KARATE SAFARI

by Raymond Morcomb

SKC NATIONAL TEAM TRAVELS TO SOUTH AFRICA

From left to right: Keith Geyer, Robert Sachs, Luke Byrne and Raymond Morcomb overlooking Hout Bay on the atlantic ocean side of CapeTown

On Tuesday 20th May, I headed off to Melbourne airport with team mate Luke Byrne for what would be the trip of a lifetime. Our destination was Johannesburg, South Africa.

After a short flight to Perth, Luke and I met with Stan Schmidt Sensei and then travelled on to South Africa. Landing in Johannesburg for me was quite exciting and part terrifying. This was to be my first ever trip to Africa and unfortunately the stories that many ex South Africans now living in Australia had told me, were a little intimidating to say the least.  

Rest assured my faithful travelling companion, Luke Byrne, had already travelled to South Africa with Keith Sensei several times before this trip.  In fact, I believe, this was his fourth Karate mission to Jo’burg. 

Now Luke, realising that I was quite nervous, assured me that he was an exceptional kumite man and would protect me against all odds.   So having this in mind and knowing Luke had survived his previous trips, I half blindly led myself into the eye of the storm.  

After spending our first night in Jo’burg with our host Ilane Bernstein, we headed off early back to the airport to meet Keith Geyer Sensei in Cape Town.  Although we only spent the one short night there, I can confidently say it was a beautiful place to visit. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting and training with all Keith Sensei’s karate friends and our trip to Table Mountain was spectacular. 

I could have spent a week in Cape Town however we had to be back in Jo’burg to meet the rest of the Australian team and senior instructors who had just arrived.

After meeting with the remainder of the team, we all travelled together in our Mercedes Benz people mover to visit Stan Sensei’s amazing house. I think that anyone that loves Karate would love Stan Sensei’s place. I mean the house was beautiful, but the highlight was not the lounge and dining, the place had its very own private Dojo and a fully equipped gym, unbelievable! Thank you Stan Sensei for taking the time and sharing a little part of your incredible life with us.

That night and the following morning we trained under the guidance of Keith Sensei at the JKA SA honbu Dojo. Training was terrific and meeting all the senior members of the honbu dojo and surrounding dojo’s was really nice. In one of the sessions I was paired off with Johan La Grange Sensei for free sparring. This was for me one of the highlights of my trip. I have seen Johan compete in many Shoto World Cups and spent countless hours watching him on video. So to be on the floor moving with him was a great experience indeed.

From left to right: Warren Bainton, Keith Geyer and Dave Friend enjoying breakfast at the Lost CIty Palace at Sun City

After the couple of days spend training at the honbu we headed off again on our adventure to Sun City. Our team got a liittle larger with Stan Sensei, Dave Friend Sensei and Warren Bainton also making the trip to Sun City with us.

Sun City was truly something else, I don’t have enough space to put into words just how amazing it was, you must go yourself one day to see what I mean. Sun City had the best food I have ever eaten; I now understand why the lads from SA are not so petite.

We had breakfast and dinner at the palace. We had lunch in the sun by the swimming pools and danced till late in the morning, at a lets say “different” nightspot in the casino. All of this was made possible by our very generous host Dave Friend Sensei. We were treated so well and looked after so much by Dave Sensei it was just terrific. 

However it was not all fun and games, we trained twice a day with Keith Sensei and Lutie Sensei. Training for me was quite hard. I was thinking about my days as a coach and how nice it would be back home with Michael ET Sensei resting my injuries with him. Just joking, I loved it! The experience was priceless. Anyone who loves Karate would have loved every minute of the training we did with Keith Sensei.

Before we headed off from Sun City we all went on Safari through the game park. We saw every type of animal that you could imagine, but no lions.

We played a fantastic game with Keith Sensei to see who could spot the wildlife first. The winner won money from all of us for his pin-point and laser like vision. Needles to say I went broke before lunch. I still managed to have a happy ending due to the fact we all got to witness five elephants swimming and playing in a small lake, just magic!

On our journey back to Jo’berg we stopped off to visit an old close buddy of Keith Sensei’s. He owned a lion farm. I was excited about meeting a real lion face to face. This was to become another highlight of my trip. We met several lions and hyena. Then at the very end of our tour we met three baby lion cubs and one very cute baby hyena. I was very fortunate to be able to jump in and have a play and wrestle with them all. I must say that it was quite painful at times, but it was at the time the biggest thrill I had ever experienced!

