Karate school opens

Marange recently said that the idea behind the formation of this centre was to bring all the karate styles under one roof or umbrella where all the instructors will be sharing ideas on how to develop the sport in this country.

“We started operating this new school last month at the City Sports Centre in Harare and what we are going to do there is that we will bring in instructors from different karate styles, including those from the neighbouring countries, for retraining or refresher courses.
“We will also be inviting bogus instructors for proper training and give them certificates so that they will become bona fide instructors. We are also going to invite schoolteachers who are interested in becoming karate instructors.

“This will see them (the schoolteachers) going back to their respective schools and train their kids, and this will help to stop the abuse that is being done at some of our local schools by these bogus instructors,” Marange said.
The seasoned kyokushin instructor also said that the opening of the Karate Information Centre will see most instructors being trained or upgraded locally rather than what used to happen in the past whereby they would regularly go to South Africa for upgrading.

“In the past years, we used to send people to South Africa for retraining but that’s no longer going to be the case because we now have all the information here in Zimbabwe and if we lack any other new ideas and information, we will go back directly to Japan not South Africa.
“So, what I’m trying to say is that all karate information will be at this new centre and all instructors will be schooled there. We’ll incorporate all the karate styles there like what they do in Russia,” Marange said.

Marange will be running the new Karate Information Centre with the help of other seasoned instructors who will be drawn from different styles in this country.
“We have already registered this new centre with Harare Province who will in turn register us with the Zimbabwe Karate Union but internationally I’m already registered as a Master or Shihan with the Kyokushin World Union.”

Before opening the Karate Information Centre, Marange, who is the Branch Chief of the kyokushin style in Zimbabwe, used to run a dojo (club) at the Body Fitness Centre in Harare.
But Marange moved his dojo to the City Sports Centre following the closure of the Body Fitness Centre sometime last year and he later decided to turn it (the dojo) into a Karate Information Centre.

Marange has groomed and nurtured a number of top local karate instructors and fighters such as Mugove Muhambi, Tendai Mutikani, Samson Muripo and Tawanda Mufundisi. Muripo and Mufundisi have since been “weaned” by Marange and are running their own different dojos in Harare.
Meanwhile, Marange said they are already preparing for the World Championships which will be held in Bulgaria in October this year.

“We are looking at sending a very strong team to these World Championships and the karatekas who will be entered for this event will all camp and train at the Karate Information Centre before their departure for Bulgaria,” Marange said.