Sukrat Badrieh was only 5 when he started Shotokan karate to release his “excessive energy” and improve his concentration.
A year later, he is hopefully the youngest to receive a black belt.
The Syrian lad has trained between two and seven hours a day over that year, and has developed moves only older, more advanced players can pull off.
At the black belts ceremony held by the Focus Karate Group on Saturday, Sukrat performed a complicated move consisting of more than 20 steps, known as the "kanku sho".
“It is very difficult. Only above third dan black belt perform this, but he has the ability so we taught him to do it,” said Sajeer Sulaiman, Sukrat’s sensai.
“It is a senior kata [move] that combines speed and slow movement, so it is hard to perform. One has to move forward and quickly return.” For the move, Sukrat jumped and swirled while kicking and punching.
Mr Sulaiman said that in the 25 years he has been coaching, Sukrat is the youngest he has seen perform this move, not to mention receive the black belt.
The club will contact Guinness World Records to officially register him as the youngest black belt holder in Shotokan karate.
His older colleagues receiving black belts with him, said they learnt more from Sukrat than he learnt from them.
“He is very flexible and studies every move very well,” said Silpa Manoj, 13, from India.
For their black belts, the contestants are tested on fitness and stamina level, different katas and fighting skills.
Sukrat scored an A in the three-hour test and was crowned star player of the year. But his trainers said he was capable of double the endurance.
They once started an endurance test for him at 10am with a master, who trained with him until noon.
When he became tired he handed Sukrat over to another master who trained with him until 2pm, then the first coach returned and trained again until 4pm.
“He was not tired after six hours of training,” saidd Mr Sulaiman. “After reaching home he still had energy to play football with his father.”
During his final performance, Sukrat held two nunchaku (rotating sticks) and swirled them front and back in each hand, before he struck a balloon and burst it.
He repeated the move with five other balloons.
"This is a very dangerous move, because if the nunchaku accidentally hits his head it is fatal," explained his father, Ashraf Badrieh.
"He has been nagging on his coach to learn nunchaku since the beginning, so he started since blue belt."
The nunchaku has to hit the balloon from a certain point to burst it open.
Mr Badrieh pushed Sukrat to excel in the sport. He attended all of his training sessions.
“We first enrolled him in Shotokan to learn self-defence and to help him focus on his studies because it increases the child’s focus level and calms him down,” said Mr Badrieh.
“Most children suffer from excessive movement. This game is the solution.”
His mother Nadeen agreed, as she was keen on finding a healthy way to release her son’s energy
Sukrat received high grades in school, behaved better at home and reached Grade 2 in piano since he started Shotokan in January 2013.
Representatives from his school Al Najah, the Syrian committee and Art Hub were also present to award the boy trophies of their own.
“It is in our interest that art is mixed with society, and when we heard that we have the youngest champion in Shotokan, we wanted to be part of this,” said Ahmed Al Yafei, owner of Art Hub.
“So we will give him a special gift of shadow art. At night it will become very beautiful.”
hdajani@thenational.ae
