About Ikenamikan
Our Karate school is called IkeNamiKan, where Kan means ‘house’ referring to the place we come together and train (the Dojo) and IkeNami means ‘wave in the lake’ referring to the expanding circular wave pattern a pebble can make in a lake.
Pebble in a Pond
Our Karate school is called IkeNamiKan, where Kan means ‘house’ referring to the place we come together and train (the Dojo) and IkeNami means ‘wave in the lake’ referring to the expanding circular wave pattern a pebble can make in a lake. This is also visualised in our logo. It refers the concept of making small changes that have a big impact down the line, just like a small pebble falling in the water can move the water at the edges of a lake, just a small change in a movement can perfect a technique, just like training karate can change one’s life over time.
The Foundation is set up to be independent of training participants and individual board members. It is led by a management of 5, with Elmo Diederiks acts as chair & head teacher, Mauro Barbieri as manager general affairs & teacher, Ildiko Redai as manager youth training, Hans Reurings as treasurer and Carlos Alba Pinto as manager marketing & events. None of the board members can access or manage the Foundation’s assets as their personal assets and (financial) decisions need to be approved by at least 2 board members.
IkeNamiKan was founded in 2007 by Mauro Barbieri and Elmo Diederiks as section of Campus Sports to provide an opportunity for the population of the HighTech Campus in Eindhoven to train karate. In 2015 IkenamiKan has been established as stand-alone organization as non-profit foundation (registered under 62974378), with the aim to promote physical and mental health and resilience as well as to promote the individual development process and growth, primarily through offering and facilitating Martial Arts in which its original cultural context and contemporary scientific insight are integrated. In addition the foundation aims to promote and stimulate exchange of experience and expertise and build mutual understanding and respect between cultures and social (sub)groups.
Safe Practice
In order to help the individual development process and build mutual understanding and respect, we believe it is crucial to create a safe mental and physical environment for all who train with us. Although everyone has their own responsibility to push their own boundaries, everyone also has the responsibility to respect the boundaries of others. Therefore we have formulated a prevention policy (preventiebeleid) in line with NOC-NSF guidelines, summarized in a set of Dojo-rules we follow whenever we get together. In addition we have assigned an independent confidential counsellor (vertrouwenscontactpersoon) who can be contacted through vcp@ikenamikan.nl.
Our Teachers:
Elmo Diederiks
Elmo Diederiks is a 6th dan and level 4 NOC-NSF certified teacher recognized by the ministry of Health and Education (“rijkserkend”). Currently he is a student of Frans Baggen (7th dan), who is a direct student of Smaal and Kase. He has represented the Netherlands as member of the National team, has been Dutch Champion three years in a row, and is former National Technical Trainer and National Coach.
He has also been invited trainer for the Hungarian National Team, the National Team of Cameroun and the Mexican Kase-Ha branch. He has trained with Sandra Sanchez (European and World champion), Ali Sofuoğlu (current European and World champion), many times with his good friend Lucio Maurino (European and World champion), and with Prof. Aschieri (8th dan and professor in movement sciences). Elmo also holds a black belt in Shaolin Kempo and has practiced Judo, White Crane WhuShu, TaeKwonDo and to some extend WinTsun and AiKiDo.
Mauro Barbieri
Mauro Barbieri is a 5th dan and level 4 NOC-NSF certified teacher. He is a student of Ricardo Pesce (7th dan), who is a direct student of Shirai, who as trained world-class karateka such as Marchini. He has previously represented his hometown region in the Italian regional team.
Ildiko Redai
Ildiko Redai is a 5th dan and level 3 NOC-NSF certified teacher and responsible for our youth classes. She is well connected in the global SKI federation, currently SKI world champion kata masters and National Coach of the Belgian SKI team.
Start Your Journey
At Ikenamikan we look at karate in a holistic and integrative way: Karate is one. We train with an emphasis on building high quality movement capabilities to allow safe and natural movement and training.
