29 Dec DIDIER DRAI (59 YEARS OLD)

ADAPTED KARATE IS THE ONLY THING THAT ALLOWED HIM TO RELIVE HIS NEW SITUATION

✳️ With more than 40 years in Marseille, France, doing karate, eight years ago he adapted to the new needs his life imposed on him. He began to learn and teach from his new condition. Para-Karate meant “reviving from his new reality.”

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I’m a 2nd Dan black belt. I’ve been practicing karate since 1968. I started with Shotokan and after four years, I turned to Kyokushinkai which is more related to my warrior temperament.

KYOKUSHINKAI HAS MORE TO DO WITH MY FIGHTING PERSONALITY

I am married and a father of three children who have already become independent. He was a soldier in the Foreign Legion. After a first femoral bypass in January 2011 and then an aneurysm rupture in my throat in June 2012 where I had a lifelong tracheostomy, I had another 7 ruptures of aneurysm in my right leg. In July 2017 I made the decision to amputate a part of my leg with great suffering.

After my convalescence, I was doing nothing but being home on the couch. My wife challenged me to play sports like pétanque. I replied that I was only interested in practicing Karate and resumed my learning thoroughly from this new perspective of life with Para-Karate.

JUST TO-KARATE MOTIVATED ME AND IT WAS THE ONLY SPORT I RESUMED

I currently teach disabled people in my Dojo and in a center.

Para-Karate allowed me to revive but, above all, grow, because I learned a lot and had to adapt to find my level from previous years, in addition to welcoming and teaching people with disabilities in my Dojo and transmitting to them my modest knowledge, but above all, their /our reality, the desire to live and smile through it and with the Para-Karate as an ally.

THE IMPORTANCE OF TRANSMITTING IN ADDITION TO KNOWLEDGE, THE NEW REALITY OF DISABILITY

“Some people will always place stones in your path, it’s up to you to decide what to do with them: a bridge or a wall. Remember that you are the architect of your life!”

I compete in traditional kyokushinkai (KO), not to prove anything to it, but to give me weight and importance in official meetings and to listen to me carefully because para-Karate does not attract crowds, commerce (money) and sponsors like karate, at least in France…

I DO KATAS AND COMBAT, BUT PARA-KARATE DOES NOT ATTRACT CROWDS

Didier Drai: ” Certaines personnes placeront toujours des pierres sur ton chemin, c’est à toi de décider ce que tu en feras. Un pont ou un mur. Rappelle toi que tu es l’architecte de ta vie ! “

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE AND VISIBILITY OF PARA-KARATE IN FRANCE

Para-Karate is very little known here (France) and is very restrictive in terms of disability (categories). I am fighting for an extension of the situation of disability for practice, whether martial or sports. I am a Deputy of Para-Karate Referrer in the Departmental Committee Bouches du Rhane (Marseille).

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