Martial Arts Canada hosted its annual shiai at the Tillsonburg Community Centre.
Article content
“It’s a small, inner-club tournament,” said Shihan MaryLynn Okkerse. “It’s just our students here from all of the locations.”
Article content
About 100 children sparred and performed their kata on April 27 following a short but dramatic blackbelt karate demonstration on-stage that included board-breaking and a bed of nails.
“It’s close to the end of the season, so the younger students have had a chance to learn their kata and they can show what they have learned,” said Okkerse. “The end of the third session is the end of June. Some locations take the summer off, some continue to train during the summer.”
Martial Arts Canada’s family includes dojos in Tillsonburg, St. Thomas, Sparta, Teeterville, and Straffordville.
“We kept it going online as much as we could during COVID, but now we’re really in an interesting rebuilding period. We don’t have as many advanced belt kids, but now they’re really starting to come up again. The interest is really high and the club is rebuilding back to at least where it was before COVID.”
Article content
The Tiny Tigers program still generates a lot of interest, she said, but martial arts is not just for young kids.
“You can start martial arts at any age,” said Okkerse. “My husband (Jay Okkerse) started when we met 15 years ago, and he’s a blackbelt now too. That’s the really nice thing about martial arts.”
Over the years MAC’s base of blackbelts, and their collective knowledge, has become ‘so broad,’ said Okkerse.
“We’ve really grown as a club in that respect, which is great, and we can all share it with each other. I couldn’t even guess how many black belts we have now.”
Next year, 2025, is the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Martial Arts Canada.
“We’re looking forward to doing some celebrations for that.”
Share this article in your social network