Hombo Dojo Kovsie Karate Club History

Piet Ludick who started karate at Kovsies had contact with James and Peter Rossouw who started karate in Welkom.  JKA was the style.  That was about 1963.  In 1969 when Sensei Piet le Roux started the instructor was Sempai Piet van Rensburg (Brown belt).  When Sempai Piet van Rensburg left Sensei Dawid Bekker (2nd Dan and later instructing in Harrismith) took over instruction. Sensei Piet graded yellow belt under Van Rensburg and up to purple under Sensei David before he took over instruction.  During this era Carl Cozarts, Manie Smit and his brother Eddie Smit, Piet Langner and others formed the core of Kovsie Karate.  From about 1967 onwards Kovsies won the brown belt kata and kumite sections at the All Free State championships on a regular basis.  The club started to take control over the black belt section only when Sensei David won kata in about 1972.  While kumite was rough and rated high in those years David was a diligent kata man.

Hard dedicated training kept the club going but a totally new era started when Sensei Pierre Lubbe (3rd dan) joined Kovsie Karate as a brown belt. The dojo moved from the basement of the Agricultural building to the old Physical Education building and later when space was limited to the lawn next to the hall for a about a year before being allowed to train inside the Callie Human Centre. During rain and winter nights 20 to 30 dedicated students trained on the lawn. During rain the karate Gi’s were brown with mud and in winter evenings visibility was poor.  Stars from this era are Cassie Steenkamp, Tiaan Potgieter, Martinus Horak and Tinus Jordaan.

In 1975 Senseis Piet and Pierre (then shodans) were joined by Sensei Corrie Schoeman (3rd dan) a second dan and his wife Shirlee (2nd dan).  The group of instructors started the Samurai Karate Club in the city centre.  The dojo later moved to the Willows tennis clubhouse which was situated in Park Road on the terrain of the Tourist Centre. It would be the honbu dojo for several rough years of hard training. Since then Kovsies took control over the black belt sections of the All Free Sate Championships as well. For many years the kata and kumite titles have been shared between the three Samurai instructors. Prominent karateka from this era are Chris Meintjies (2nd dan), Hennie Strydom (2nd dan), Andre Lamprecht (3rd dan) and Sensei Kenny Steele (5th dan in Welkom).

Under the honbu dojo development of all karateka was always important.  A visitor from Mangaung that left a permanent impression on Free State Karate was Clement Mokgeti (2nd dan).  He did not only represent the Free State for many years but also trained Mpo Kaibe (1st dan) who represented the Proteas in 1994 to Malaysia for the World Championships.

While running Samurai the Kovsies were always part and parcel of it.  The Samurai Karate Club soon grew to the strongest club in Bloemfontein and the Free State. Top karateka of which the late Sensei Sandra Botha (1st dan) and Shirlee was most prominent. Sensei Ian le Roux’s karate career was born under these robust conditions in January 1978 at the Samurai club. Sensei Piet had more plans with Sandra Botha than just teaching her karate and they got married. The three Le Rouxs (Piet, Sandra and Ian) now trained vigorously and Sandra and Shirlee obtained their Springbok colours in 1979 and represented South Africa on a tour to the USA. Samurai Karate Club produced the first two Springbok karateka of the Free State and two of the three members of the SA team.

During this era Graham Jacobs (3rd dan) trained at Kovsies and he later represented the SAJKA team to Harare to participate in the Southern African JKA championships. Graham also made his mark as a member of the Free State team.

One Sunday evening in 1980 on their way back from their parents’ farm in Douglas the Le Rouxs drove passed the small shopping centre in Wilgehof, and Sensei Sandra saw that one of the little shops was for hire and she immediately made the proposal that the Le Rouxs must open their own dojo there. Sensei Piet called the owner the next morning and that afternoon the shop was rented and a week later the “Bloemfontein Karate Sentrum” opened its doors. The line-up for the first class consisted out of Sensei Piet (3rd Dan), Sempai Ian (Shodan), Professor Daneel Ferreira (3rd Kuy) and his little boy Albert (blue belt) with the late Sensei Sandra behind the secretary’s desk because she was pregnant with Sensei Pieter le Roux (jnr). Sensei Sandra taught karate at Universitas Primary School and due to her pregnancy all her students then joined “Bloemfontein Karate Sentrum” (also known as BKS). Sensei Ian also brought his military karate students over and some of the members of Samurai joined and soon the very small floor space was fully packed with every class.

