Karatekas should become professional – Edwards
R.J. Edwards, a five-time best karate athlete
Sri Lanka’s only Asian Games medal winner in karate, R.J. Edwards strongly believes that funds granted by the Ministry of Sports on the development of athletes and coaches through the High Performance Programme, should transmit properly, if benefits are to be reaped.
The 47-year-old head coach of national team, is adamant that the Karate Federation of Sri Lanka should manage funds only for the development of athletes and coaches and make them professional.
“The National Sports Council, Sports Ministry and the federation should focus to manage it properly. The funds should not run through unwanted routes,” he stated.
“No one in the coaching staff is in a stable position financially to engage in the sport voluntarily. They have families to look after. If the coaches are not paid through this money, they have to engage in their jobs and the sport will not progress to become medal-winning,” said Edwards.
Edward spoke with high regard about the National Sports Council (NSC) headed by Mahela Jayawardene who initiated a High Performance Unit (HPU) for the first time in Sri Lanka, which was supported by Namal Rajapaksa, the incumbent Sports Minister.
“That is the basic and most important aspect to win medals for any country, the High Performance Unit. Now the basic has been done.”
“But it’s not complete by drafting plans only. There should be transparency and proper management to go forward. Otherwise the whole exercise will be futile,” Edwards added.
Sri Lanka, though winning medals on and off, never had a proper plan to encourage or win medals through a cemented process. But through the NSC’s HPU initiative athletes are given proper backing based on their progress and the sport. This takes care of athletes and manages them to win medals through a long term process instead finding athletes, just to fill in the slots before a month to compete at international events. This is the first time Sri Lanka possess a national policy in sports.
For a change and for better, karate in Sri Lanka has been granted a permanent training centre at Torrington, the very first time the sport earned a place to call ‘home’ for its athletes since Sri Lanka Karate Federation was launched in 1975.
“Karate is not just like any sport, it’s like a spiritual healing, and the training centre should be like a ‘temple’. When we enter the centre, we remove our shoes and we respect the centre. The mindset is key to performance in this sport. So, you should have a suitable environment to train and improve the sport, within your mind,” explained Edwards, who won his Asian Games medal 19 years ago on October 11.
“It is a huge asset for the sport. Sri Lanka never had an own training centre for karate. Athletes went here and there with numerous obstacles, and clashes with other sports during training sessions at the shared centre. This is actually a freedom to the mind of the athletes, it’s a basic requirement for karate,” Edwards added.
Currently, Edwards heads the Sri Lanka karate coaching setup in its High Performance Training. Six athletes have been selected for the High Performance Training targeting the Asian Games next year. But in the future there will be more athletes coming into the High Performance Training from the second strings for future selections. The karate training centre has the facility for around 30 athletes to train at a time.
The Sports Ministry has taken steps to allocate funds for the karate HPU and the deal was sealed between the Ministry and the karate federation by an agreement. But the funds are yet to be transferred to the athletes and the coaches due to reasons unknown.
“There should be a proper plan to transfer this monetary allowance for the athletes and coaches to set them free from their jobs and to mainly focus on the sport, to reach a professional standard. Otherwise they may have to continue with their current jobs to feed their families while engaging in the sport a little time,” the coach lamented.
Unlike in the past, where athletes of Sri Lanka had to cry for their milk or food intakes, they are now been provided with a nutritious food programme through the HPU of the Sports Ministry, a vast stride taken by the NSC.
Currently, the karate High Performance Training is operated basically under two categories — ‘kumite’ and ‘kata’ – the individual performance types, where Edward dominated at South Asian Games (SAG) level, winning the gold medal in the 2010 and the bronze at the 2002 Busan Asian Games in Korea.
In its history Sri Lanka, as a country has so far produced around 25 to 30 athletes, who had won medals at South Asian Games and Asian Games. Edwards has formulated a plan to establish a foundation of past medal winners, with the formation of the ‘South Asian and Asian Games Medallist Foundation’. He intends to invite all the medal winners to this foundation. The aim of this foundation is to uplift the sport spreading the sport across the country finding players and train them voluntarily.
In addition, Sri Lanka Air Force played a pivotal role in uplifting the career of Edward. He joined Air Force in 2008 as an ordinary ranker and went onto win a SAG gold medal within two years in 2010, after the winning Sri Lanka Air Force Golden Eagle Award back-to-back in 2009 and 2010.
Edwards is a five-time Best Karate Athlete at the Sri Lanka National Sports Festivals held between 2000 and 2009. He is still serving at the Air Force as a corporal, a promotion he earned as an award for the SAG Gold medal.