InBrief 26 April 2011
11-year-old earns multiple black belts, teaches peers martial arts
By Nicole Paitsel, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
If you close your eyes, the grunts and instructions coming from Samantha Knopfer sound much older than her 11 years.
The 84-pound blond little girl struts around The Karate Connection in Yorktown as if she owns it. And her dad does. But that’s not what gives Samantha her commanding air. It might be the four black belts she earned last year for various forms of martial arts. Or, it might be that she’s won multiple state and regional karate titles and is on her way to her second national competition in July.
But if you ask Samantha, and she’ll make you lean in to listen to her whispery voice during a one-on-one conversation, she’ll say that her karate confidence comes from all of the hard work she puts in.
And hard work it is. Lest someone think that all of Samantha’s black belts were earned on the tails of her father’s white karate Gi, Steve Knopfer brought in instructors from out of state to judge Samantha’s black belt test.
To earn her belts, she ran 5 miles, did 500 push-ups, 500 sit-ups, 2,000 kicks and memorized the precise movements of the style. And she did it alongside adults in their 30s and 40s attempting to earn the same prestige that comes with a black belt.
“Samantha is a very special little girl,” Steve says. “She comes in here and works so hard. During her last competition she got to the very last round before she ever admitted that she wasn’t feeling very well. I took her to the doctor and she had pneumonia. She fought like a champion, and she had pneumonia.”
Samantha has black belts in four styles of karate — Shorin-Ryu, which originated from Chinese kung-fu, Shotokan, a Japanese style, Goju-Ryu, a softer, circular style that originated from Chinese kung-fu and Ryukyu-Kobudo, a weapons art.
Besides having achieved so many black belts for a child of her age, Samantha also helps out at The Karate Connection and teaches a few classes. Her whispery voice is gone then.
“Do it on my count,” she shouts out to her students.
“That’s good, but your arm needs to be straighter,” she adds.
On the sidelines, the parents of other children gush about Samantha’s ability to share her knowledge with the class. Some of the boys have a hard time taking instruction from a girl their own age, one mom admits, but they get used to it.
The other teachers are just as amazed at the transformation that seems to come over Samantha when she’s in her karate element.
“As a martial arts teacher, it’s a real honor to work with Samantha,” says Luis Singleton, a senior instructor at The Karate Connection. “It’s really exciting to see her progress, and her martial arts skills are very good for her age. She’s going to be a great master one day.”
But Samantha wasn’t always a growling black belt fighter. She’s primarily a shy little girl with a slight learning disability. Earning her way to the top has done wonders for her everyday confidence, her dad says.
“You should have seen her before karate,” Steve says. “If someone would speak to her, she would just about crawl inside of my shirt.”
But he says he has asked her many times if she’d like to try another sport. The answer, he says, is always no.
“This is just what I do,” Samantha whispers.
London 2012 - Brits shine in Euro judo championships
Colin Oates and Sophie Cox both climbed the podium in Turkey, and it was all the more special for Oates as it was his first major international medal. The 27-year-old has previously medalled at World Cup European Open events but finally took -66kg bronze on the big stage by beating Frenchman Pierre Duprat. “It’s not quite sunk in yet that I’ve earned a bronze medal, I’m still in shock,” said Oates. “In a way I think my injury (at the start of the year) helped me as I’ve had time to really focus on technical work and refine my style. I’m not just happy with the way I performed and the medal itself but I was relaxed and felt really strong. I overpowered fighters such as the Ukranian, Serhiy Drebot – and he’s a really physical judoka - which is something I haven’t really managed before.”
While this was Oates’ first major international medal, Cox is no stranger to the podium and she collected her fifth European Championships medal in Turkey. The 29-year-old can now boast two silvers and three bronzes from the competition as she saw off the challenge of Finland’s Jaana Sundberg. “Every contest was a really hard-fought battle and took all my energy,” the Athens Olympian said. It’s been a long road for me since returning last year, but I was always targeting the Europeans and I’m really pleased to have won the bronze. The fact that the bronze is my fifth medal at the event makes it extra special, especially with my last being in 2005 before I took a break from the sport.”
Iran to participate in Taekwondo Championships in South Korea
Iran will take part in the World Taekwondo Championships which will be held in Gyeongju, South Korea from May 1-6.
Korea last hosted the World Championships in 2001 on Jeju Island.
The six-day championships, which will take place at the Gyeongju Indoor Gymnasium, are expected to draw about 1,000 athletes from more than 140 countries.
As of April 20, a record 149 countries involving 1,040 athletes and 715 officials submitted their entry forms to the WTF.
The previous WTF World Taekwondo Championships were held in Copenhagen, Denmark in October 2009, attracting 928 athletes from a record 142 countries.
The biennial event, which will feature 8 male and 8 female weight categories, will use a protector and scoring system (PSS), formerly known as electronic body protectors, and an instant video replay system, for fairer judging.
Iran will take part in the event with eight male and four female athletes.
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