Ok so now we are back in Johannesburg, I’m scared again! We have a couple of days training together with the team at a local gym and then it’s show time.

The SKC team meeting some local wildlife

Saturday 31st May was competition day for us all - the JKA Tri Nations event, between South Africa, Germany and Australia.

I was for once very relaxed and comfortable going into a major event, because I felt so much positive energy and support from our coaches and instructors. I really felt a strong sense of team being with the SKC. 

Not long into the afternoon after the opening ceremony, we achieved our first medal for Australia. Rena Moriguchi (Queen mawashi-geri) won Gold in the ladies open kumite event. Then not long after that remarkable effort by Rena, the boys stepped up to the plate for the final of the Mens open kata. The result was Luke Byrne Gold and Chris Hujber Silver, wow!

Luke Byrne’s performance of the kata Niju shi ho was simply World Class, and it may have been the best I have ever seen him perform it.

Forward the day goes on and the opening rounds of the Mens open kumite. No place for the faint hearted, it was full on. The men all fought at a very high intensity battling their way through the elimination rounds, trying to survive and avoid defeat.

Luke Byrne, Chris Hujber and Brandt Cogill all put in courageous efforts but were defeated in the rounds leading through to the finals. Enter Lutie van den Berg Sensei. Lutie Sensei at age 45 was a much fitter and sharper competitor than we had all seen in many years.

It was a flashback to years gone by when he was a terrifying kumite specialist that would create havoc with his competitors for in South Africa and world wide.

Lutie Sensei had the greater majority of the crowd behind him as they watched their old friend win round after round. Before we knew it, Lutie was down to the final four and looking at a medal in the premier individual event.

After showing some enormous courage against his much younger German competitor, Lutie Sensei found victory and went on to the final. After a very competitive and well-fought bout, Lutie was narrowly defeated in the final and took home the Silver medal in the Men’s open kumite. This could only be described as an outstanding result for Lutie and our very proud team.

The SKC team from left to right: Luke Byrne, Chris Hujber, Brandt Cogill, Raymond Morcomb, Keith Geyer, Rena Moriguchi, Rob Sachs, Chris Downing, Jeff Krug and Lutie van den Berg

Next event was the Mens open team kata. Luke Byrne, Chris Hujber and myself (Ray Morcomb) finished in second place behind South Africa. We performed the katas Empi and Sochin which resulted in us achieving the Silver medal in this event. I really love performing team kata with my teammates and close friends Luke and Chris, and to take home a medal, for me was really special.

The last event of the day was the final of the Mens team kumite. After the five-man fight off resulted in a even draw, both teams were asked to put their best three fighters forward. First up was Brandt Cogill from Rockhampton QLD, who brilliantly won his bout over the aggressive South African lad. Brandt has a real talent for kumite and displayed some terrific skill throughout the tournament.

Next up was Luke Byrne; all we needed was a win or draw to stay ahead. Luke fought a good fight against a very determined opponent but was defeated in quite unlucky circumstances. So now down to the final match at one a piece. The weight of our Gold medal chances lay in the hands of Chris Hujber. The bout was a terrific spectacle with both fighters not wanting to concede defeat. As you can imagine South Africa were not too keen on coming second place in their very own back yard. Chris scored first and we led by waza ri, then Sout Africa equalised with a sharp half point to make it even. This was going to go to the wire, very exciting indeed.

The South African lad attacks with mae geri, Chris shifts back and blocks and in the same action scores a very well timed reverse punch to the mid section. Then all in the same attack the South African lands his oi zuki right on Chris’s button and it’s lights out for Chris.

Australia wins Gold in the Mens team kumite final, unreal!!

Unfortunately Chris Hujber has no memory of the event whatsoever, so reading this story will come as quite breaking news to him. Well done Chris you fought the fight of your life, an absolutely outstanding effort.

Another member of the winning kumite team that is worthy of special mention is Chris Downing from Melbourne. Chris stepped up to the challenge and fought with much spirit and showed great courage in all of his bouts. Super effort Chris.
  
The only thing that was greater than the effort of the Australian team was that of the senior SKC members of our team, namely Keith Geyer, Rob Sachs, Lutie van den Berg and Jeff Krug Sensei’s who went so far and beyond to support us and give us one of the most enjoyable and memorable Karate trips of our lives! Thank you so much for everything. I’m sure that I can speak on behalf of all the team when I say we can’t wait to represent the Shotokan Karate Coalition at the next event.

Oss,
Raymond Morcomb