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For the head of a large national organization, Joe Mirza is not one to pull his punches.
He's had to take a strong stance simply in order to break through so many logjams in striving to advance Amateur Athletic Union Karate. So he realizes that he's bound to step on some entrenched toes no matter what he says or does.
Although AAU Karate is perceived as a sports-oriented program, Mirza is firm about the long term goals of the organization. "Karate without ethics and morals is barbaric," he says. "When you add ethics and values, you make karate unique; the most outstanding activity any young person can do."
You'd think that concept is a no-brainer, but it took a long time for Mirza to make that the foundation stone for the spread of AAU Karate.
The Growth of AAU Karate
The Amateur Athletic Union was founded in 1888, and is currently the largest sports organization in the United States, with an outreach to about five million youngsters in some 28 sanctioned sports. Among its many programs, the AAU sponsors the President's Physical Fitness Program, the Sullivan Award for outstanding amateur athlete of the year and the Junior Olympics (with a draw of about 14,000 youthful competitors; compare that to the regular Olympics, which features 12,000 athletes). The AAU also recently signed a 30-year agreement with Walt Disney World Sports to do championship tournaments in Orlando, Florida at its $200 million sports complex.The AAU is a non-profit organization, so all the money generated or donated goes to programs. Stipends and honorariums are doled out, but by and large, the AAU is a volunteer-run body. People serve in the AAU, Mirza says, "because they really love what they do."
The karate component of the AAU started in the early 1970s. Hidetaka Nishiyama, a Shotokan stylist, was its first chair and served for some three years. Then came Kaylor Atkins (who served two years), Jerry Thompson (four years), and George Anderson. Joe Mirza began his tenure in 1986. Going on 12 years, Mirza is already the longest-standing chair.
One problem AAU Karate faced was that too many people were interested in advancing their own group's agenda at the expense of national karate in general. "The problem is we have to look at what we are doing as a service directed to the amateur athletes. . . We're not making a private organization," Mirza emphasizes. "[AAU Karate has to be viable] regardless of what style you are, who the sensei is, whether you like them or not."
With that in mind, Mirza pushed for the organization to establish or reaffirm many programs that would establish unified and long-term support for karate. The organization has many youth programs already in place.
But Mirza wants to be sure that adults aren't neglected in the quest for developing young athletes. "When we're done, we have to be sure we don't throw them [the seniors] away," he says. "The above-age-35 is the biggest growing program. There's tremendous growth of seasoned karate athletes. We have a place where 'old warriors' can come and compete."
To that end, Mirza outlines the AAU Karate programs as being developmental (for developing and nurturing youngsters), elite (for raising the caliber of top-rank competitors so they can compete internationally), and continuing (to create programs that will offer something for older, more mature karate practitioners). Mirza also notes that AAU Karate also sponsors officials certification program so that the judging and officiating at karate tournaments become more professional. Among the world-class advisors for this program are sensei such as Saito, Monobu Miki, Chuzo Kotaka, Ray Dalke, Paul Frakke and Paul Godshaw.
The programs have already begun to generate outstanding results. "Today AAU Karate is the largest karate organization in the United States," Mirza claims, encompassing a variety of styles under its umbrella. "We have a National Championship with 2,500 competitors, the largest in the US, but even [those competitors] needed to qualify at regional tournaments."
In a given year, AAU Karate will sponsor 62 association tournaments, 14 regional tournaments, and some 100 qualifying preliminary tournaments. And this is only its domestic tournaments. As an example of its international involvement, AAU Karate members were represented in 1997 at the World Championships in Florence, Italy. Two US teams of AAU Karate members went to the Okinawa World Championships, a team went to the Japan Cadet Junior and Cadet National tournaments, a full team went to the Pan Am World Karate Championships, and a team went to the International Karate Federation's 38th Annual Championships.
"We have established one of the finest coaching programs in the country. Being a sensei is not being a coach," Mirza notes. The two require different, albeit overlapping skills. "We've separated out the two. We are currently running a coaches certification program that is mandatory to coach at tournaments. It's based on the ASEP (American Sports Education Program), sports medicine, pedagogy, science, psychology, kinesthetics, physiology, strength, training drills, competition tips and nutrition. . ."
AAU Karate also offers umbrella insurance coverage for member dojo. For a $12 fee, a youth can be insured for accidents or injuries incurred in any tournament he/she enters. Member clubs can take advantage of a $5 million liability policy.
Member clubs can also purchase training outfits (gi), headgear and other equipment at a discount through the AAU and its subsidiaries. That way, Mirza says, savings from volume discounts can be passed on to member dojo, making them more viable economically.
The over-1,000 member clubs benefit from AAU-sponsored workshops, so that the level of teaching is also raised. AAU Karate sponsors seminars and clinics. In the past, such clinics used to be heavy on karate techniques and training methods. Lately, Mirza has added business leaders who teach dojo owners how to market and sustain their organizations economically.
Realizing that kids have a wide selection of activities, Mirza hopes to start a marketing program for karate. "Our number one competition is not with other martial arts," he warns. "It's soccer, baseball, football. . . So we have got to develop a sports marketing program based on what we do in the dojo."
Our goal," Mirza emphasizes-and when he says this, you can believe that if anybody is going to make it happen, he's the man to do it-"is to make the best karate in the world here in the USA."
