Call Sensei Darryl Williams the Jack Warner of the karate world.
And credit a Roman Catholic nun who captivated an impressionable ten-year-old boy for his meteoric rise to the top of the martial arts firmament. Hailing from Diego Martin, Williams, who was 49 on June 6, was appointed World Union of Karate-Do Federations (WUKO) chief referee in December, last year.
And in November coming, his nomination as a WUKO vice president is expected to be ratified at the organisation's congress scheduled for Guadalajara, Mexico. Williams is the highest-ranking WUKO official in the eastern USA and the Caribbean, and incidentally, is chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Karate Federation (TTKF). Along with TTKF president, Virginia Seebaran, he has taken the TTKF from a limping-along organisation, with just seven clubs in 2006, to 38 clubs throughout T&T, each boasting an average membership of 50.
He is engaged in getting a WUKO pilot project in T&T, training potential karate referees from the time they are in their teens, off the ground.
The karate live wire is also intent on introducing karate to students at the School for the Blind, as well as wheelchair-bound T&T citizens. Whenever you miss him, he is jetting across the American continent conducting top-level refereeing courses on behalf of WUKO.
Comparing Williams, a sixth-degree black belt holder with the equally meteoric Jack Warner, Concacaf president and a Fifa vice president, is hard to avoid. He got his first-degree black belt in 1976, and in 1986 received his first international referee's licence from the USA Karate Federation's chapter in the state of Virginia. In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Guardian, he mused on how he was introduced to the karate world. "It was back in 1970, during the days of the Black Power uprising, when I was ten and a student at Petit Valley Boys' RC. "There was a nun teaching at Corpus Christi Convent by the name of Sister Marionette, who also practised karate. "She was a brown belt at the time and taught the sport to any student interested.
"She was the prettiest nun I had ever seen, and when my father, Christopher, felt that I needed to learn karate, the better to protect myself, I did not need much incentive to obey his orders," Williams recalled. He said from there he continued learning the sport at a karate school ran by Michael Jarrette in Belmont, and also practised with friends on Church Street in Petit Valley. There was no looking back, as Williams migrated to the USA and opened a karate school in Queen's, New York, during the 1990s. One of the most amazing students he had was Palestinian-born Mohammad Shalout, who Williams said took to karate like a duck to water, despite being blind. "I had to hold his hands to show him the correct technique, but I only had to show him once, whereas among my sighted students many needed repeat lessons," Williams noted. He said he intended to have Shalout come to T&T to impart his karate knowledge to students at the School for the Blind.
About karate
Karate is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Islands from indigenous fighting methods . Karate is characterised as a striking art using punching, kicking, knee and elbow strikes and open-handed techniques such as knife-hands (karate chop). Grappling, locks, restraints, throws, and vital point strikes are taught in some styles. Karate developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom prior to its 19th century annexation by Japan. It was brought to the Japanese mainland in the early 20th century during a time of cultural exchanges between the Japanese and the Ryukyuans.
The martial arts movies of the 1960s and 1970s served to greatly increase its popularity, and the word karate began to be used in a generic way to refer to all striking-based Oriental martial arts. Karate schools began appearing across the world, catering to the those with casual interest as well as those seeking a deeper study of the art. Today karate is practiced for self-perfection, for cultural reasons, for self-defence and as a sport.
