Brent Crooks
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 18/99) - Until the new sansei arrives in Iqaluit, Peter Scott is keeping his fellow students in line.

In order to do this, Scott, a brown belt enthusiast, spends three nights per week at Nakasuk School disciplining, training and teaching the sport he loves.

In past years, the Karate Club in Iqaluit was instructed by a couple of black belt professional sanseis, including Manasie Mark and a relocated RCMP officer. When they both left town last year, Scott stepped in, allowing the enthusiastic pupils to keep practising until the new sansei arrives.

"The organization was founded nearly 15 years ago and has participated in the teaching of self-defence without missing a single season for the past decade and a half," said Scott.

His students said they appreciated this form of art for boosting their self-confidence.

"It's the best overall training available in the three following areas; mental, physical and, of course, spiritual conditioning," said Scott. He added that keeping in shape and exercising is one of the best ways to stay occupied during Iqaluit's long cold winters and he said that the course offered something for everyone. Student skill levels range from novice to experienced and class sizes vary from 15 in the children's class to an average of six in the adult course.

"The rank of the pupil or the belt colour is an obvious display of self-encouragement and determination."

Obtaining a high belt colour isn't easy work and Scott said it requires years of repetitive training and self-discipline to become a respected sport fighter. For example, in order to become a first-degree black belt, you would have to obtain all of the following ranks or belt colours from the bottom up -- white, yellow, orange, green, blue and brown and then train for two more years before even getting evaluated to become a black belt.

One belt colour can take years to achieve, and in the past six years, Scott has become a green belt. He has been busy working his way to the top as well as passing on his knowledge to any person with the will to learn. Scott said he finds that the club is "a great way to teach children about important issues such as patience and long-term goal setting," and both of his daughters are involved in all the practices.

Scott said that karate is also a good method of self-defence and that it's a reassuring feeling that you can, if necessary, demobilize an attacker rather than just wishing you knew how to protect yourself in an ugly situation. So for all of those eager people who like to do some good for themselves, this might be the ticket. The adult group gets together Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7-9 p.m. and kids on Saturdays from 1:00-2:30 p.m.