Sensei Ian’s contribution made these times to be remembered for the most robust ride of karate in the Free State.  Joined by Sensei Karl Menge (now 4th dan in Marble Hall) and Andre Els (2nd dan) is wasn’t fun to be out of shape.  You barely lasted in shape! This was a significant era in the history of the club and a number of very prominent karateka were part of this very strong little karate club in the western suburbs of Bloemfontein. The legendary Prof Daneel Ferreira who started karate at the age of 34 years, and his son Albert trained every evening. He became a 3rd Dan and represented the Free State team before he retired when he left for the USA. He had a very special ability of instructing and coaching. He could analyse competition opponents and effectively advise several Free Staters to victory! His younger son Cornelius also joined later. Albert was extremely talented and was an excellent kata competitor. Together the Ferreira family often brought back six medals, up to five gold, from nationals.

Andrè Els and Karl Menge were joined by Andrè Venter (2nd dan) to uplift the spirit of karate further.  The dojo was full and the space limited. After discussion the instructors decided to keep the dedicated karateka.  Therefore they trained only kumite for two weeks. During these weeks some of the fiercest and most spectacular dojo fights were witnessed. After two weeks of this enough members decided to quite training for a while and then with enough floor space left, kata training commenced. Though times!!!

Sarie Venter was the secretary of the club and implemented an effective administrative system.

The first breakthrough on national level in the men’s section came in 1981 when Sensei Piet lost in the final of the SA Championships in Cape Town to the late Sensei Derrick Geyer. He was selected to the SA A-team to fight the current springbok team.  He beat his opponent and were to the disappointment of all Free Staters and a lot of other karateka not selected for the Springbok team.

During this time karate and the Le Roux family suffered a great loss when Sensei Sandra passed away. She suffered from cancer and passed away only eight months after the birth of Louise (3rd dan). Sensei Pieter Jr (4th dan) was 2 years old. Sensei Piet retired form competition karate.

In 1984 Bloemfontein Karate Centre moved back to the University of the Free State into the basement of the Callie Human Centre. Effectively two clubs are administered within one dojo, Bloemfontein Karate Centre and Kovsie Karate Club. All UFS students and members connected to the UFS were affiliated to Kovsie Karate Club and the rest were affiliated to BKS. This was only an administrative arrangement and all participated and trained as one club. Now space was not a problem any more and Senseis Piet, Ian and Daneel passionately developed the club to a level that was more competitive than ever before.  Stacey Brown (1st dan) represented the Protea team in Hamburg at the World championships in 1985. Another prominent karateka from this era was Carika de Swart (1st dan).

The era to follow was more technical and results came in. Sensei Ian was selected for the Springbok team. He soon settled in the national side. Ronnie Webber (5th dan) joined Kovsies.  He travelled from Welkom to train with Kovsies twice a week.  It was during this era that the club team (Ian le Roux, Ronnie Webber, Gordon Royffe, Gideon van Eeden, Jaco Hanekom and Andries de Kok) won the bronze medal in the World Team Events at the JKA Shoto Cup in Tokyo, Japan in 1992. Christelle Kok (4th dan) also made the SAJKA team and participated in the ladies individuals Shoto Cup Ladies Open Kumite. This team was physically, mentally and technically conditioned to perfection by Sensei Piet before he sent them on “Mission Japan” to conquer the traditional fear for the Japanese.  They returned mission accomplished. They were the first ever non-Japanese team to win a medal in this JKA World Club Team championship. Christelle was the first South African and one of only two western ladies to reach the quarter finals of the Shoto Cup.

Tannie Sarie was still the secretary of the club for the majority of this era and her contribution showed. Now the medals on national level really started rolling in. The 1994 Protea team had four Kovsies namely Senseis Ian, Ronnie, Macdonald Monyaki and Johannes Nau.  Mpo Kaibe was also part of that Protea team.

The development of a second generation of underprivileged karatekas was showing results. Thabiso Booi (3rd dan) and Johannes Nau (2nd dan) took national medals at regular intervals.  Johannes represented SA to 1994 World championships in Protea colours.  Thabiso represented SA in the u.21 team at the 1996 WKF World championships.  The SA team won the gold medal.  Another Kovsie Cedric de Sousa was part of the u.21 team with Sensei Ian as the coach. Another Kovsie, P.C. Ploos van Amstel won gold in the u.21 kata division as a 17 year old.

