Mr. Mohammed Mahmoud Talks About The Club Now, And Going Forward
Things are always changing with the sands of time. This is no different with the UND Karate Club. Mr. Mohammed Mahmoud is the new president of the club. His instructor, Sensei La Royce Batchelor who I previously interviewed, relocated to Canada. While Sensei Batchelor still visits and trains, Mr. Mahmoud and Sensei’s Katrinak and Larson have taken the reins of the club going forward. I enjoyed getting to hear what Mr. Mahmoud had to say about the UND Karate Club and its future.
Let us start with a little background on yourself. How did you get started in the martial arts?
My name is Mohammed Mahmoud and I am a doctoral student in the Scientific Computing program at the University of North Dakota (UND) and the current President of the UND Karate Club. As of May 2018, I hold a rank in karate through the International Shotokan Karate Federation (ISKF), a rank in Juko-Ryu Aiki Inyo Goshinjutsu (Japanese Jiu-jitsu), and also have trained in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ).
I started karate in Grand Forks, North Dakota with Sensei LaRoyce Batchelor. When I began I had no idea that I would find such enjoyment with the art and the members of the dojo. One of the biggest reasons I kept with karate was Sensei LaRoyce and the overall environment she provided for not only learning but also for building friendships. She has never hesitated to spend a lot of time helping her students fine-tune their skills and find their strengths. When I first started karate she devoted a lot of time to helping me one-on-one during early morning classes. One of the important factors in karate is speed as well as accuracy and control, and I owe her a lot for the time she invested in helping me develop, as she recognized my speed and helped me in learning to control it through different techniques.
Did you always know you want to teach martial arts, or is that something you discovered along the way?
I will always see myself as a student of martial arts first, before anything else. When I started karate and training I was just a student attending classes and focusing on improving my skills and techniques. As I moved up in rank I found that the higher you move in rank, the more responsibilities you have. From there I started participating more and began teaching kids’ class and helping those who held lower ranks than myself.
After Sensei LaRoyce moved to Canada with her family in 2017, Dustan Larson, Karen Katrinak, and I found ourselves responsible for the daily functions of the dojo. At this point I recognized that I could provide value to others by leading classes along with those higher ranked than myself, learning how to navigate the differences in class levels and getting more comfortable in teaching.
During this time we started running the UND Karate Club. The UND Karate Club has been present at UND since the early 1960’s and was originally affiliated with the Japanese Karate Association (JKA) but has since become associated with the International Shotokan Karate Federation (ISKF). We attend ISKF seminars, hold ISKF ranks, and we also test as ISKF members.
As club president, can you tell us what the philosophy and values of the UND Karate Club are?
We believe that martial arts should be taught free of charge, which is how traditional karate is taught. When you begin karate there is someone who is dedicating time and effort teaching you, and later you have to dedicate the same, if not more, time teaching others who are currently in the same position you once were. In a sense it’s like a debt, someone helps you when you’re starting out and later on, you pay this off by helping someone and supporting them.
We also seek attendance from people of all ages within the community, not just UND affiliated individuals. We have a greatly diverse group, coming from different backgrounds and different age groups.
Most schools or clubs are only as good as their instructors. Can you tell us about who those people are that make the UND Karate Club so special?
We are lucky enough to have amazing instructors starting with Sensei LaRoyce, who usually attends seminars and testing with us. She trains with us when she is available and we are extremely appreciative of this because to do so she has to travel from Canada to Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Sensei Dustan Larson
Dustin is one of the most amazing, kind-hearted individuals you will ever meet. He is an amazing instructor and knows a lot about the karate culture besides training and helping others. He has also practiced karate for many years, starting at a young age and still showing extreme dedication to the art today. Despite his immense knowledge, he remains extremely humble. Dusty is an Electrical Engineer having obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from UND.
