a Karate champion is teaching Kara Bo at CLS

Cecile Hackett,
a Karate champion is teaching Kara Bo at CLS

Cecile Hackett is a former karate champion and is here now with his fitness group at CLS. All the nine people of this group from England are members of the same sport centre in the East of London, where Cecile is teaching aerobics nowadays.

Cecile has a family background from Jamaica and moved to England when he was 11 years old, where he used to do a lot of different kind of sports. But finally Marterial Arts became his main sport. He has known many victories in his career in Karate. For example he became World Games Karate Champion twice; he became English champion and three times European Team champion.

By mistake he came involved with aerobics. He used to visit his local sports centre a lot. “I saw a friend of mine who was teaching an aerobic class and I knew I was as good as he was.” From that time he started to get qualified in aerobics and started teaching in 1992. Over the years he started to develop his own style. “About seven years ago I started something that I call Kara Bo and developed my own format. Kara Bo is the name for my style of teaching, a fighting type of fitness aerobic. I am using karate as my basic principle and I combine this with aerobics and kick boxing. I follow the principles of Marterial Arts; the skills, the technique and the focusing.”

An important thing in his classes is repetition. “By repetition a movement becomes your second nature. The movement becomes part of you, so you can focus on other things.” Speed, power and focusing are important things in his classes.

This is what he is teaching to his group, which came with him to CLS. He made a program with a mixture of sports. “I am teaching Kara Bo here, so karate, aerobic and kickboxing. But besides we do things like spinning, power circuit and swimming. Here in Lanzarote the people can come away and enjoy themselves. Here they have a bit of holiday, a bit of sunshine, a little bit of everything basically. And when they return home they feel refreshed.” Besides they are lot more knowledgeable about physiology, because he is telling them a lot about that during his classes.

He tries to train them mentally as well. “They have to understand what they are doing so they can regulate their selves. I try to teach them how to handle with ups and downs. Teach them how to become mentally strong, as well as physically.” Cecile thinks the trip is all about experience. “It is all about the spirit and the attitude. So don't think like; I can't do it. For every individual person it is about getting the best out of themselves, whatever their level is. If they are becoming tired I may tell my group; ´it is not about what your body can do it is what your mind is saying to your body´. I think working hard is 70 % more mental than physically.”

He chose to come to CLS because of the good weather. “On Canaries Islands you will always have sunshine because here at CLS you have everything under one roof. We can do our own program and they can go to classes of the Green Team as well. So they can combine the two things.”

It is not the first time Cecile is here in CLS. This is the second group from the sport centre he brought with him to CLS. And before that he was also here with other groups; as a participant as well as an instructor. So he knew CLS and its benefits already.

To get the best out of him, Cecile observes other people. “I do that all the time, everywhere I go. That is one of the key aspects of becoming a world champion. Because by observing, you will find the weaknesses and strengths of your opponents. And then you try to improve your weakness to match that person's strength.” He lets the people in his group here at CLS observe as well. “Sometimes I say to the class; ´look and do what she is doing´. And then they all look around and think: ´what she can, so can I. ´"

Cecile feels happy with what he does. “I am living a dream basically. I always say that if you are healthy, it is better than being a millionaire. If I am healthy, I am very rich.”
This way of thinking influenced what he is going to do next when he goes back to England. Because then he will be helping his local counsel to try and influence kids who are overweighed. “We are going to try and start to moderate their weight.”
So this will be a good challenge for him when he gets back. Hopefully they can indeed influence these kids.

Cecile: thank you for explaining your format of Kara Bo and all enjoy your week at CLS!