Karate-Zen Cloetesville continues to be a beacon of light for young and old in the community it serves.
Over the years the dojo, originally founded in 1984, has formed many a black-belt holder since its inception at All Saints Anglican church hall. In 1992, the dojo disintegrated, but was revived in 2007 when some of its black-belt holders realised the need for social and institutional intervention.
Since re-opening, the dojo has yielded four junior black belts and four senior black belts, of which the average training time is six to seven years. Two current students, Marlon Davidse and Ghio Klazen, did their black belt grading from Wednesday 22 November to Saturday 25 November.
Karate-Zen Cloetesville is part of Karate-Zen International, affiliated to Karate South Africa, which is affiliated to the World Karate Federation and International Olympic Committee.
The club’s teachers, Shihan Garfield Bergstedt and Sensei Marlon Davidse, boast 80 years of karate training and involvement between them.
Their teaching style is based on servant leadership.
Karatekas of Karate-Zen Cloetesville participates in Goju Ryu (go-hard, ju-soft and ryu-style) from Okinawan origin.
Various aspects pertaining to the health and well-being of the holistic human being are covered in the curriculum.
In the style four major components of the total human being are being explored: mind, body, emotions and energy. It also helps stimulate human needs, world views, cognitive growth, value systems, orders of consciousness, self-identity and spiritual intelligence to help facilitate holistic human development, potential and growth.
Karate-Zen Cloetesville is located at the rugby clubhouse at Cloetesville Sports Grounds, with training sessions held Monday and Thursday at 17:30 during school terms. Young and old are invited to pop by to explore training at the dojo.
For more information, call Bergstedt on 072 785 6448 or Davidse on 072 509 7984.
