World Kick-boxing title for Nenagh student
By Thomas Conway
18-year-old student Oskar Wietrzynski was crowned champion in the light-contact category at the WKO World Kickboxing Championships, in Barnsley, England, last week.
It was a significant coup for the Nenagh College student, who only took up the discipline a number of years ago. He is one of a few dozen enthusiasts who train regularly at the club, located on the Old Dublin Road.
Tall, powerful, and versatile, Oskar is among the club’s most auspicious emerging talents. He featured in multiple categories at the world’s last week, and encountered a number of strong opponents from France, the UK, and even Birr, Co. Offaly.
His coach Aidan Whelan inherited Nenagh Kickboxing Club from his mentor, John ‘Frolic’ Ryan in 2007, he could never have envisaged the surge in popularity that martial arts and combat sports would experience in the ensuing years.
Sports like kickboxing, which were once largely limited to distant parts of East Asia - where they originated - have become de rigeur in Western towns and cities. Nenagh is no different.
Kickboxing is a highly technical, stylistic martial art which engages both the upper and lower body. There are two principal categories, both of which are on offer in Nenagh, but as Aidan explains, there is also a third classification.
“We teach two different styles of kickboxing, light-contact and full-contact, but there is also another category called K1 - which just means you are allowed to use your knees along with the kicks and the punches. So, Oskar entered in all three categories,” Whelan revealed.
Those who excel at kickboxing do so because they master the “core values” of the martial art, which are both physical and psychological.
Aidan says these values encompass a myriad of different traits and are important regardless of whether one is pursuing the martial art competitively or simply for social reasons.
“The core values of kickboxing would be discipline, honour, confidence, and well-being,” he added.
“Then you have physical fitness, flexibility would come into it. Like any martial art, discipline plays a big part. But there is a social side to it as well. We have lots of members who joined to meet new people, meet a new community. Some people wouldn’t be interested in the competition side of it; they might be in it just for the fitness and community side of it.”
Compared to more traditional martial arts, kickboxing is relatively young. Its origins are thought to date back to the 1950s. It soon became popular in America and subsequently exploded during the 1970s and 1980s. It has a number of different governing bodies, including WAKO, IKF and WKO. Nenagh Kickboxing Club is an affiliated member of the latter two organisations.