In fact, Mirza's pretty close to his big-time goals. The 1996 WKO karate championships were a sweep for AAU karate competitors. The perennially strong Europeans were wiped out of contention by the Americans. The 1997 championships in Florence, Italy was also a big win for AAU karateka. AAU Karate athletes won eight gold medals, beat the host Italian team, and beat all other European teams, which are perennial favorites, in kumite (sparring). The Americans also knocked off the Japanese team in kata (forms), which hitherto was a Japanese stronghold.
"We are producing some of the best athletes in the world," Mirza emphasizes. "We train our athletes and send them out. We made the most nourishing, most nurturing type of environment for American athletes to grow in. . ."
Mirza and the TKO
Mirza's own background is in Shotokan karate. He began training in the 1960s, and currently runs one club in his home, in a Chicago suburb. The club has affiliates in Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin. Together, the clubs operate under the rubric of the Traditional Karate-do Organization (TKO), with about 1,000 members.Mirza trained primarily under Shojiro Sugiyama of the JKA (Japan Karate Association), as well as with Hidetaka Nishiyama's ITKF, although he is not currently affiliated with the group.
Making an American Karate Tradition
Mirza's other long term goal is to bring a degree of coherence, stability, and accountability to the American karate scene. He doesn't want AAU Karate to get mired in a politicized black-belt ranking system, so he is working very slowly and gingerly to establish a uniform grading system that will be established among all its members. "We want it to be non-political. The chair of the AAU Karate will never take rank from it, so there will be no games, and no politicizations," he says.All these plans are great, but Mirza is aware that organizing AAU Karate takes more than a bunch of great karate instructors who may not be very good at business or organization. As chair, Mirza hired an executive director for AAU martial arts, who will be a full-time employee responsible for marketing and promoting karate throughout the United States. Mirza says that the new director, Adrian Ellis, has outstanding credentials as a karate competitor: seven times USA national kumite champion, Goodwill Games gold medalist, member of the US World Team. But in addition, Ellis is, in Mirza's words, "an outstanding administrator." Ellis has his work cut out for him, Mirza says. "We are the 'best kept secret' in martial arts. We've had, up to now, very poor marketing."
"We're laying the foundations for the future of karate here, in the AAU," Mirza claims. Other organizations based on specific styles or schools necessarily have their own agenda, that of promoting their own system. It's only natural, Mirza says. Thus, AAU is one of the few organizations capable of taking a wider, more all-encompassing view of American karate.
To that end, Mirza already sees the fruits of AAU Karate's labors ripening. He points to top competitors such as Marsha Cohen, Jim Ohara and John Limcaco; all top AAU-affiliated karate coaches. Between the three, they won some 40-odd AAU gold medals and some 100 international awards. These relatively young karateka are already coaching the next generation of winners. The plan is, Mirza says, "to grow (competitors), train and send them out to win accolades, then bring them back, have them continue to participate, and train the next generation. . .These kids know what it feels like, to be close to the competition. They are going to be coaches, young kids that young athletes can relate to. They're great organizers."
The up-and-coming AAU Karate competitors are many, Mirza says. Aziz Khedar won a gold in the World Championship kata and team kata twice. IKF's 16-year-old Alisa Au is another young prodigy, Mirza says, along with IKF's Barbara Chinen and George Kotaka.
AAU Karate's active encouragement for youngsters is a radically different approach compared to some other organizations, Mirza says. Karate in America oftentimes suffer from what he calls the "clog." "If you've got a [development] pipeline, the old athletes are the clogs that stop the new ones from coming up. They may be on the decline, but they can crush the young athletes. . .They need to move on, help the young kids move up."
Punching Through
Mirza is not without his critics, he admits. "People that don't like us don't know us," he says. But he has run up against his own share of naysayers when he tried to implement regulations or rules that are intended to raise the quality of American karate. One example was the hard line "traditionalists" who frowned upon the use of face shields for youth tournaments. Mirza wants sport karate to be as safe as possible for kids. Would you want someone to punch out your daughter's braces just for the sake of tradition, Mirza asks rhetorically? This past year, face shields were optional. Mirza hopes it will become mandatory. Another rule that is that all competitors will wear all-white gi. No more star-spangled red-white-and-blue or purple and pink satin outfits. For the sport to be taken seriously by the public, it has to display a seriousness in its uniforms.Mirza's efforts to project AAU Karate and martial arts in general as a healthful, positive and values-oriented activity are negated by the general public perception of martial arts as a violent activity, Mirza says. "One of the worst things that happened to martial arts is the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championships). It's a joke. They're enforcing the idea of [a martial artist] being a thug, a brute. That is not what karate and martial arts are about. . .They give a very poor name for martial arts." Mirza laughs at his own disgust at the way the current no-holds-barred fights are staged, likening them to World Wrestling Federation fights. "We're trying to get karate to be a mainstream sport, so we want as much distance between us and them as possible."
In contrast, Mirza notes how AAU Karate has tried to clean up the messy open tournament situation. At an AAU-sanctioned tournament, only the two kumite competitors and officials with ties and jackets are allowed on the floor. The coaches or sensei have to sit with other attendees. And they have to wear official uniforms or they are not allowed to coach. "All coaches go through a referee course, so they understand the rules," Mirza says. Such programs also emphasize how to teach ethics and moral values as they extend into sports."
"Some people don't like what we do," Mirza admits. "But my job is to maintain the integrity of the program."
Inquiries about AAU Karate may be mailed to Joe B. Mirza, AAU Karate chairman, 865 Nicholas Blvd., Elk Grove Village, Illinois 60007 USA.
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