Karate has spread in the community over recent years, but this type of martial arts still finds it difficult to exploit potential sources of trainees across Da Nang.

Phan Chau Trinh Senior High School’s Karate Club is one of the active units in developing karate from grassroots. (Photo taken at a time when there was no COVID-19)

Spreading karate in the community

Following the Da Nang Department of Education and Training’s instructions on opening sports facilities at educational institutions after school hours, the Phan Chau Trinh Senior High School’s Karate Club was established in 2016.

Head of the club Duong Thanh Hung said that before COVID-19 began, the club had opened between 5:30pm and 7:00pm daily from Mondays to Saturdays. Previously, the club had up to nearly 200 members, most of whom were school pupils across the city.

Over the past 5 years, some the club's members have gained remarkable achievements at municipal-level karate tournaments. Specially mentioned were gold medals in the women's kata event and the men’s kumite 65 kg event, and a silver medal in the women’s kumite 50kg event, that club members grabbed at the Da Nang Karate Cup 2019 for Clubs.

Similarly, established in 2014 with 15 initial members, the Karate Club of the Duy Tan University has become a useful playground for more than 550 students, and karate lovers citywide. The club’s members won 3 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze medals at the Da Nang Karate Cup for Clubs in 2020.

The two aforementioned karate clubs are now under the management of the Da Nang Karate Federation.

According to Chairman of the municipal Karate Federation Doan Chi Dao, the federation was established in November 2014 with 15 club members under the name of the Da Nang Karate Association. To date, the number of club members has increased to 40 clubs with a combined total of over 2,000 material arts students.

Many clubs have opened in such remote communes as Hoa Ninh, Hoa Phong, Hoa Tien, etc., thereby significantly contributing to creating useful playgrounds for young people and the community as a whole.

Since its establishment in 2014, the Da Nang Karate Federation has provided professional training courses for more than 250 turns of coaches and karate practitioners. Of which, there have been 10 competitions with the number of nearly 500 martial arts students.

Most notably, the federation has organised karate training courses and competitions seriously and professionally because it has many outstanding members who are national referees, and coaches of the city’s karate teams.

Raising concerns about the future of karate

Chairman Dao said all most of karate clubs at schools have to organize outdoor training classes due to a lack of standard gyms. Therefore, such classes have to close during the rainy season.

In recent years, karate clubs have been forced to shut down due to the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and a severe lack of martial arts students.

In an effort to deal with the problem, the city's karate sector has made efforts to source athletes from grassroots movements, but the number is still too modest.

Head Hung added "The intention of karate clubs is to teach karate for pupils to improve their health and self-defense skills, as well as select talents for the city’s karate teams. However, many parents do not let their children follow the path of professional karate fighters, but just want their children to learn karate as an after-school entertainment sports. So it's really difficult to find human resources from the grassroots movements".

During the 2020-2025 period, the Da Nang Karate Federation is striving to overcome the above difficulties, and promote the development of karate in the community, as a basis for further steps.

Reporting by XUAN SON - Translating by M.DUNG