The club moved from the middle hall next door to the western hall of the Callie Human basement. The floor was not suitable and several senior and junior karatekas joined forces and laid the wooden floor with their own hands. Only half the floor space could be covered with the money available. Much later the other half of the floor space was covered with the current matted surface. The name of Bloemfontein Karate Centre was discontinued and the club now operated only under the name of Kovsie Karate Club.

In 1994 Sensei Ian bowed out of competitive karate after he represented the SA JKA team at the Shoto Cup in Philidelphia, USA and the SA Protea team at the World WKF championships in Malaysia. Sensei Piet obtained 6th Dan in Paris, France, in 1998 and Sensei Ian his in 2001 in Johannesburg.

Sensei Pieter (Jr.) became the next Le Roux to deliver exceptional results.  He won the SA title at 18 and was selected for the SA Junior Protea team in 1998 and later that same year for the SA Senior Protea team to participate at the World WKF Championships in Brazil. Quentin Rourke joined Kovsies after a career in Middelburg, Mpumalanga and Paarl, Western Cape.  In 2000 Pieter participated in Hungary in the WKF Millennium 2000 Santa Claus Cup in the town Miscolc. After losing in kata he literally exploded in the kumite division and cleaned up his opposition to win gold. Pieter, Johan Rourke (3rd dan), Emile Fouchè (3rd dan) and Eugene Oosthuisen (3rd dan of Pretoria) also won silver in the team kumite with Sensei Ian behind them on the coaching chair. In this tournament James Chen also won his first international medal in the kata event for boys 9 year old.

Charlene Stopforth (3rd dan) joined Kovsies with an established career from New Castle.  She soon made the national side and was amongst other occasions included in the team that participated in the Womens Cup in France. Sensei Ian was the coach.

In the years 1998 and 1999 Kovsies had a peak season. The national Protea delegation of 17 had 7 Kovsies. The Kovsies in the delegation was the manager Hubert Beuken, the psychologist Pierre Nel, the coach Sensei Ian and team members Quentin, Pieter, Cedric and Charlene. Thabiso Booi and Moacdonald Monyake were also part of this SA team.

After a drought of several years the Proteas rolled in again as Johan Rourke and Deidre West (4th dan) were selected for Protea teams.  Deidre was part of the SA team to the World Women’s Cup where she took 3rd place in kumite.  Johan joined the SA team to the 2006 WKF World Championships in Finland. The faith the Kovsie instructors had in Necodemus Banyane (3rd dan) also showed as he was also included in the senior Protea team.  Necodemus runs a club in Botsabelo. 

No sport club can run without good administration and an additional benefit of the move to the current venue was that we could obtain adequate office space and this was the start of really good and effective administration which was even taken to a higher level when Christina Schwalbach took over as secretary. She also took responsibility for the administration of FSJKA. She generated a lot of energy and enthusiasm between the parents and later Gerda van Rooyen was appointed as club secretary with Christina taking care of management.

Kovsie Karate Club is operating with education as its primary objective and has as its motto “A place where ordinary people becomes champions”. This primarily refers to becoming a champion in your own right with a healthy mind, spirit and body and then secondary to become a champion in the sport of karate.

FREE STATE JKA KARATE

Free State JKA, an organisation that exists now for more than 30 years and has always been affiliated with SA JKA of which one of the most renowned karate masters in the world, Sensei Stan Schmidt, is and always was the chief instructor. If you take into consideration that Sensei Piet le Roux is one of the founder members of Free State JKA, then one realise that both SA JKA and Free Sate JKA were both very stable in terms of leadership and management and both organisations were served over many years by loyal and dedicated karate instructors and administrators. This stable and educational environment produced many top karateka over the years. Of the more than 20 karateka that represented South Africa in senior Springbok and Protea teams only one was not a member of FS JKA, surely a record to be proud of.

