Burke blasts unqualified kickboxing tutors

President of the National Kickboxing Boxing Council, Brendon Burke has criticised unqualified tutors of the sport .

He charged they are only interested in making money and not about the progress of kickboxing. “There are scores of  tutors who fail to complete their courses. Yet we hear that they are training the young people to become experts in this sport,” Burke said. The Princes Town-based official added that the questionable tutors are not qualified to train the youngsters. “If a so-called tutor doesn’t know all the details about the sport how can he impart this knowledge?” he asked. Burke advised parents to be aware of instructors who hold tournaments and grade their children. “When a tutor holds a tournament in his gym, he deliberately fails the child so that the parent can invest more money into further training the child,” he said.

The concerned instructor, who has spent 30 years in the sport of karate and kick-boxing, expressed his disgust on the matter. “Here in this small country, we have many exponents of the art who will learn to a certain level and quickly branch off to form their own organisation, so that they can cash in on the sport at an early stage. “This is in fact killing the sport in the country. The young people are not exposed to the high standard of discipline and training required to compete in international competition. “And many of these youths who have been trained under the unqualified tutors end up hurting themselves instead of applying the discipline needed in the sport,” Burke said.
   
Speaking from his office in Lothians Road in Princes Town, Burke said he graduated  as a fourth degree Black Belt in karate and is a qualified Kick-Boxer. He was trained by the highly acclaimed tutors, Tony Padmore and Tim Deens Burke of the USA. He returned from the USA to introduce the art of kickboxing to the youths of TT. In 1990 he mobilised all the karate experts and introduced the sport of kickboxing to Trinidad and Tobago. He then formed the National Kick-Boxing Council and was elected president by the students he recruited. Burke said he has spent long hours training kickboxing enthusiasts so that they can represent TT in international competitions.