honour.
Sansha van der Merwe, an avid member of the Vanderbijlpark dojo, matriculated in 2008 and obtained 7 distinctions. We proudly congratulate Sasha and wish her a prosperous and fruitful 4-year study period in Potchefstroom were she is working hard at completing a BSc Chemical Engineering degree after obtaining a Sasol bursary. Hence we anticipate the successful completion of her studies and her ultimate return to the Vaal Triangle and our dojo.
Seven members of the Dukas karate Institute recently visited Japan for training and sightseeing. Training at the honbu-dojo was, as always, strenuous. We were also invited to train at the Shoto dojo in Shibuya.
After the first week we were all pro’s at using the subway, JR and busses but even with one of the most efficient transportation systems in the world, we also did A LOT of walking. We were fortunate to have found comfortable accommodation close to the dojo which saved a lot in terms of travelling time and costs.
Most of our time was spent exploring Tokyo and of course shopping in Akihabara and Asakusa’s Nakimase-dori and Takeshita-dori in Harajuku. Sightseeing included Sensoji Temple in Asakusa, Shibuya’s Meiji Shrine and Yoyogi Park (where we spotted the famous Tokyo Rockabilly Club), Roppongi (an area well-known for its nightlife), Ueno Park, the Imperial Palace Gardens, Rikugien Garden and the Shinjuku skyscraper district. Some of the tour members travelled to Hiroshima by Shinkansen to visit the sacred island of Miyajima and stopping over in Kyoto on the way back
The highlights of this trip (apart from the training of course) was a karaoke evening where the group had some serious encounters with Shochu and a very special gasshuku at Lake Kawaguchi near Mt Fuji. Some of the sights in the area included the Statue of Takeda Shingen, Erinji Temple and Takeda Shrine. Regrettably it rained all weekend and there was no sight of Mt Fuji (to Sensei Mike’s delight or maybe even due to his magic). To compensate we travelled to the fifth station on Fuji by bus.
The group was treated to a wonderful hoto lunch – The area where we were -Yamanashi prefecture – is famous for this rich vegetable stew with udon noodles). For dinner we had a scrumptious Japanese braai. Gochisosama deshita” to our generous hosts. Too soon the trip was at an end and we had to say goodbye to Japan and the friends we have made there.
A special thank you to Sensei Mike and everyone who made this trip a memorable experience.
Well done !
” I once again was selected for the National South African Karate team to compete at the 12th All African Karate Championships to be held in Benin on the 9th and 10th of August 2008. The team consisted of 16 of SA’s most elite Karateka. This is an All Styles Karate event that gets held every 2nd year across different African countries. South Africa hopes to host this prestigious event in 2010. This is the biggest Karate event that a National Team member can compete in between the African countries. South Africa won 3 medals at the Championships of which I was one, winning Bronze in the Male Open Kata Event. Hoping to get selected now for the 19th World All Styles Championships to be held in Japan in November 2008. Lots of hard training will follow in the next few months to prepare for this event.” – Bryan Dukas Sensei
Brandon Shepherd
Brandon Shepherd, a student of Sensei Bryan Dukas was awarded Junior National Colours and took part in the Commonwealth Karate championships held in Scotland during June 2008. He was selected by Sedibeng to receive a special award at the end of the year in the division “Sport, Youth and Culture”