Bronze Medallist at the world Shotokan Karate Championship and licensed Shokotan Karate Instructor, Dolapo Phillips, has said that Karate is more than a sport, but is also a way of life for anyone regardless of age or gender.
The Karate coach, who is also the daughter of Nigerian media mogul Raymond Dokpesi (late), spoke in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, where she explained the intricacies and the benefits of the popular martial art.
Contradicting the belief that Karate is a violent sport, Phillips said, “It’s actually the opposite, and you will not know that until you start the sport. The very first rule in the Dojo Kun is exert yourself in the perfection of character. We recite these Dojo Kuns- they’re five- in every single class to remind you of what Karate-Do is about, the way of life of Karate. It’s not about causing trouble, you learn all of this so you can diffuse situations, and the more you practice, the more you come to realise that that is the case.
“You have to exercise self-control. Karate-Do, which is the way of life of Karate, makes you understand that it’s not about being offensive, it’s about diffusing situations. Only until your life is at stake, then you now have to do certain things to get yourself out of the situation. That’s when you can get a little bit violent.”
Phillips went on to speak on the work that goes on at her dojo, Aloha Fitness Studios which is located at Lekki Phase One, saying, “This year, we’ve had quite a lot of schools approach us at our dojo to teach self-defence. Some judges approached us a few years ago, and we were very happy about it, and we said, look, we are going to give free self-defence classes for two months, and we opened up our dojo for free self-defence classes. I tell you, in two months, not one woman turned up, not one, and it was free. They advertised it, we advertised it, but nothing happened.”
She then addressed the fact that there was a lack of interest and not enough information about Karate, especially in Nigeria, as she said, “There isn’t enough education generally, but there’s also a lot out there that people should probably pay more attention to. It’s more people absorbing the information as well and imbibing the culture. I own a gym as well, I’m a fitness coach, so this is part of my life, educating people on health, wellness, how to avoid such diseases that are avoidable actually by eating properly and having a very active lifestyle.
“So, there is a lot of information out there, but I guess it doesn’t stop, we have to keep pushing more. And if we have more bodies working with people like us to push self-defence for example in schools and in organizations, it will probably create more of an awareness. Cause everybody knows that there is domestic violence everywhere, it doesn’t even only happen at home. But we need to be more proactive in making such classes and such seminars available to people so that we can engage them.”
When she was asked how the government and concerned organizations could help to provide more education and interest in Karate, she said, “I mean, it’s on different levels, the fitness and the health aspect is there. On that front, it’s also promoting living a healthy lifestyle, and the good thing about Karate is that you can do it up till you are 100 years old. In Japan, we visited a few dojos where the oldest person was 96 years old, another dojo we visited, a dojo came it at 81 to have her very first karate class, so, there’s no age limit with Karate, so that’s a very good way of life for people that want to do this sport or have this way of life up until the end of their days.
“And also, from the self-defence point of view as well, it’s very important for the government to introduce Karate in schools and make it almost compulsory… If a kind of martial arts is involved in primary and secondary school as a mandatory sport, I think that would go a long way.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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