Karate kid honoured for a lifetime of instruction

Jose Roses was 18 when he took up karate to keep high school bullies at bay.

Martial arts instructor Jose Roses with student Violet Blair, 5, in Canberra’s Tuggeranong. Picture: Sean Davey

Jose Roses was 18 when he took up karate to keep high school bullies at bay.

Now, 45 years later, he is passing on martial art skills to other children to help them build confidence. “I was always smart enough to stay away from a fight, but they still happened, and I was getting bullied,” Mr Roses said.

“So I started doing karate and kickboxing at a jujitsu club so that I could learn to fight back, but instead­ it gave me confidence and the ability to control myself.”

Mr Roses, 67, teaches karate to people of all ages at the Bonython community centre in the ACT.

He is one of Australia’s highest graded karate-kas, or karate practition­ers, and gives seminars all around the world as a sensei.

After 45 years of teaching and training, Mr Roses has received a Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to karate.

He said he was honoured, but his focus was still on helping other learn more about themselves through karate.

“I have taught karate for years and it’s amazing to teach another, younger generation to just be ­better people and teach them how to behave themselves,” Mr Roses.

“(Karate) helps them learn a lot more about their bodies and you find that rubs off when they go to school and builds their confid­ence.

“We use a lot of control, which is important — learning how to control yourself in traditional karate is one of the most important things, and kids can learn how to control themselves in a ­situation.”

Mr Roses teaches children as young as four, who he says often have an amazing capacity to ­respect the tradition of karate.

“You see it with the little kids, even when they do free sparring they have control,’’ he said.

“There is no mucking around in my class, and I make sure they know about the traditions, so they come in and they bow and they are very respectful.’’