If Kenneth Lee is going to win at a higher level of karate, he needs to rest.
For the first time in his career, the Vancouver black belt qualified for the North American Cup and the USA Open Karate Championships after placing in the top three at the 2015 nationals and Team Canada’s selections tournament.
To prepare for the high-calibre lineup, which ran in early April in Las Vegas, Nevada, Lee trained at least four times a week, varying his focus between physical conditioning, resistance training, cardio exercise such as running and biking, speed work and plyometrics.
On Friday and Sunday, he rested.
“Right now, it’s my tapering down period,” said Lee, who trains at Vancouver’s Odokan Shito-Ryu Dojo under sensei Kaz Hashimoto and sensei Mark Stacey, before the tournament.
“Just because we’ll have a lot of team training and a lot of competition in the next week, we need a lot of rest. Without proper recovery, your performance suffers.”
The strategy worked. Lee won silver in the North American Cup. He did not place in the USA Open.
Lee, 25, has trained for 19 years and competes in kata divisions. Japanese for “form,” kata is a choreographed set of techniques, stances and transitions. Each kata has its own rhythm and timing.
In the North American Cup, his toughest competitors were Joseph Martinez from the U.S., Mexican Waldo Rameriz, and compatriot Toshi Uchiage. The large U.S. Open large tournament drew anyone and everyone, according to Lee, including Venezuela’s Antonio Diaz, the 2010 and 2012 world champion.
Lee embraces the attitude of Steve Jobs who famously said, “Stay hungry. Stay foolish,” and aspires to open his own dojo and pharmacy, as well as win a world championship.
At 5’7,” Lee typically competes in kata divisions, the experience with which led him to write the KFX: Workout and Nutrition Manual. The release date has not yet been announced.
A graduate of UBC, he is also a full-time pharmacy manager for Labpharma Health Solutions Inc. in the Downtown Eastside. He works with an outreach program to provide clients with one-on-one consultations with the intent to optimize their care and treatment.
“We’re different in the sense that we go, physically, into the community where our patients live and eat and we provide clinical pharmacy services like consultations, medication reviews, immunizations and education sessions,” he said.
One of Lee’s training partners, Mai Hasegawa, has trained in karate since she was three and was raised by two international competitors, including her father and six-time world champion Shinichi Hasegawa. Her mother Yumi Hasegawa also won silver in kumite, or sparring, at the world championships.
When elite Japanese competitors arrived for the Annual Steveston Invitational, Lee took the opportunity to learn all he could about training for kumite.
“He’s always asking questions. He doesn’t stop. Always learning,” said Hasegawa, who is also his girlfriend. “If there’s one technique he can’t do, he’ll train a lot, doing it again and again.”
Hasegawa said Lee’s strengths are his speed and power. His weakness is his stances, she said.
“He needs a stronger lower body. He uses his upper body a lot,” she said.
Of the four general styles of Japanese karate, shotokan, goju-ryu, wado-ryu and shito-ryu, Lee practices the latter, which combines both linear and circular techniques. He earned his black belt in 2007.
“Karate has given me the ability to persevere and discipline in all aspects of my life. It’s given me improved physical fitness and strong mental strength,” he said.
“Everything I do, I don’t do it unless I can stick with it consistently,” he said. “If you’re not going to do it every day, why waste your time doing it at all?”
That attitude also applies to rest days.
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