Thursday 10 July 2014

karate...

Interview 18/04/2013.
Nick: What is the use of a Karate licence?
Sensei Pete: Insurance. A Karate licence is insurance.
Nick: Just insurance.
Sensei Pete: If you hurt somebody you’re covered.
Nick: Right, ok.
Sensei Pete: Or if you hurt yourself and you want to put a claim in.
Nick: How long have Karate licences existed?
Sensei Pete: I couldn’t tell you that to be honest with you.
Nick: I remember them since the mid and early eighties, so is it longer than that?
Sensei Pete: I reckon it’s a bit longer than that.
Nick: But if you’re in a situation, in a fight, and someone is going to hurt you and you say I do Karate, I’ve got a licence, they might just go bang. So by the time you get it out of your wallet...
Sensei Pete: I wouldn’t be pulling it out, I’d be banging them.
Nick: Right yea. What is the legal side of Karate licences?
Sensei Pete: F***ing hell Nick.
Nick: Come on! You work for it. What is the legal side of Karate licences?
Sensei Pete: If you train in some sort of Martial Arts, Thai Boxing, Kick Boxing, Karate, Ju Jitsu, Kung Fu, any sort of contact Martial Arts, even in boxing, you have to hold some sort of licence. Your licence, it’s insurance. It’s your insurance. All the licences in karate I know of, they also record your grade of your belt and they might have a record page if you’ve been on seminars, who you’ve trained with, dates and things like that.
Nick: So if you go through gradings and get a new belt you’ve got to have a licence updated?
Sensei Pete: If you’re going in for a new belt it has to be already in date your licence, if not you can’t grade.
Nick: Right. Where do you get the licences from?
Sensei Pete: Well, normally Martial Arts clubs belong to an association, unless they’re an independent instructor. So it’s the association, its forms that should be filled in and handed in to the chief instructor of the club and he will pass them on to the association.
Nick: Licences, how long do they last?
Sensei Pete: Twelve months.
Nick: Right. In that twelve months, say you get a new belt of higher grading you have to get the licence updated with the new belt on?
Sensei Pete: Normally the licence lasts twelve months, so in them twelve months if you train regular and you grade three times a year, it’ll be valid for three gradings. That makes four months of threes. You can do four gradings if you train enough.
Nick: That seems a lot of gradings and belts to go through in a year but I suppose with advanced training, three or four times a week, that’s possible.
Sensei Pete: It is possible.
Nick: It is yes. How much do the licences cost per year?
Sensei Pete: £20. Other places might be different prices, I don’t know. Mine are £20.
Nick: Yours are. So that’s a rough cost?
Sensei Pete: It’s just a guide.
Nick: That’s it thank you.
Shoki: The Story of Sensei Pete Ratcliff
By Nick Armbrister

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