Sensei Karen Katrinak
She is also an instructor in the UND Karate Club. She has taken on the responsibility of being the Academic Advisor in addition to the Treasurer of the UND Karate Club. Karen doesn’t hesitate to help any member of the Club when asked for help in karate. Her roles within the UND Karate Club are many and she has taken on a lot of tasks including arranging weekly scheduling of instructors, communicating with other dojos in our region to coordinate participation in training and testing, ensuring the dojo is registered with the ISKF, working with UND’s Kinesiology Department to arrange use of their space as needed for training in the Summer, and communicating with dojo students and families regarding training schedules and testing requirements. Karen recently received the Outstanding Student Organization Advisor Award (https://www.instagram.com/p/BiOYmgngP7N/?taken-by=und_karate_club).
In addition to Karen’s award, I recently received the Lillian Elsinga Outstanding Student Leader Award (https://www.instagram.com/p/BiQ16Fpg5VO/?taken-by=und_karate_club). The UND Karate Club was one of 3
student organizations that were nominated to be the Student Organization of the year out of more than 200 at the University of North Dakota (https://www.instagram.com/p/BiYcmXhgy9R/?taken-by=und_karate_club).
Dustan, Karen, and I train classes equally amongst the beginners’/kids’ classes, all-levels classes, and advanced classes frequently learning from each other. We each teach around 2 classes per week and rotate based on our availability. We also have 2 younger brown belts who are present in the dojo when we teach beginners’/kids’ classes in order to assist us. They are David Davis who is 16 years old and Dylan Trangsrud who is 15 years old.
Is there anything the UND Karate Club is working on right now?
There are 5 ISKF Seminars each year that include testing and we attend all of them. There was a seminar and testing on April 28th and 29th that we attended and some of the members of our Karate Club tested and received new ranks.
I handle all aspects of advertising and promoting for our Karate Club. I have been dedicated to expanding the Karate Club and informing the surrounding community of opportunities with us, as well as looking for opportunities for us to complete group activities together outside of class. We were featured in the Grand Forks Herald and also on WDAZ Sports Sunday channel 8.
Links:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BgW-UJGHeIf/?taken-by=und_karate_club
https://www.instagram.com/p/BgR9e77HAMa/?taken-by=und_karate_club
What about the future of the UND Karate Club? Any goals you are trying to work towards?
We believe that karate should be available to everyone regardless of gender, age, body type, race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, or any other factor. As long as the person shows interest in the art and respect to all members, he/she is welcome to start their journey of discovering what karate is all about and train with us.
We are trying to get more members to join our Karate Club and we want to spread the art as much as we can. Karate has a lot of benefits besides the physical/self-defense aspect. One of these benefits is that it is a great stress reliever. After class ends, members always feel relief no matter how long their day was or how much they may have felt burdened. We see people in their sixties and seventies and even older who practice karate, and have overall better health than others who don’t. Believe it or not, practicing karate makes you a happier person in general with a strong, positive attitude.
We have a decent-sized beginners’/kids’ class and they really show an active interest in the art. The beginners/kids are:
- Benjamin (Orange Belt).
- Briley (Orange Belt).
- Casey (Orange Belt).
- Corey (Yellow Belt).
- Alex (White Belt).
- Igor (White Belt).
- Zoya (White Belt).
- Alexander (White Belt).
- Matthew (White Belt).
- Farrag (White Belt).
- Tyven (White Belt).
- Casey (White Belt).
- Sasha (White Belt).
- Jade (White Belt).
- Caius (White Belt).
We also have two UND professors who train with us, namely Dr. Dmitri Poltavski, an Experimental Psychology professor who is a green belt. Dr. Poltavski is Sasha’s (from beginners’/kids’ class) father. Also, we have Dr. Julia Zhao, a Chemistry professor who recently received her yellow belt. In addition to that, we have a decent amount of members in our Karate Club from different backgrounds and ages.
If anybody wants to reach out to you, how should they do that?
Instagram:
Email:
mohammed.mahmoud@und.edu.
karen.katrinak@und.edu.
dustan_d_larson@hotmail.com.
Final Thoughts
I am always amazed at how we as martial artists can rise to the occasion when it is required. Being told that you are running a class for the first time, or in this case, having to take over a school can be sobering. However, the training that we all endure gives us the internal reserve of courage to persevere. I wish Mr. Mahmoud and Sensei’s Larson and Katrinak all the best going forward with the UND Karate Club!
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