Igorot karate champ shares ‘formula of success’ in world arena

By Ramon Dacawi and Isagani Liporada

BAGUIO CITY – If there’s an “Englishman in New York” - Sting - who made a killing with his songs; there is an “Igorot Karate Champ in Germany” and his name is Julian Chees who’s made a living in the art of fighting… and he is home.

Followers of the shotokan (traditional karate) were treated to a world class seminar to be conducted by Chees yesterday (Dec. 3) at the La Trinidad Municipal Hall in Benguet, capped by a tournament today.

Chees holds a fifth dan (degree) blackbelt and is a product of Japan Karate Association (JKA) Shihan (Master) Kunio Sasaki – the father of shotokan (knife-hand) style of martial art in the Philippines.

Sasaki planted the seed that is shotokan in the Philippines in the early 60’s as a young second danblackbelt sent by JKA central headquarters in Tokyo.

“This will be a world-class training,” assured Sensei HermiePelingen, head of the Philippine headquarters of JKA in La Trinidad. The accomplishments of Chees would speak for the quality of what he is injecting to our local karate landscape.”

Chees now holds 50-gyms in southern Germany. During his younger days, he was the only non-German by birth to have joined the German National Karate Team.

His triumphs as a Karate practitioner started while he was working in an army camp in Germany where the national team coach took notice of his prowess after winning several regional and national tilts.

Soon, he rose to the world rankings topping the England and Dutch Internationals. The icing on his cake came in 1993 at the World Shotokan Championships in Saarsbrucken, Germany when he won his world title.

Like a monk whose travails are sure hit when transformed from ‘real’ to ‘reel’, Chees recalled, “I prepared for the 1993 World Championships for months and months, including winter by my lonesome in the wilderness.”

Three years later, Chees emerged sixth in kata at the World Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada. In 2007, he ruled the seniors’ kata at the Worlds in Bergamo, Italy.

His most recent crown came at the Fort Launderdale, Florida World Championships in 2009.

But his world-renowned exploits had humble beginnings. Chees started karate under Edgar Kapawen, Sr. – one of Sasaki’s early students who now head the JKA-Orient Northern Luzon Headquarters.

Before Germany, he earned his blackbelt as an in-house student of Sasaki, made to do odd jobs aside from training for 3-years at the former JKA Philippines Headquarters in Manila.

The Dec. 3 seminar enabled karatekas of all belts to have a glimpse of Gasshuku, the rigid week-long training program conducted by JKA Germany headed by Master Ochi.

Proceeds of the seminar will be used to support indigent patients in Baguio and Benguet as an extension project of ShoshinKinderhelfe, a charitable foundation Chees established with his German students.

Interested karatekas may contact the following JKA chapters: Central Headquarters at the basement of the Church of the Epiphany, La Trinidad; Quirino Hill under Leon Lonogan, Puguis-Longlong chapter under Miller Quintin, Easter College under Maynard Canseho, Natubleng under RheysaPayangdo, Abong Foundation under Robert Pablo, Besao under Rev. Johnny Agwiking, Davao under Ruben Dumdum, Cagayan under Boy Sabunod, Cotabato under Ruben Dumdum, Lanao under Al Tlibas, and Las Pinas under Shihan Sasaki.