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High kicking
Focus, discipline bring greater levels of
success
Jamar Younger
Mesa Legend
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Dennis Mikulich
Mesa Legend
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| Madieyna Diouf (left) and
others work through a karate exercise. Diouf, who has won many
major karate championships, will compete in July in the Pan-American
games. |
When Madieyna Diouf was 6 years old, he started taking karate to
acquire discipline. Years later, discipline has helped him win numerous
karate world championships.
Diouf, who is a native of Senegal, is a first-degree black belt.
He won the International Shotokan Karate Federation national championships
that took place in Hawaii in November 2003. He has won the event
each of the three times he participated in it.
Diouf also competed in the World Karate Federation championships
in Germany, and took fourth place with a broken hand. In addition,
Diouf has won four other major events, including the Western States
championships in 2002 and the USA National Karate Federation championships
in 2000. He also competes in various other tournaments around the
country.
According to Diouf, karate has helped him be successful in life
as well as in competition. Diouf is a computer science and math
major at MCC. Though he has been a part-time student, Diouf will
attend full time this semester, and also works two jobs.
Diouf has been in the United States for seven years. He came to
America because it was cheaper to go to college in this country,
and he moved to Phoenix in 1999 after living in Atlanta for two
years.
He said karate has given him the ability to relax and concentrate
on a single task.
“It teaches you to focus on one thing. You already know how
to focus when the pressure is there,” said Diouf.
Karate has also made Diouf very goal-oriented. He said he believes
goals are everything in life.
“Goals make life worth living. In anything you do, you have
to have a goal,” Diouf said.
Even though Diouf has been very successful in competition, his main
goals do not include being better than his opponents. Instead, he
said he wants to be good enough for himself and to continue to grow
and learn from his experiences.
Diouf views karate as being different from other sports. He refers
to karate as an art rather than a sport. The aim of sports is to
win, but a participant in karate can benefit from winning or losing,
Diouf said.
“If you lose, you’re still learning. You learn from
trying and grow from experience,” he said.
Even though karate is much different from other sports, it is still
very popular around the world.
“Karate is the largest sport representing every country,”
said Chuck Cobran, founder of Karate Arizona, the martial arts school
where Diouf trains. He is also Diouf’s instructor.
In addition to operating Karate Arizona, Cobran teaches a karate
class at MCC. He has been teaching the class since 1972.
Cobran said more karate tournaments are sanctioned now than before,
and prizes are being offered to the competitors.
Even though karate has become more widely recognized as a sport,
most tournaments are still for amateurs and they do not offer prizes.
Diouf said most participants compete just for the love of the sport.
“You don’t win nothing but honor,” said Diouf.
In July, Diouf will represent the United States in the Pan-American
games and will compete in the Japan Karate Association Shotokan
world championships in September.
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