Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, move over. Here comes the Smouha set ready to rumble. Sahar El-Bahr reports from Alexandria Though the Smouha Karate Academy is only three years old, the school is already starting to reap the fruits of hard labour. Last week, 13 of its six to nine-year-old fighters struck gold in the state championship. And 14 of its senior players won gold medals in the Super Karate League for the first time in the history of the 60-year-old Smouha Sporting Club, of which the academy is an affiliate. Located on the second floor of a building in Smouha Club in the elite Smouha district in the heart of Alexandria, the Smouha Karate Academy is one of a kind in Egypt and the Middle East, established by Mohamed Fathi, the karate coach of Smouha Club and the academy. Fathi was the 1993 world karateka champion, the karateka being a karate practitioner, and has put his formula for success in the school he runs. "The academy is a model based on similar schools in Spain, Italy and Japan, though they have huge finance enabling them to organise international matches. However, we try as much as possible to adopt their system with a limited budget," Fathi said. Fathi said unlike other karate schools nationwide in sporting clubs, Smouha Academy has highly qualified professional trainers for players aged four to 10 whereas other schools prefer to hire the best trainers for the senior karateka. "We strongly believe that the system of training should be the other way round; the players should receive the best training in their childhood," Fathi said. That philosophy adopted by Fathi has proven most effective. "I select highly qualified professional trainers from across the nation, tempting them with high wages. Moreover, we provide them housing nearby the club to settle down with their families in Alexandria." The result is that the first batch of karateka who graduated from the Smouha Academy, in 2007, consisting of 45 players, "have all become champions," Fathi said proudly. Fathi said that from the very beginning, Mohamed Farag Amer, board chairman of Smouha Club and a well-known businessman, provided the academy with the needed facilities and financing. To encourage his charges, Amer likes to present them gifts including brand name sweat suits and sporting shoes. The academy currently has 15 trainers for 190 karateka, plus a staff of dietitians and fitness trainers. "Every three months we bring over international karate judges to evaluate the standard and progress of the players' performance," Fathi said. The academy receives children from four to 10. The fee for members player in Smouha Club is LE135 monthly. They practice five times a week, 90 minutes a session. Fathi boasts that the number of players joining the academy is on the rise. "Parents of players playing other sports in the club now prefer to have their children join the karate academy after seeing how successful the academy has become and because of its reputation. "Players themselves willingly leave other sports for karate. Personally, I prefer to encourage gymnasts to join karate because they are more physically qualified and fit to be karate champions," Fathi said. Fathi doubts that a branch of the academy will open in Cairo but in the meantime, starting next karate season in June 2010, the Smouha Academy will build another dojo, or karate hall, for players who are not members of the club. They will pay LE300 monthly. In the noisy, rectangle-shaped hall 65 metres long and 35 metres wide, dozens of young players of all ages shout and fight. The mother of four-year-old Ziyad, who calls out his mother's name every 15 minutes or so during a one-and-a- half hour training session, told Al-Ahram Weekly that Ziyad chose karate because he likes watching action cartoons and violent movies. "Actually boys like violence, but nowadays even girls do. The training of four-year-olds is more fun than anything else." Marwan, nine, enjoys tough training regiments for self- defence. "I felt I was weak and used to be beaten up in school and didn't know what to do. However, after playing karate I feel I'm 10 times stronger." Oddly, the academy's players do not wear the traditional lightweight cotton jackets and ankle-length pants. Their parents prefer their children wear heavier clothes lest they catch the flu or worse, swine flu, in the cold winter weather of Alexandria. However, Fathi insists they wear the all-white uniforms in summer. Tamer Moursi, 27, won the gold medal last week in the state championship held in Port Said. Moursi is one of the best kumite, or sparring, players in Smouha Club. The current karate world champion in the 70 kilogramme category is to publish a book due out 15 April called Advanced Shotokan Karate with British co-author Frank Nezhadpournia . Shotokan is a style of karate developed from various martial arts. Moursi says he's been applying karate techniques which he discussed in the book in Smouha club. One issue debated in Shotokan is how to spot a would-be champion and nurture his or her growth. Moursi won the silver medal in the Karate World Championship in Japan 2008, the bronze medal in the Karate World Games in Taiwan 2009, gold in the Arab Championship in Morocco 2007, and another gold in the UK Open Championship in England 2009. He said Shotokan gives tips for karate trainers on how to produce champions, what the book describes as "champion manufacturing or the business of producing champions." Advanced Shotokan Karate, says Moursi, illustrates brand new techniques on how to defeat an opponent. The book is accompanied with photos showing step-by-step techniques. "Unlike other books on karate that always stress the traditional, technical and physical aspects of karate, Shotokan emphasises the psychological aspects," Moursi elaborates. In one chapter Moursi relates how he created his own special brand of playing and become a world champion in only eight years, starting training when he was a relatively old 17. "In karate we have six weapons," Moursi said. "Two hands, two legs, a mind and a heart. For me the most important weapon is my heart; it is the secret of my physical strength. I rely on my heart in winning, because it is the source of my braveness, courage and trust in my skills which compensate for any other weakness. My heart is also the source of my spirit of challenge, persistence and endurance." However, he stressed that mind is equally important because it dominates both heart and body. Advertisements to book Advanced Shotokan Karate has been published in Amazon Website. The book is being sold for �14. Even though there are 23 million karate practitioners worldwide, karate has never received the necessary two-thirds majority vote to become an Olympic sport, not voted for either the 2012 or 2016 Games. But the Olympic dismissal does not seem to have dented the interest of the Smouha players or their parents.
