Karate Canada’s National Team program is off to a promising start, as invitational Regional (British Columbia) and Inter Regional (Ontario-Quebec) training camps / sessions for National Team Roster athletes were held in Surrey (BC) and Kingston (ON), respectively, on the weekends of January 6-7 and 13-14. These were the final such camps of the 2017-2018 season, and served as preparation for several National Team Roster athletes preparing to compete in the imminent Paris WKF Karate-1 Premier League event and other upcoming international events. In BC, kata trainings were led by Coaches Katarina Vadovicova (Head Coach) and Pam Ross, while Coach Kraig Devlin led the kumite portion. In Kingston, kumite training sessions were co-led by international guest instructor and world renown tactics expert Mr. Antonio Oliva Seba together with National Team Coaches Nassim Varasteh (Head Coach, Senior Kumite), Denis Beaudoin (Head Coach, Junior Kumite), Roman Saltikov, Hasan Bratic, Sorin Alexandru and (Apprentice Coach) Christopher De Sousa Costa. Kata training sessions were was once again led by Coach Vadovicova. Both camps were well attended.

The presence of Mr. Oliva Seba, who also delivered successful complementary kumite tactics seminars in Toronto (on January 5th) and Gatineau (January 8th) during his stay, was in large part made possible via the generous support and contribution of the World Karate Federation. In Kingston, Mr. Oliva Seba also offered mentoring to several of our National Team kumite coaches, and led them through a short tactical video analysis workshop / session. Mr. Oliva Seba’s invaluable contribution and expertise has positively set the tone and helped refine strategies for the upcoming year of competition, and for the imminent start of the Olympic Qualification Process. Karate Canada wishes to express its sincere gratitude to the WKF for its generous support of this multi-stage Kumite Tactics Course, and also wishes to thank Mrs. Varasteh, Mr. Beaudoin and Mr. Dhillon for their gracious hospitality, as they allowed us to hold training sessions in their respective clubs / dojos.

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