Three members of Dumfries Wado-Kai Karate Club successfully passed their examination and reached the rank of Shodan, the black belt rank in Japanese martial arts.
The Dumfries club showed that age doesn’t matter after 14-year-old Kyle Gowan, 55-year-old Duncan Scobie and Ron Carrick, 68, attended a karate studio, Honbu Dojo in Dunfermline where they achieved the first senior rank.
Instructor, Allan McKean, 56, said: “I am very proud of their achievements. As a coach, it is my job to provide the opportunity to all students to develop to the best of their potential. Despite Covid-19 restrictions we were able to provide lessons via Zoom and many took the opportunity.
“They have all shown that with hard work and self-discipline you can achieve your goals.
“We have used the karate studio, Honbu Dojo, for a few years as it is ideal for the purpose. The examination is carried out by a very experienced panel that decides on the day but also monitors over a long period of time.
”Karate, if carried out traditionally, is a journey.
“It doesn’t matter when you start, it only matters to you how long you wish to travel. No one will ever be an expert or know everything even about their own style. As the journey continues it becomes more personalised.
“My own Senseis are now 75-years-old and 65-years-old and still phenomenal and knowledgeable and we carry on because we want to learn more about health and fitness as well as the traditions of Japanese karate.”
The club welcomes all ages from five years onward. The emphasis is for the young to have fun and the older ones to push themselves for greater fitness and improvement of technique.
Mr McKean, a recently retired police officer, started Wado-Kai in 1994 in West Lothian and is now offering classes to over 200 licence members.
“We normally start children at age five where they can at least take some small amount of instruction and they go through a shortened syllabus with some fun games throughout but still do Kata, a detailed choreographed pattern of martial arts movements made to be practised alone and Kickmaster drills, mannequins striking.
“If people are looking for fitness, self-discipline, focus, confidence, flexibility, balance, core strengthening as well as something you can do at your own pace then Wado-Kai karate is for you. You don’t have to be super flexible or super fit to begin with as you will become so at a pace that fits your individual circumstances.”
