Autobiography - 8 | Tournament Career: Sport Karate

Q: Hello everyone. Welcome to our eighth installment of Sensei Measara's autobiography. Hello Sensei.

A: Hi.

Q: You told us about your time at the hospital.

A: Yes.

Q: Can you tell us something about karate afterwards?

A: Yes. I told you how, after getting my black belt, I opened dojos. In those days, you weren't allowed to participate in tournaments as a brown belt; it was only after achieving black belt. My first tournament was called the Malaysian Championship. At that time, we didn't have a national body, so whatever they called it, it was the Malaysian Championship. I won a gold medal in my weight class – first place for my height. There were heavyweight or height classes, and in the overall category, I got third place.

This continued throughout my tournament career. Sometimes, I was selected for the "national team," even though we didn't technically have a national body. We used to train together to go for the second world tournament in Paris, but we were stopped from participating due to protests from other groups, even though we were considered the national group at that time.

Later, with the help of some karate people, including Clemens Su, a pioneer of Malaysian karate (I shouldn't forget to mention his name), who founded a karate style called Goshindriu, I became one of the founding members of his group. After founding this karate group, he told me we had to form a Malaysian Karate Federation. So, I became one of the pioneers and founders of the Malaysian Karate Federation. My name should still be registered in the Malaysian Karate Federation, which is called the MACAF (Malaysian Amateur Karate Federation), which still exists.

From there on, I became a referee in the national body, and before that, I used to conduct refereeing clinics and participate as a referee. Later, I was elected as a national coach for two or three consecutive years, together with other senseis. I was coaching until I came to Germany in 1980. So, I was involved in the competitive side quite a bit.

I also used to do full contact karate at that time. Because of my background in boxing, I combined boxing with kicking and punching techniques. I used to practice on my own, which helped me feel the power of executing punches and kicks on my opponents. At times, I would organize contact karate or knockout karate competitions in my own dojo, and we enjoyed this kind of kumite training.

This was a part of my karate competition career. I also used to teach competition karate, and I'd say 99% of my dojo students were champions when it came to our style. Only students from my dojo were champions, even blue belts would win in the black belt category. They were really good because of the experience I gained in competition, which I passed on in my dojo. At that time, not many people were as good at competition, and I had firsthand experience. I'm talking about my karate style, not only at the national level, but later, as I said, I was coaching the national team for two or three years until I left for Germany. That's all about my karate history in competition karate. Later, when I came to Germany, I was also teaching competition karate, specifically kumite. That was my favorite part.

Later on, I felt something was missing in my life, in my karate life. It wasn't competition because I used to read a lot of books and look at things. I realized that competition isn't the only aspect of karate; something was missing, and I was eagerly searching for it. I found what I was looking for and landed in traditional karate.

Maybe I should mention that even during my competition karate days, I was involved in other martial arts. I'll continue that in my next episode.

Q: Can you remember a fight on a tournament that deeply impressed you?

A: The first tournament when I came back, I was wearing the medal and I didn't want to take it off and I was sleeping with the medal, very happy and bragging, "I'm the champion," and all that stuff. And the next day, my photos came out in the big newspaper. I was puffed up and had a higher nose than ever, going around everywhere, even in the hospital, showing off and flirting with the nurses. I think every young person does that. I was around 23 or 24 and did the same old stupid thing. Well, I had a nice time.

Q: Thank you very much.

A: Most welcome. See you all in the next one. Don't forget to watch the next clip. Bye.