{"id":503,"date":"2020-06-11T13:15:31","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T13:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onedropzen.hu\/karate\/?p=503"},"modified":"2020-06-11T13:20:46","modified_gmt":"2020-06-11T13:20:46","slug":"eric-bortels-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onedropzen.hu\/karate\/2020\/06\/11\/eric-bortels-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Bortels interview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eric Bortels and I-Karate Global<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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– Could you tell us how, when and why you started training karate? Who were your teachers?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first encounter with karate goes back to my childhood, when I started training with Sensei Dirk Heene at the age of 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to practice martial arts ever since I was very young, but due to my circumstances, I never got the chance to do so. I started playing soccer instead, just like so many other children. However, my experience was not so positive … especially the degenerating impact of incompetent trainers, for whom performance was more important than participation, gnawed at me. Let us hope it was inherent to those times… However, those events may have been the reason for what I do today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was 13, and my father gave me the choice between football and martial arts, the choice was made quickly. After practicing judo for a few years, I switched to the local karate club. Karate soon gave me what I needed and previously lacked: self-confidence, an outlet and the feeling of relaxation, which I mainly experienced after training with Dirk Heene. I was also fascinated and inspired by the training methods of Taiji Kas\u00e9 from Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the years passed, I no longer felt the need to be supported by others. In 1996, the time had come to find and expand my own path; I was 31 at the time. I started to set up regular karate clubs, first in Zonhoven, then in Houthalen and Hasselt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2011, I made contact with Kagawa Shihan from Japan. Finding him very inspiring, I became his student. I became responsible for Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg for his organisation JKS (Japan Karate Shoto Federation) and passed my 5th<\/sup> dan (2012) and 6th<\/sup> dan in Japan (2017) under Kagawa Shihan\u2019s supervision. Kagawa Shihan strongly supports my idea of practicing karate with disabled people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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with Kagawa Shihan<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

– Why did you start teaching people with disabilities?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2006 was a special year… my first contact with a group of children from a special needs school working with children on the autism spectrum and kids with hearing impairment. This happened in response to the request of educators from that school, who practiced karate with me at the time.  The trainings did not go smoothly at first, because I lacked the special skillset needed. I could only rely on my previous experience, but apparently, I managed to inspire this group of children. After that it all went very fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My next challenge was a request from the sport governing body from the province of Limburg to teach during a general Inclusive sports day, in which anyone with a disability could participate. A big step, but again, the participants were (surprised as I was) enthusiastic about my approach. Thanks to the positive feedback and the enormous enthusiasm of participants and supervisors, this was the turning point for me … I decided to further develop my approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next step was that the school where I already had been teaching Inclusive karate for a year, expressed their interest in training children with lower intellectual abilities. This was my first attempt to use icons and colours on the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experimentally, I started sticking A4 papers on the floor with prints of feet in colour and with icons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This turned out to be a difficult task for me because before every lesson, I had to stick 6 prints of feet on the floor for each of the 10 students. Due to this experience our current CP mats evolved, which are already in their 5th edition\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is how I laid the building blocks for my contemporary approach, a unique system. I offered my services in special needs schools, daycare centres and residential centres, rehabilitation centres, etc. I have managed to activate and inspire different groups to this day. Thanks to this comprehensive approach, I succeeded in refining my system, so that everyone could participate, regardless of their impairments. There was an additional positive turn when some trainers began to support my idea. I therefore started to give small courses for coaches. By now, there is a book available on how to teach Martial Arts to people with all kinds of disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I-Karate demonstration<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We did not have to wait long for the demand to organize competitions for athletes for a diversity of impairments, which initially came from the I-athletes themselves. Therefore, I implemented a new form of competition based on my system, which also started to get popular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now we have our own World Championships. We held this World Championship in 2018 in Budapest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By now, we have reached many countries that want to get involved in the training and competition system, and we are still evolving, it never stops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hungary, with Attila Hal\u00e1sz was one of the first whom believed in this approach and which I appreciate very much until today. Adri\u00e1n Magyar and  P\u00e9ter Rend\u00e1s joined also in and we all became good friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– <\/em>Having no degree in special education, was it not hard to find the right way to communicate with disabled people? What could you suggest for karate trainers who are interested in working with disabled children, but do not have any experience in this field? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all there is something called creativity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creativity is not only possible to use in the areas where you think you are talented. When combined with passion, you can use it in everything you want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, you need to find out if there is a mutual connectedness between<\/p>\n\n\n\n

you and the group of people you want to teach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, I just knew that I would love to work with elderly people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So 23 years ago I quit my job as a designer. I studied for 3 years to become an animator for elderly people. There was definitely an interaction and exchange between us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a few years later I discovered that I could also connect well with kids on the autism spectrum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that I discovered I had this special bond with people having different kinds of physical, psychological, vision or intellectual impairment. That inspired me to do more for these vulnerable people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like in karate, you need to grow in things and that takes time, so my suggestion is to start with students with less severe disabilities and build up from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also advisable for Inclusive trainers to see past and beyond the disability of your students and treat them like normal. The goal is: to not see the disability anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then you can teach, and passion and creativity will take over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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with Dave Kengen at the 2. Hungarian I-Karate Global “Athl\u00e9szisz” Cup<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

