SHIHANKAI
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Shihan Koos Burger - 8th Dan
(African Style Head and Chief Instructor)
Shihan Koos Burger was born on 27 Apr 1943 and started karate in 1963. For the past forty-six years he practiced karate for most days of the week, ceaselesly perfecting the budo way. He trained with many renowned masters which included: sensei's Kase, Shirai, Kanazawa, Enoeda, Yamaguchi, Tanaka, Tambourini, Kawazoe, Naito, Kasuya, Koga, Kawamura, Sugimoto, Asai, Higaonna, Ozawa, and De Mura.
Karate career of Shihan Koos
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Sensei Alta Venter - 6th Dan
Alta started practising karate in January 1974. She still trains under the instruction of Shihan Koos Burger, currently 7th Dan. He graded her to first Dan in 1982. Kanazawa Sensei graded her to second Dan in 1985, Kasuya Sensei graded her to third Dan in 1990 and in 1996 she was graded to fourth Dan by the Shotokan Master, Taiji Kase. Shihan Koos Burger graded her to 5th Dan in 2002 and to 6th Dan in 2009. She started teaching karate in 1980, opened her first club in 1985 and is still teaching her students karate-do. Some of the students she taught have already graded to third Dan. She was head coach of the junior team of 16 children who took part in the World Karate Confederation’s championships in 2000 in Valencia, Spain and they won four medals. Alta and three students whom she taught for quite a few years took part in the WKC senior championships in 2001 in Aberdeen, Scotland. Alta was SASKA’s tour manager from 2000 to 2008. She won the Kata category in 2003 at the WKC intercontinental championships and came second in 2005 at WKC’s world championships in Brazil. Alta was each year since 2003 a referee at International world championships and is SASKA’s chief Referee since 2006. She qualified as WUKO Chief Referee in 2008 and is now one of the 10 Chief Referees of WUKF. She is currently a member of SASKA’s Shihan-kai.
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Sensei Kenny Tawse - 6th Dan
Kenny Tawse was born in Grahamstown, South Africa on the 8th of April 1946. Married to Joanne on 25 August 1973 and has two sons. He started with karate with Eddie Ward, founder of Funakoshi karate in South Africa during 1968.
He joined SASKA in 1992 and graded to Godan in October 1997. Appointed as the provincial style head for SASKA in the Eastern Cape region by Shihan Koos Burger. Absolute highlight of karate training experience was with Taiji Kase in South Africa during 1996.
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Sensei Laurent Gaston Bellegarde - 5th Dan
Sensei Laurent was born in 1962 in France and moved to South Africa in 1970. He started Karate at the age of 27 with his son and daughter under Shihan Koos Burger. He is currently a 5th Dan and runs a karate club in Brackenhurst, Alberton where he teaches together with his son sensei Nicholas who is currently a 4th Dan.
They teach both children and adult students. Sensei Laurent and his son still compete at national and international levels and they have been doing karate continuously since 1989.
He was selected as the national coach for the seniors team for the World Union of Karate–Do Fedaration (WUKF) world championships held in Brazil in 2005, in Spain 2007, in Ukrain 2009 and in Italy 2011. He is also the Vice President for WUKF in Africa and holds the position of Chairman for SASKA. Sensei Laurent's achievements at the world championships was obtaining a 3rd place in Spain 2007, 2nd place in Ukraine 2009 and 2nd place in Italy 2011.
When asking Sensei Laurent what his feelings are about Karate, his reply was as follows:
"My best achievement in life is the fact that I have had the opportunity to train with my son and we both obtainded Medals in the Karate World Championships. I see Karate as a way of life, it teaches you self-defence, confidence and discipline. I feel that people who practice the Art of Karate become achievers and live life in a positive way. I believe perseverance is the pathway to success".
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Sensei Riaan Jansen van Vuuren- 5th Dan
Sensei Adriaan Jansen van Vuuren 5th Dan
Adriaan started his karate career in 1982.He was graded to Shodan in 1994,Nidan in 1997,Sandan in 2000, Yondan in 2004 and Godan in 2008 by shihan Koos Burger.
Adriaan started a karateclub in1997 in Elspark, Germiston under affiliation of SASKA.
In 2002 he immigrated to California and started a dojo in Orangevale under affiliation of SASKA.
Adriaan currently trains and teaches karate four nights a week at his dojo in Orangevale
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Sensei Hercules Jansen van Vuuren - 4th Dan
Sensei Hercules was born in Germiston on the 23/4/1962 and grew up in Pomona where he is still residing with his wife Mathilda to whom he is married since 1983 and was blessed with three children Hercules (26) 2nd kuy, Pieter (24) 2nd kuy and Maritza (21) shodan.
