Whitecourt Karate holds first tournament in five years

On Saturday, April 20, Whitecourt Karate held its first tournament since 2018. The club had held
a tournament yearly for fourteen years before the pandemic, and everyone was happy to get the
ball rolling again. Sensei John MacAulay said the excitement leading up to the event was higher
than ever. “The excitement level was crazy! It was a huge relief for us, especially up in the north,
just to get tournaments back.”
Whitecourt Karate currently has about forty members, and MacAulay said they are continuing to
rebuild. “Before Covid, there would have been three times as many kids as we have now. Covid
really hurt us. Our goal is to get the kid’s numbers back because they are the future of it all.” He
also said they are trying to attract adults too. “When a person gets older, say, over forty, they
think they cannot do this. Well, there are quite a few examples of us who started as white belts
and are now in our early fifties, and we are black belts. It is doable for anyone,” explained
MacAulay, who joined the club when he was 45.
“It becomes obsessive. I joined with my family, and I’m the one who became obsessed with it. It
is a lot of fun. There is the obvious fitness aspect, but there’s a huge social aspect to it, too. You
become a family. That’s my experience with other dojos, too; they become family,” he said.
For the tournament, MacAulay said it was nice to see lots of familiar faces come up. “We have
competitors here from Calgary and Edmonton and even two families from BC. We are also
slightly rebuilding with our tournaments, but we are only about forty competitors shy of our
typical numbers. We still had 130 people sign up, which is really good. We typically have 175 to

180. So, we are really happy.”
     The tournament took place at the Allan & Jean Millar Centre all day Saturday, with participants
     of all ages and abilities. Competitors did Kata and sparring, with medaling after each round.
     Kata is a Japanese word that means form. A Kata is a choreographed pattern of martial arts
     movements. It features different training techniques and movement methods and is typically
     performed alone, though group competitions are also a thing. At the tournament, competitors
     performed Kata alone.
     “It’s a lot of fun, especially for the kids level. They love coming, competing, and getting to
     practice their skill set and what they’ve been working on at the dojo. They also get over the
     nerves of competing in front of people. For the kids and adults, it’s also about character
     building,” said MacAulay.
     “For me, Karate is about self-confidence and character building. There’s obviously the martial
     arts aspect, but we get a lot of comments back from the parents about how it helps even with
     school behaviour. We follow traditions and etiquette which relate back to our lives. We’ve had
     parents tell us that their children in Karate are listening better and paying more attention, and
     that’s probably the biggest compliment that I think we get.”
     Speaking about the age range of competitors, MacAulay said they get everyone from young
     children to seniors. One visiting fighter spotted during the competition appeared to be in his late
     fifties or early sixties and was proudly competing as a white belt, the beginning stage of his
     Karate journey. “Every body shape and style. Everyone can do this, and that is the cool part

about it. The family can also do it together.” Numerous families could be seen throughout the
tournament floor, cheering each other on.
Following each round of each belt level, medals were handed out. “We do not stress the medal
placements, but it’s a sense of achievement for everyone, especially the young ones. As an
adult, I also enjoy the thought that I worked hard and medaled. It’s a sense of accomplishment.
It teaches hard work. That person earned that gold medal or that silver or bronze medal. There
is a sense of earning out of it, and that is the biggest thing about it,” he explained.
MacAulay said one of the cool things about martial arts in general is that nothing is given away;
it is earned. “You will not grade until you get your belt. So, when those kids, or the adults, grade
you actually earned that, and I think that is different than if you get a participation award that
some other sports have developed.”
Participants who did not medal still left with a fun reminder of the tournament, a small token of
appreciation. “We were running out of ideas,” laughed MacAulay. “So, we came up with chewing
gum with our founder’s name and picture on it. We try to do something fun like that every year.
Eventually, we will run out of ideas,” he laughed again.
Whitecourt Karate is part of the Shintani Wado Kai Karate Federation, a non-profit organization
founded by Hanshi Masaru Shintani in 1966. The federation is one of the largest martial arts
organizations of a single style in North America, and Alberta has one of the largest membership
groups in Canada.
MacAulay said the Whitecourt Karate Tournament ran smoothly and that he hopes more area
residents will get involved with the sport so they can join next year’s event and join in on the fun.
“We have a kids/parents class, so if the parent wants to stay, they can join their kid. We also
encourage the parents to come to the adult class too. Your whole family can do it.”
Whitecourt Karate practices at St. Mary’s School every Monday and Wednesday evening. The
youth class runs from 6 to 7 pm, and the adult class is from 7:15 to 9 pm. The club follows the
school calendar, starting in the fall and ending in the late spring. Residents can call Sensei John
MacAulay at 780-805-1586 or visit the club on practice nights to learn more.