– The system which you developed, I-karate or Inclusive Karate turned very fast into an international movement. <\/em>What kind of official connections do you have with the federations of special sport, like the Paralimpic Committe, WKF Karate Federation or others? Do you get any support from them? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started this as an idea, and at first nobody was interested, but I didn\u2019t care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I thought it could be good to connect with existing structures, because my method was really working and we could have reached more people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the idea was too overwhelming and too young to be accepted by existing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

organisations or federations. Maybe many organisations are not ready to adapt or to include these ideas, maybe we are before the time of acceptance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I had to keep on working my own way and find like-minded trainers in my country and over the world, who see and believe this is really working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can bring out qualities in these people that many would have thought impossible to develop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the Paralympic organization, there is a strong connection, especially with Doctor Denis Jaeken, member of EPC, and Gerda Kennis, who are classifiers for<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taekwondo and wheelchair dance. WKF is the only recognized federation by<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the Olympics so everything needs to go through them. After a few meeting with<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WKF there is still no breakthrough, in fact, I gave that idea completely up!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think now that this idea is not comparable to other systems, and cannot go under the umbrella of any existing organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– <\/em>What is your vision for I-karate? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are all constantly developing and maybe this idea is part of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hope in time we can be recognized as a self-sustained organisation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and from there we can connect with existing organisations, federations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This methodology is about Martial Arts and not only karate!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Do you have any new ideas that could further develop the system or <\/em>perhaps be used in other fields, especially in other sports? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have an Erasmus + sports project called IKONS for people with Down syndrome people, involving5 countries. I wrote a build-up of 40 training sessions that cover a whole year and use constructive teaching methods, and I also educated the coaches. From this, we want to gain scientific proof that the system is working and is sustainable: it helps physical as well as intellectual and social improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is another project starting now, where we want to implement this system in special needs schools as a basic movement sport that can be connected and supplement any other sport. We hope to even invent new sports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have written a practical manual about how to teach all disabled people with this methodology. I teach seminars and educate coaches wherever they ask me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are working on an App for home practice, and we teach coaches how to use it. The App works for all disabilities except vision impairment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For vision impairment I invented another tool that is already in use to move blind people without relying on touch. I hope to create a few new sports with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I-Karate comfort referee team<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

– You have plans to stay more time in Hungary. Why have you chosen this count<\/em>ry? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is true, I bonded with this country personally as well as in teaching regular karate\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the representative of The Japan Karate Shoto Federation for Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, I connected with Bal\u00e1zs Herczeg from Hungary, who is the leader of JKS Hungary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His students from Szeksz\u00e1rd, Peter Rend\u00e1s and Zolt\u00e1n, once came to a course in Belgium and I had a good feeling about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later I visited Budapest (still impressed) and from there I went to visit Szeksz\u00e1rd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I still love that place, so we organized some exchanges with Hungarian students in Budapest and later in Szeksz\u00e1rd and Sz\u00e1lka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While networking with coaches who train disabled students, I connected with Attila Hal\u00e1sz and later with Adri\u00e1n Magyar, who became close friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Rend\u00e1s then started to teach disabled students in Szeksz\u00e1rd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can cooperate very well, as I said earlier: we are like-minded people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course I would like to spend more time in Hungary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just need to connect the dots\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Eric thank you very much!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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in vino veritas<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Bortels and I-Karate Global – Could you tell us how, when and why you started training karate? Who were your teachers? My first encounter with karate goes back to my childhood, when I started training with Sensei Dirk Heene at the age of 15. I wanted to practice martial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[40,38,39],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onedropzen.hu\/karate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onedropzen.hu\/karate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onedropzen.hu\/karate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onedropzen.hu\/karate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onedropzen.hu\/karate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/onedropzen.hu\/karate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":515,"href":"https:\/\/onedropzen.hu\/karate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions\/515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onedropzen.hu\/karate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onedropzen.hu\/karate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onedropzen.hu\/karate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}