Mushrooming of karate dojos must be curbed, says Abbas

The time has come to keep a tab on the mushrooming karate dojos in the UAE, according to a senior most karateka in the country.

"The federation must keep an eye over these karate dojos being opened here with commercial interest in mind," said Mohammed Abbas, who led the UAE karate team at the last Asian Games in Bangkok, to the Gulf News.

"We must ensure that the dojos operating in the country are approved by the World Karate Federation and they all follow the same style," he added.

The 32-year-old karate coach with the UAE's military command, however, is full of praise for the UAE Karate, Judo and Taekwondo Federation.

"The board has made sincere efforts to promote the sport in the UAE," he said, adding that the federation chief Saif Salem Al Shamsi was taking a very keen interest to popularise the sport in the UAE.

Abbas, a former junior soccer player at the Al Nasr club, was lured to the world of martial arts when his employers the military command asked him to learn karate.

"I got hooked since then and pursued my sport seriously," he said. His initiation into the sport was by Iranian Sensei Sarham Mansoori at the Dubai Karate Club.

Mohammed has represented the UAE at various Asian events and hopes that one day karate would be part of the Olympic Games. "My dream is to take part in the Olympics," pointed out the fourth degree black belt, the highest ranked UAE national karateka. At the moment the International Olympic Committee is reluctant to include karate as a sport in the Games and first wants the two factions (World Karate Federation and International Karate Federation) to form a joint front.

Sport gaining ground
Mohammed believes that karate is gradually gaining ground in the UAE as a sport. When asked why there were only three teams taking part in the President's Cup, he said: "The timing of the event this year was wrong, otherwise we have good attendance," he said, claiming that there were about 400 UAE nationals pursuing the sport at one or the other level.

Mohammed believes that the federation must market the sport well. "We lack suave marketing, but "hopefully the planning underway at the federation will work."

Mohammed also revealed that a blueprint was being prepared not only to make the
sport popular but also raise the standard of the nationals in karate. However, he felt that there was a need to organise more camps outside of the country to raise the level of the UAE karatekas.

"With more exposure they will get better, they have potential, all that our karatekas need is experience."

Currently, the UAE team is ranked second behind Kuwait among the GCC member states. Mohammed hopes to take the top spot when the UAE take part in the GCC Championship in Qatar in August.

"We got to take one step at a time," he said, and placed confidence in the federation's intentions in helping the karatekas achieve glory for the country.