Secunda’s Sabumnim JP obtains sixth degree black belt in Taekwondo

 It has taken 25 years for Sabumnim JP Vorster to reach his sixth-degree black belt and is now also ranked as one of only two South Africans to have ever achieved this degree.

From his fifth-degree black belt, it had taken JP five years of hard work, dedication and daily training to finally reach his goal of a sixth-degree black belt.

The grading was done online via Zoom, with one grandmaster judge, and three eight degree judges on the judging panel.

Although Vorster had met the judges in person before, he said the grading was still nerve-wracking.

“It was a nice and fun experience doing my grading this way,” said Vorster.

He had also faced the challenge of having both his parents diagnosed and hospitalised with Covid-19 and on the day of his grading, his mother was put on a ventilator.

However, he had to place all of this aside and concentrate on the grading at hand and do the best that he could.

Most athletes feed off spectators and their crowd support, however, no spectators were allowed to attend his grading, due to Covid-19.

Vorster said he overcame this challenge by training alone. He had trained in front of the camera to prepare himself mentally for the grading.

“I forcibly trained myself not to have a crowd.

“I trained from a Monday to Friday, every day for one and a half hours for five years. There was no time to stop training. It was a long five-year journey to keep fit,” he said.

Vorster is continuing with training to prepare for next year’s World Championship.

During his grading, he had to perform 95 moves without fault, in the categories of form, fighting (sparring techniques) and board breaking.

Judges would look at foot position, hand position, overall posture and execution of kicks and strikes.
“It is an exceptional achievement being one of the first two South Africans, especially coming from a small town like Secunda,” said Vorster.

He shares this amazing achievement with a fellow athlete and ex-Secunda resident Rohan Verwey, making them the only two South Africans to obtain a sixth-degree black belt.

Vorster and his brothers took on the sport of Taekwondo at a very young age, with him being the only sibling to continue his journey till the present.

“Both my brothers stopped when they got their black belts, but I continued.”

At the age of 17, Vorster became an instructor and was certified in 2007.

He then became a full-time instructor in 2009 and he is currently also a tournament director and treasurer for ATA South Africa.

A highlight of his sporting career was when he made it to the World Championship in 2007 and received third place in sparring.

He has also competed in multiple tournaments, achieving multiple national championship medals throughout South Africa.

“The sixth-degree black belt stands out for me for the plain fact that I am one of the first being able to achieve this in South Africa. Nobody has ever done this before.

“It has taken 25 years of consistently training in getting where I am today,” said Vorster.

There was a time in Vorster’s sporting career that he took time out of Taekwondo and attempted kickboxing.

However, he never felt fulfilment in this sport and saw himself return to Taekwondo and had since not stopped a day from the sport he truly loves.

Taekwondo is described as a multifaceted sport that consists of fighting, fitness, form, weapons, boxing, self-defence and much more.

On top of daily training, Vorster also teaches the sport full time. Along with his wife, Erika, they run their Victory Taekwondo and Karate for Kids facility from Monday to Saturday and train 110 athletes.

“My biggest supporter is my wife. There were days that I was just not up for training, but she would motivate me and make sure I would show up to class and train,” said Vorster.

Erika said she is extremely proud of her husband achieving his sixth-degree black belt and that he worked extremely hard to obtain this.

“He is a real machine,” concluded Erika.