Five years of Vale Karate (From Penarth Times)

Five years of Vale Karate

THIS MONTH, Vale Karate celebrates five years as an Indepen-dent member of The Welsh Karate Govern-ing Body.

In that short time, chief instructor Rob Copeland has guided Vale Karate from its origins of being one small club to become arguably Wales' most successful Association.

In October of 2000, Rob had been training in karate for 21 years. Having run The Vale Karate club based at Barry Leisure Centre since 1986 as a member of the Karate Union of Wales and having dominated the KUW Individual Competition scene, winning no fewer than 14 KUW titles, he needed a fresh challenge.

Rob decided to go it alone. Membership of the National Governing Body was essential in order to give his members the opportunity to compete at the highest level and he was granted Independent membership of The Welsh Karate Governing Body (then called The Welsh Karate Federation) at The executive committee meeting on October 21, 2000 and Vale Karate - formally The Vale of Glamorgan Karate Organisation - was born.

From an initial membership of approximately 100 and one club in Barry, Vale Karate at present comprise five clubs in Barry, Beddau, Rhoose and two in Cardiff (Cyncoed and the City Centre) and has approximately 300 members.

The clubs in Rhoose (at Fontygary Leisure Park) and Cardiff City Centre (Vitality Health and fitness club, above Henry's Bar) are new in October 2005, run by Vale Karate senior instructor Andrew Kanias 4th Dan, 2004 Welsh Kata champion and who has been training with Rob for 20 years.

Vale Karate believes in adults and children being taught differently and separately. Adults train in traditional Shotokan Karate, a classical martial art.

For children, Rob has changed many of the training methods used in traditional clubs, while sticking rigidly to traditional roots and in particular traditional values. While also taught the basics of Shotokan, with discipline and general behaviour paramount, there is added emphasis on WKF competition'sport' karate, with kata and kumite being given equal importance.

Rob believes Vale Karate have the finest all-round junior karate athletes in Wales and is constantly striving to increase the already extremely high standards.

In August of 2001, Rob was joined by Bo Channon. Like Rob, Bo is a Fifth Dan, having received his Dan Grade from the world's foremost Shotokan instructor, Sensei Hirokazu Kanazawa, when he was just ten years-old in 1982.

He was at that time the youngest student worldwide to be awarded black belt by Sensei Kanazawa.

Bo had been unbeaten in kata in the KUW since he was a young boy, but had not competed for almost a decade. On joining Vale Karate, he returned to competition and was immediately selected to represent Wales.

Since 2002, he has won the Welsh title four times and is at present Wales' only male kata International competitor, having represented Wales at The Common-wealth, European and World Championships.

Rob has continued in his resolve to give his members the opportunity to learn from and compete against the best and to this end has turned his back on'easy trophies' at the many'freestyle' and single style events which are in abundance, concentrating instead on those tournaments run by and recognised by the national governing bodies and therefore the Sports Councils of 180 nations affiliated to the World Karate Federation.

In 2004, Vale Karate sent competitors to 32 tournaments at home and abroad and in the last two years, Vale Karate has had representatives at the Dutch Open, the German Open, the Kamacho Belgian International Open, the World University Champ-ionships in Serbia and the Bratislava Open in Slovakia.

As members of the Welsh team, Vale Karate members have attended The European U-21 Champ-ionships in Greece, the Senior European Championships in Tenerife, the Common-wealth Karate Champion-ships in New Zealand and the Senior World Champ-ionships in Mexico.

The Sports Council for Wales recognises only WKGB- run events as official Welsh Championships and Vale Karate can proudly claim no fewer than the extraordinary tally of 46 official Welsh titles since independence- far more than any other Welsh Association. To this are added eight official British titles and a handful of prestigious International honours.

Vale Karate Squad:

SENIOR'A' SQUAD

Bo Channon, four times Welsh champion; Billy Seagrim, twice Welsh champion; Gichin Funa-koshi World Cadet champion, European Silver medallist; Gareth Reynolds, three times British Universities champion, three times Welsh champion, World Universities bronze medallist, British champion 2005, British International Open champion 2005, Common-wealth champion 2005; Alice Hooper, Welsh champion, North Wales Open champion; Andrew Kanias, Welsh champion, WKA & WBK champion; Alan Morgans, WKA & WBK champion.

JUNIOR'A' SQUAD

Nick Hooper (12), six times Welsh Under 12 kata champion, 2005, Welsh Under 16 Kata champion; Kobe Osaka World Cup Under 10 Kata champion 2002; Danish Open Under 12 Kata champion 2003, British International Open, Under 12 Kata champion 2004, Natasha Paton (13), eight times Welsh champion, twice British Champion; Kamacho Belgian Inter-national Kumite champion 2004, Vale of Glamorgan Junior Female Sports Personality of the Year 2004; Rhys Davies (12), nine times Welsh champion, 2004 British champion; Scott Paramore (13), three times Welsh champion, 2005 British champion; Elliot Evans (12), six times Welsh champion; Leah Copeland (11). North Wales Open Kata champion 2005, four times Welsh Bushi-Kai champion; Perrie Wilson (11), twice Welsh champion.

Highlights

CLASSES

Vale Karate have continuous on-going beginners classes for both children and adults at Barry Leisure Centre.

They hold six in-club tournaments every year as a training and scouting exercise for potential champions, also at Barry Leisure Centre.

All Vale Karate's coaches are fully qualified level II coaches with the governing body.

The world's top coaches are regularly hired to help in the Vale Karate Squad's continuous development. Recent coaches brought to Barry have been nine-times world champion and current England head coach Wayne Otto OBE, the legendary Dave Hazard 7th Dan and the coach to many International squads, and; world champion Junior Lefevre.

With Welsh Kata number one Bo Channon as Kata coach and British and Commonwealth karate champion Gareth Reynolds as junior Kumite coach, Rob is given time to guide the future of Vale Karate's children and adults alike and he sees an extremely bright future for karate in Wales in general and Vale Karate in particular.