Mohideen - a karateka par excellence

S M Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Corr

The name J M Mohideen is synonymous with martial arts as one of the best exponents of this art, coach and administrator and one who has earned a name for himself not only in the hill capital but also in the entire island.

To start with, he is a founder member of the Sri Lanka Karate Federation and has 21 years experience in this sport. He has 16 years experience in kudo and in fact introduced this sport to Kandy and is presently the Regional Director for South Asia. In karate he is 5th Dan and refused to accept the award for 6th Dan for personal reasons. He is also the Regional Director of Kudo Daido Juku for South Asia since 2006 and he also holds the position of Chief Instructor and President of this organization since 1998.

Shihan Mohideen is an old boy of Kingswood College and he represented the school at rugby, soccer and athletics besides being the President of the School's Islamic Society.

He was a fine karateka winning many competitions but had to give up the sport following a serious knee injury sustained during a rugby match. Being fully immersed in this sport he took to training youngsters and also promoted and developed the game.

He said martial arts is something which you should use to attack an opponent. It is a form of defence and is spiritual. If at all anyone gets attacked or injured it is in the form of self-defence which you are compelled to do.

When requested to give a personal experience of self-defence using this art, he said one day he and his cousin went for a late night show in Kandy in the good old days. Both were well versed in the art of karate. They took a vantage position of the view towards the screen. Before the show commenced both went to the snack bar to buy some snack. They also told the person seated next that they will be coming back and to tell thus to anyone trying to occupy these two seats.

When they returned to their seats they found two young men occupying their seats though there were plenty of seats available. These two men refused to move out and we told them it is alright, we will sit elsewhere. But they did not like it. During the intermission, one of them had gone out and organized a gang to assault us. We did not know about this plan.

He said when we came out, these two men accosted us and tried to hit us and we only shielded their blows and they shouted in pain and retreated. What followed as around 15 men surrounded us and attempted to maul us for no reason. This compelled us to move into action swiftly in self-defence as otherwise, we would not have lived today to tell this tale. Around 10 to 15 minutes fighting in the street ended up in our opponents being floored before the people of the area intervened. From that day I was known as Karate Mohideen. It was purely an act of self-defence.

Some of the highlights of Karate Mohideen's career are introduced Kudo Daido Juku to Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Pakistan and the Republic of Maldives. Introduced full contact tournament for women in Sri Lanka. His student Harsha Weerasooriya was the first to qualify for the Deaf and Dumb World Champinship held in France in 2008. Two of his students Harsha Weerasooriya and Arshaq Ali are currently in Japan practising in Kudo HQ under the capable guidance of Grand Master and founder of Kudo Daido Juku Master Azuma Takashi.

He also introduced martial arts to Kingswood College, Swarnamali BV, Seetha Devi BV, Mahamaya Girls College, Mowbray Girls College, Dharmaraja College, Senkadagala MV, and St Anthony's College, Kandy, St Sylvester's College, Akurana Central College, Zahira College in Akurana, Gampola, Colombo, Katugastota, Gateway International College, Wattegama BV, Sri Sumangala College, and many other schools in the Central Province.

He has also established seven branches in the island where the students could train in the art of Kudo Daido Juku. He also sponsored the visit to this country of Grand Master Azuma Takashi and two world champions to visit Sri Lanka to train and grade out students and also to conduct three open championships.

He has represented Sri Lanka as an official at the Asian Championship organized by the AUEO in Japan in 1999 and also as an instructor at the 1st AUEO seminar held in Philippines in 1995. Represented Sri Lanka as the team manager at the 1st AIMMA World Championship held in Dublin Ireland in 1998 and also at the 3rd Kudo World Championship held in Tokyo, Japan in 2009.

He has been bestowed the award ‘Satan Kala Vedhi’ by the Sri Lanka Ku Federation in 2004 in appreciation of his services to the sport.

Apart from being the founder member of the national body Sri Lanka Ku Federation, he has been Assistant Secretary in 1976 and Ceylon Karate Association in 1994.

He has done a lot for the improvement of the referees while being the Chairman of the Central Province Referees Council.

He is also a member of the National Selection Committee.

He says more children should take to martial arts as it will held in their daily life especially the girls as they need to know some form of self-defence against undesirables who may pounce on them whilst walking along lonely stretches or from sex perverts in public transport.

He also cited the case of a young and beautiful girl from Matale who knew karate and when three men tried to act funny on a lonely stretch of road, she floored two of them and one of them took to his heels unable to bear the beating. If she had not known karate she may even have lost her virtue.

It is sad many people are under the mistaken notion that karate is something which you use to flay your opponents but it is not the case as subduing is something which is part of martial art. A good karateka will never resort to street fighting unless he was compelled to do so in self-defence.