Karate's sorry state

The sport suffers due to lack of sponsorship

One of the first things that strikes you about the Second Open WKC South East Asia and Oceanic Karate-Do Championships being held at the Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi are the rows and rows of empty seats in the indoor stadium.

No large cheering crowds here, just some friends and family of the participants who clap occasionally.

It is a living testament to the state of affairs of the sport which is ignored by both the government and the corporate houses. "We get absolutely no sponsorship from the corporates.

In fact, we need to educate most of them about karate being a sport and not just a form of fighting," says Vikram Kapoor, president, Goju-Ryu Karate-Do Federation of India, chief organiser of the event.

Although karate is popular in India at an amateur level, very few take it up professionally. In fact, it's mostly students from economically weaker sections of society who stick to karate as a profession.

"It's a sport which requires no investment in terms of equipment," says Kapoor. But it's the lack of glamour attached to the sport which makes a lot of students leave it mid-way.

"As a trained karate person you can get a job as a trainer, coach, referee or even as a bodyguard with security agencies. But people from economically stronger backgrounds don't find any of these jobs glamorous enough," explains Kapoor.

This presents a dilemma as on the one side those who can afford to get trained don't want to be trained and on the other, those who wish to be trained cannot afford to do so due to lack of sponsorship.

It is for this purpose that the Karate-Do Federation of India organises events like the Second Open WKC South East Asia and Oceanic Karate-Do Championships so that Indian students can participate in an international level event without having to go abroad.

"An event like this gives our students international exposure. Due to lack of sponsorship it is not possible for a lot of them to participate in championships internationally," says Kapoor.

The Second Open WKC South East Asia and Oceanic Karate-Do Championship has nearly 1,000 participants representing 28 teams from 15 countries including Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Argentina, Australia and Japan.

The four-day event is divided into two parts. The first two days are devoted to a technical seminar where teachers from Germany, Scotland, and Slovakia will train the Indian coaches, referees and students in the international rules regarding karate as a sport.

For this purpose, some of the big names in the world of karate such as Dr Fritz Wendland (5th Dan), president of the World Karate Championship from Germany, Sensei Ronald Watt (7th Dan) from Scotland and Sensei Ladislav Klementis (8th Dan) of Slovakia are here.

The next two days are meant for championships. There are competitions for children in the age group of 5 years to 12 years and then for seniors up to the age group of 22 years.

The Karate-Do Federation of India is hoping that such championships will create an international atmosphere among karate practitioners in India and encourage Indian karate teams to reach international standards.

Though karate is more popular than taek won do and judo in India, taek won do enjoys greater patronage with the corporate houses. This is because the Korean government takes an active interest in the promotion of the sport and often sends coaches from Korea to organise free coaching camps in India.

"We need to organise free coaching camps for karate and get more people involved in it as a genuine sport. But all this needs money and unless we get corporate sponsorship, karate will remain a form of self-defence and is unlikely to flourish as a sport," laments Kapoor