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THE Zimbabwe Karate Union have engaged heads of different styles to assist their athletes through international online training during this period.
Initially, they were concentrating on local programmes by local instructors.
ZKU technical director, full contact, Kumbirai Musinami, confirmed the development.
“We have improved our preparations for our athletes by getting international online training from some heads of our styles, such as from Hanshi Oishi, from Japan.
“There are vast benefits because we are interacting with the international world and are actually moving in tune with the dynamics currently in the sport.
“It builds the confidence of our athletes and actually leads to their speedy growth in the sport.
“It has been well accepted, by our athletes, and we are getting this assistance from a number of style shihans and sensei.
“We are also getting training videos to access our athletes as they are training at hom,’’ Musinami said.
As part of efforts to motivate athletes, to take the online programmes, they have started a competition for kata performances.
“We have also started a competition in which our athletes send in clips of kata performance.
“It’s been a challenge but we are managing to keep in touch and continue training.
“The inspiration comes from the desire to improve, to be better than yesterday. ZKU is making sure the sport grows and meets the international standards.’’
ZKU vice president, Tawanda Mufundisi, has appealed to government to consider their plight and allow them to train.
“We have tried to approach the government to see if we can get the greenlight to have light training.
“For full contact, it’s high risk, we are not denying that, but a higher risk is from having competitions.
“The challenge is we know the pandemic is there, we want to prevent it but, at the same time, idleness created by this, especially for children, is really affecting them,” said Mufundisi.
Online Reporter