September | 2016 | Solis Ortus

Creches to Dojo Visits

If one looks carefully, once a month there are the pitter patter of new little feet running around with the Solis Ortus Minis. These are the the Karate Kids from the 5 creches we are currently teaching at.

This new move is to show these little upcoming karatekas who exactly they belong to..the family of Solis Ortus.

We have had a total of 3 visits so far, with another one planned for the month of October. The Karate Kids will also be joining the Solis Ortus Minins in the Coen Memorial challenge. This should be a lot of fun, both for the officials and the students alike.

The creche kiddies really enjoyed the activities, and many returned for more.

Here are some of the faces one will be seeing:

This year has, as usual, been a very busy one as far as tournaments are concerned. Our karatekas who compete at these tournaments experience a totally different side of karate, namely sports karate.

Sports karate in this country is managed by KSA (Karate South Africa), which, in turn is managed by WKF (World Karate Federation) worldwide. Many styles of karate affiliate their competitive student with these organisations, such as our style, JKA (Japan Karate Association)

Sports karate has its own rules and is a totally different ball game to the traditional karate (JKA Organisation) our students train at the club. Sensei Eugene does try to keep a balance between the two, something only a few clubs do, and manage positively. Sport Karate and Club Karate compliment each other, and each should be respected for what it brings to the table in terms of improving a karate athlete’s abilities and performance.

Sports karate has two sections, Kata and Kumite. The Katas performed are usually very high level kata, and Free fighting, where points are awarded for execution of well targeted punches and kicks. Control of contact is applied, however the higher the age, the more contact is allowed.

Both styles, traditional and sports karate have different conditioning needs namely:

JKA’s goal originally is to “incapacitate an adversary with one blow”, whereas sport karate’s goals are to score points by tagging an opponent or to avoid being tagged/hit.

At Solis Ortus our primary foundation is the strong Budo of JKA, Shotokan.

Budo is a very broad term meaning any discipline that has, for the practitioner, become a way of life. Budo, thus refers to post-1600 generations of Japanese fighting systems based on former arts, but which emphasize “do” — personal, ethical and spiritual development as the ultimate goal of training.

JKA is our Budo, and sports karate is a sport.

Our youngest competitor is 5 and our oldest is 52. In our club alone we have produced about 15 to 20 protea members.

So far, in 2016 we have competed in the following tournaments:

JKA Traditional Tournaments:

JKA Gauteng Provincials: 11 and 12 March 2016

SA JKA Nationals: 20 and 21 May 2016

Sports Karate (also called All styles) Tournaments

Tshwane Trials: 6 February 2016

GKF Champs : 19 / 21 February 2016

KSA U21,seniors, veterans and disabled : 4 / 5 March 2016

KSA children, juniors and kadets : 18 / 19 March 2016

KSL Bulls challenge : 16 April 2016