Where Karate is not only taught, but also understood, perfected and applied inside and outside the Dojo
Affiliated to SASKA, WUKF, UWK & ISKS
WUKF World Championships
After returning home from our trip to Italy in May 2011, I breathed a long sigh of relief, knowing in my heart that I had finally achieved my ultimate goal in karate – not just winning a medal at the world championships, but winning a medal at the same world championships in the same year as my father.
I consider myself extremely lucky to have experienced this unimaginable feeling of success that very, very few Father and Son’s will ever get to experience in their life time.
Below is a summarized version of our history in karate and our journey to success in both winning medals at the WUKF Seniors & Veterans World Championships held in Lignano, Italy in May 2011.
It all began in 1989, when I was just 5 years old. I am told that I had been begging my parents to start karate for a while, when finally they saw an article in the Alberton record about a karate club in Alberton. So believe it or not, I actually started karate before my dad, even if only just by a couple of months. Although, this had been a sport which Sensei Laurent had been interested in since being a child himself and had tried out once before in his teenage years, but clearly all that was needed to get properly involved in this art, was a son to do it with him.
So at the age of 5, after having just started primary school, my parents enrolled me at the Funakoshi karate club in Alberton under the leadership of Sensei Llewellyn Oosthuizen. I started together with my older sister and my cousin, and it only took about 2 months of my dad sitting there watching the lessons for him to be roped into the class, and so began our 23 year journey of doing karate together with each year being even better than the last, and our knowledge, experience, teaching abilities and performances going from strength to strength each year.
Our first few years of karate were filled with enthusiasm and excitement about all the new techniques and kata’s we were learning. When Sensei explains in class that all students need to train at home to improve their karate, he is speaking from experience. It really was a case of moving the furniture around in the lounge at home so we could practice out kata’s before competitions and doing our grading techniques up and down the passage at home when preparing for our gradings.
When we say you need to breathe, eat and live karate it is because this is what we have done and it has proven to be a great method to success. We literally did karate till it came out of our ears, we watched karate movies, we trained at home in the house, garden and garage and where constantly stretching, kicking or punching one another, be it at home or out at the shops. It is clearly our calling in life and has been so since day one.
Although it hasn’t been an easy path as some might believe. We are where we are today through hours and hours of training and hard work. Competition karate has changed a lot over the years with styles becoming a lot more divided in recent years making competitions a lot smaller than they were, and age, belt and weight categories were far less fairly divided making competitions very tough in our first few years of karate. I remember having up to 20 competitors in my division at local club tournaments, with the divisions going up to 30 or 40 at provincial level and over 50 competitors in my division at national level tournaments. Believe it or not, neither of us placed anywhere at our first SA’s championships. We had a tough start in the beginning, particularly Sensei being a senior at the time. But needless to say once we had a taste of victory nothing has stood in our way of doing the necessary preparation and training that we needed to win at all or most of the competitions we took part in.
Italy 2011
FATHER & SON
SUCCESS STORY
By Sensei Nicholas Gaston-Bellegarde
Sensei Laurent Gaston-Bellegarde
(6th Dan) – Silver Medal Veterans Kata WUKF World Championships Lignano, Italy – May 2011
Sensei Nicholas Gaston-Bellegarde
(4th Dan) – Bronze Medal Seniors Kata WUKF World Championships Lignano, Italy – May 2011
After doing karate for 3 years in the Funakoshi style, our Sensei at the time decided to change over to the South African Shotokan Karate Academy under Shihan Koos Burger. It was a decision that was needed due to the lack of the Funakoshi style being internationally recognized. We were initially upset about it at the time as we were happy with what we had, but actually had no idea what was in store for us. And so in 1992 we joined the SASKA style to which we have now been affiliated for 20 consecutive years. We were purple belts at the time and I still remember the first grading we ever had under this new style because Shihan Koos attended and was there to grade us. I remember I still won a trophy that day for doing the best grading. And so our success story in this Shotokan style of karate was underway. Sensei Laurent graded to his 1st dan at the end of 1993 after just 4 years of doing karate. I on the other had had to wait until 1995 when I was 12 years old, which was the minimum age at the time, until I could grade to my junior black belt. And since then we have successfully passed each and every one of our Dan gradings after waiting the specified minimum waiting times between each grading. Once we were black belts we soon realised our ability to teach and pass on our knowledge to others. In 1996 we opened the cobras club and began teaching together. Teaching and passing on our knowledge of this magnificent martial art has just made karate become even a bigger part of our lives. Although we had already achieved great levels of success in our karate careers at all our grading’s and at local and national tournaments, we soon began to realise just how big karate is in the world and that our next goal would be to conquer a world championship event.
Our first tour overseas was when I was selected as part of the South African All styles team to participate at the WKC Children and Juniors World Championships held in Novi Sad, Yugo Slavia in October of 2002. We went over with a team of about 50 participants and were absolutely stunned at the sheer size of the event and divisions I was to partake in. I fell out in my first round of kata and after my first fight. So it turned out to be a very tough first international experience. Our next overseas tournament was the WKC Seniors and Veterans World Championships in Brazil during 2005. This was the first time Sensei Laurent was taking part internationally, and my first in the senior’s category. Our success rate was a bit better at this championship with both of us making it to the final round in our kata events. We then competed in Spain during 2007 at the WUKO Seniors and Veterans World Championships, where Sensei achieved his first medal at a World Championships. He got a Bronze in his kata division. Next up we competed at the WUKF Seniors and Veterans World Championships which was held in Ukraine during 2009. Sensei again achieved great success at this tournament and moved up the ranks to achieve a silver medal in his kata division. And our latest international competition was the WUKF Seniors and Veterans World Championships held in Italy in May 2011. And to date this has been our most successful international tournament, where Sensei again achieved a silver medal in his kata division and myself a bronze in my kata. I can honestly say, in all my 23 years of doing karate, this was the absolutely pinnacle of my karate career, not only achieving my first medal at a World championships, but doing it together with my dad. It was a first for our style to have a Father / Son combination achieving international success and definitely a first for our family, but I can assure you it definitely won’t be our last. It is the most memorable moment in all my 23 years of doing karate and will be a memory I will cherish forever.
Each and every time we compete internationally we come back more motivated and hungry for better, harder, faster and more intense training and we will continue to strive to improve ourselves and so pass on this knowledge and experience to our students. While World championships continues to be our main focus on a personal level, teaching our students and getting them to reach these same levels of achievement is another goal we wish to fulfil in the near future. I think I can safely say that we will both do karate for the rest of our lives, until our physical health allows us to, and one of the main factors attributing to our great success in karate, is that we both know in our hearts that we will always have each other to train, teach and succeed with.