At first Free State JKA included the entire Free State province and were later split up into two regions, Welkom JKA that included Northern Free State clubs and Free State JKA that included Southern and Eastern Free State clubs. The modern Free State JKA applies a policy of “Freedom of Association” and therefore allows any club in the entire Free State to affiliate to it. It is also with great respect and gratitude that we would like to confirm that there is a very good relationship between the two Free State JKA regions being Free State JKA and Northern Free State JKA.

During 2005 Sensei Piet initiated a new relation and co-operation between all JKA clubs in Central South Africa (Free State, Kimberley and Vryburg). With the prominence of Sensei Giel van Tonder, Welkom (honorary 7th Dan), Sensei Norman West, Vryburg (6th Dan), Sensei Terry Sullivan, Kimberley (6th Dan) and Free State JKA (Sensie Piet and Ian le Roux both 6th Dan) a new Central JKA region was established with the aim to ensure that all JKA clubs in the region enjoys a stronger organisational and specifically a stronger instructors base to benefit from. This was surely a step in the right direction and regional training camps and tournaments like this Ouja Open Championships proofed to be extremely successful and we trust that it will grow into a power house in JKA Karate in South Africa. We are privileged to have a very good mixture of experience and youth within the instructors corps of the region.

FS JKA many years ago adopted the very well known development policy “To feed the hungry will leave them hungry, but to teach them how to fish will leave them fed for ever”. In 1982 already Sensie Piet and Sensei Ian fought in a FS JKA team at the SA JKA championships with Sensei Clement Mokete, a black instructor from Botshabelo. He was an excellent instructor and was responsible to develop karate in the townships. After Sensei Clement retired form karate the development of black karateka in the townships around Bloemfontein were threatened by internal politics between black instructors and the growing unstable conditions in these townships. Sensei Piet le Roux evaluated the situation and came up with a plan to identify young black and coloured karateka in the townships, support them to come and train at the Kovsie dojo (they were paid in cash after every class to pay for their transport and a meal on their way back) and to develop them technically to the level where they could then start teaching in the townships. The senior instructors of FS JKA then supported them with gradings. Sensei Graham Jacobs played a major role in the execution of this plan over many years and this plan produced many top black and coloured karateka of the calibre of Senseis Booi John, the late Joseph Segade, Macdonald Monyake, Nicodemus Banyane, August Hope and many more of which several already represented South Africa in Protea and SA JKA teams. This also stabilised the karate community in the entire FS JKA region and we are fortunate that senior karate instructors like Sensei Enoch May joined FS JKA again and are now strongly contributing to the high standard of karate in the Free State in general.

List of Senior Springboks/Proteas and Junior Proteas:

• SANDRA LE ROUX (1ST DAN-SHODAN)
• SHIRLEE WEDDERBURN (1ST DAN-SHODAN)
• IAN LE ROUX (6TH DAN- ROKUDAN)
• MPO KAIBE (1ST DAN-SHODAN)
• MACDONALD MONYKI (1ST DAN-SHODAN)
• JOHANNES NAU (1ST DAN-SHODAN)
• STACEY BROWN (1ST DAN-SHODAN)
• RONNIE WEBBER (5TH DAN- GODAN)
• CHRISTELLE KOK (4TH DAN-YONDAN)
• CEDRIC DE SOUSA (2ND DAN-NIDAN)
• GORDON ROYFFE (5TH DAN-GODAN)
• PIETER LE ROUX (4TH DAN-YONDAN)
• QUENTIN ROURKE (4TH DAN-YONDAN)
• DEIDRÉ WEST (3RD DAN-SANDAN)
• JOHANN ROURKE (3RD DAN-SANDAN)
• NECHODEMUS BANYANE (3RD DAN-SANDAN)
• PC PLOOS VAN ONSTEL
• CEDRIC DE SOUSA
• THABISO BOOI
• JAMES CHEN
• LAWRENCE CHEN
• HEIN COMBRINCK
• BRUNO SCHWALBACH (2ND DAN-NIDAN)
• ELSABE LE ROUX(2ND DAN-NIDAN)
• ULRICH JONK(2ND DAN-NIDAN)
• RUI SCHWALBACH(1ST DAN-SHODAN)
• AMORIE JONK
• ANSUNEL SCHUTTE(1ST DAN-SHODAN)
• DANIE LIEBENBERG(2ND DAN-NIDAN)
• JACO LUPS
• LUTHER VAN ZYL
• NATASHA JOHNSON(1ST DAN-SHODAN)