Sensei Hercules started karate at the age of 10 in 1972 at JKA with Sensei Buddy Gibson and later Robert Smit until 1995 and achieved Southern and Eastern colours for the sport in 1976, he was chosen for the JKA 20 man squad in 1980 and graded for 1st dan in 1881, 2nd dan in 1984 and 3rd dan in 1980 by Sensei Stan Smit.
In 1996 Sensei Hercules was affiliated with SASKA and decided to change over to the SASKA team and started his own Dojo in 1999.
He was graded for 4th Dan by Shihan Koos Burger in December 2008 and teach own team of 32 karatekas at his Dojo in Pomona Kempton Park.
Quote by Sensei Hercules
“Karate is a sport to which I have dedicated myself to and believe in the discipline and commitment that the sport helps the body and soul. With this commitment I dedicate myself to the responsibility of being on the team of the Shihan-kai”
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Sensei Johan De Wet - 4th Dan
Johan started training Karate in 1980 under the watchful eye of Shihan Koos Burger. He started teaching karate in 1984. Together with his wife Marika, he had three clubs around Pretoria until they left for an overseas position in 1999. In 2000 he helped with the training of the Middle East woman’s team who won at the Asian Games. In 2007 he started instructing again in SA, and at present is a senior instructor at the Griffins Silverton club of Shihan Koos Burger. He had the privilege of training under sensei's Kase, Kanazawa, Tambourini and Kasuya when they visited South Africa. The mountain gashukus was the brainchild of Shihan Koos and Johan in 1988 during a 7 day hiking trip in the Drakensberg. He has already completed 15 berg gashukus. Johan was graded to 4th Dan by Shihan Koos Burger in 2008. He is also a SASKA referee and became part of the Shihan-kai in 2010.
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Sensei Gary Grapentin - 5th Dan
Gary began training in Shotokan Karate in East London in 1985 with SKI (Shotokan Karate International). In 1995 he became the head instructor of the Kowie Karate Club in Port Alfred and the following year affiliated to SASKA. Since then he has established dojos in Kenton on Sea, Grahamstown, Adelaide, Fort Beaufort and at Rhodes University and Yellowwoods School. Dojo membership includes children and teenagers as well as a large contingent of adult karateka. Although participation in the karate sports arena is encouraged, emphasis is placed on traditional karate values with the development of a positive attitude and a healthy way of life being of primary importance. Gary has attended seminars conducted by Hirokazu Kanazawa Sensei, Keigo Abe Sensei and Manabu Murakami Sensei. He regards himself as extremely fortunate to have received instruction from Sensei Kenny Tawse and Shihan Koos Burger over the past fifteen years. In 2010 Gary was graded to godan by Shihan Koos Burger.
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Sensei Paul Fourie - 4th Dan
Sensei Paul Fourie is 25 years active in karate. He started karate in 1984 as a student under shihan Koos Burger and he was also trained by Sensei Johan de Wet en Sensei Alta Venter. Shihan Koos Burger graded him to 3rd dan in 2002. He also competed in three international events and numerous national events and he is also a SASKA referee.He is particularly fond of mountain gashukus and already has completed 9 gashukus. He started a SASKA club in the Western Cape in 2006 at Helderberg - Somerset-West. His karate motto is - "when you train, train at 100 percent". He became part of the Shihankai in 2008.
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Sensei Nicholas Bellegarde - 4th Dan
My karate career began in 1989 when I was just five years old. After having just started school, I decided that I wanted to begin taking karate classes too. Now, more than 2 decades later I can honestly say that I have never looked back and karate has become a way of life for me. Currently I am a full time partner at the Cobras karate club in Alberton, where I teach twice a week with my father, Sensei Laurent Gaston-Bellegarde. I enjoy teaching this magnificent art to people of all ages, and I believe that all these years of teaching have instilled certain morals and values within me, for which I am well respected today.
I have competed at various World Championships over the last 10 years and my highest national and international achievements to date, are as follows: I achieved my Protea Colours in 2002 when I was selected as part of the official South African Team to represent the country at the WKF World Championships held in Novisad, Yugoslavia. On an international level my highest achievement to date was winning a bronze medal in the Senior Men’s Shotokan Kata division at the 4th WUKF Seniors and Veterans Karate World Championships held in Lignano, Italy during May 2011.
Over and above teaching karate and also competing, I have refereed at many local, provincial and national tournaments. I became a member of the SASKA Shihan Kai committee in December 2008 after being awarded my Yondan (4th Dan Black belt) by our style head, Shihan Koos Burger.
My word of advice to aspiring Karateka out there….. Train! Train hard! And if at first you don’t succeed then train harder and let karate become a part of your life, like it has mine.
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