LEE KHOTLELE
The week long training camp started on Monday, 14 July 2014, and the focus thus far has been on preparing for the African Championship and the World Championship which will take place in August and in November respectively.
South African fighters are preparing for the African Championship to be held in Dakar, Senegal and Ian le Roux, the Karate South Africa director of coaching, said the Turkish are working on SA athletes’ shortcomings.
“Our main focus is to expose our athletes to the coaching of these top coaches in order to prepare them for the championship,” added Le Roux.
Among participants who have been invited to be part of the training camp, there are members of the SA team to partake in the African Championship.
“We want to expose and give them confidence. We also want the demonstrations to give them background in terms of our preparations. We teach them action and how to get points and win,” Ucan told Courant.
“The Turkish coaches are brilliant in movement and agility, and those are some of the shortcomings in our athletes. Their (coaches’) fighting combination is advanced, so we’re learning a lot from them. We are also learning from their abilities (to score points) on a competitive environment,” Le Roux added
The trio are in Bloemfontein for the fourth time. In 2010, they and the Sport Science Institute started a programme where they come to the City of Roses every year to present a training camp for a week.
In return, once a year, the local fighters go to Turkey for a training camp and to participate in several competitive championships.
“Since being here, they have developed an understanding with the athletes and we understand their coaching techniques and concepts, and I believe that will help in the championship,” Le Roux added.
The Turkish trio is well-known in the karate fraternity. They are highly rated coaches specialising in Kumite. Ucan was national champion in Turkey a few times while Kandaz is the three-time silver medalist in the European Championship.
Alagas, who competes in the Kumite -70 kg division, is a three-time world and European champion and ranks first in the world in his weight division.
The training camp has two training sessions per day; two hours in the morning (8:00 until 10:30) and two hours in the afternoon (16:00 until 18:00) from Monday to Friday.
The Saturday session will run from 8:00-12:00.
“I want them to leave here at the end of the week with a thorough understanding and knowledge of the techniques the champions have taught them,” Le Roux said.
“The same techniques that made him who he is, will motivate them. They can also tell themselves that they can become champions and be good,” he concluded.
