Martial artist kicks his way to top of Canadas CKD

By Jon Tattrie - The Weekly News
A Halifax martial artist has become Canada's highest-ranking practitioner of Choi Kwang Do.
Prasanna Kariyawansa, who runs K's Choi Kwang Do in the south-end of Halifax and in Tantallon, started the long journey to his second-degree black belt in 1997 - in taekwondo.
Shortly after he earned his black belt in 2004, the club switched to Choi Kwang Do. Both are Korean martial arts, but with marked differences in style and techniques.
Kariyawansa's black belt carried over in name, but in practice he had to start over at white belt.
"It was a little disheartening," he says. "It felt like, 'Oh, I used to be a black belt and now I've got to start over again. But it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. In hindsight, I don't know how long I would have been able to stay in taekwondo because of the extremely physically demanding techniques."
His enthusiasm for the new martial art was boosted when Grandmaster Choi, the founder of CKD, held a global conference in Halifax that year.
Kariyawansa grew to love the health benefits and practicality of Choi Kwang Do. He was also drawn to Grandmaster Choi, who is in his late 60s and regularly updates the martial art.
"The idea is we don't walk around our day-to-day lives in a certain stance, so we need to learn how to get into our defensive stances if anyone were to attack," Kariyawansa says.
Kariyawansa opened his Halifax school in April 2009. A few months later, he travelled to CKD's international headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
"It was physically demanding," he says of the week he spent working on his techniques. "I was training for three or four hours a day."
In late February, Kariyawansa travelled to Chicago for a celebration of CKD's 23rd birthday and to test for his second-degree black belt.
It was a gruelling 2.5 hour test demonstrating the dozens of techniques, patterns and speed drills, as well as a session hitting the pads.
Because of the conference, he was presented with his new belt in a room full of CKD's highest-ranking martial artists.
"That was a little nerve-wracking," he laughs. "It's an additional honour for me, because now I would be the highest-ranking Choi Kwang Do practitioner and instructor in Canada."
Della Boutilier-Hirsch trains at Kariyawansa's south-end school with her son Justin, eight, and daughter Sasha, six. "I was looking for a family activity that I could do with my children - Choi Kwang Do was the perfect fit. The classes are mixed gender, it is non-competitive and appropriate for all ages - even parents," she says.
Boutilier-Hirsch had no background in martial arts, but she and her kids quickly caught on. "Breaking boards and executing powerful kicks and punches seemed like a far-off reality in the beginning, but surprisingly within four months we mastered enough of the basics to begin to learn how to do this," she says.
Her children have thrived in CKD, she says, developing discipline and perseverance while improving their fitness.
"We also have a lot of fun achieving our goals as we advance through the belt ranks every couple of months as a family," she says. "On top of all of this, it gives me comfort that we are learning skills to defend ourselves."
Learn more at Ckdcanada.com.
jon@jontattrie.ca

Jon Tattrie is a freelance journalist in Halifax - and a purple-belt student of Choi Kwang Do.