Black?belt?Boris is back in Barbados and wants to establish a judo facility for the youth.
Gladstone “Boris”?Seale, a former Barbados and Caribbean judo champion, told WEEKENDSPORT the time had come for him to pass on the wealth of knowledge he gained in martial arts over the last four decades.
“If you have the knowledge, what is the sense of me going to the grave with it? I would like to open a club somewhere just outside The City and help the youths,” he said.
“It must not be said that I have had all of these ranks and I have not done anything with it to help my fellow Barbadians. I want to pass on my knowledge.”
Seale has had training at the Kodokan Judo Institute in Japan.?He was a household name in martial arts here in the 1960s and 1970s, winning the Caribbean judo title in Curacao in 1972 and snatching bronze the following season at the regional championships in Venezuela.
Setting up a judo facility is nothing new for the fifth degree black belt in both judo and jujitsu, having started the Bujin Judo Club in 1975 before emigrating to the United States in 1980.
Seale said he was delighted that one of his students Roy Davis, had produced an Olympian in Barry Jackman.
He said grandmasters Wilfred “Pa”?Green and Harold “Buck Jones”?Bovell had paved the way for him and he was able to pass on that knowledge to Davis, a third degree black belt.
“That knowledge was never wasted. It didn’t stop at me, it travelled on to Davis and Jackman. I would like to produce some quality students and I hope they can come from the underprivileged class, people who don’t have a lot of money, but want to make something of themselves in this country.
“Martial arts teachers put their money into the sport because they love it, but they don’t get anything from it. They just love teaching and passing on their knowledge. I am one of those guys and that is why I want to step in.”
Seale, who turns 65 on Christmas Eve, said he could now devote all of his energies into being a full-time instructor, mentor and motivator.
“I?am a retiree. I worked 26 years for local government in the United States and I am retired. I have time on my hands to teach and guide the youths.”
Seale, who resides in Connecticut, said martial arts pulled him out of the ghetto.
“I came out of Chapman Lane and the New Orleans. Those are tough areas and martial arts provided me with the discipline to survive.
“When my family moved from Westbury Road to New Orleans in 1954, I was seven years old and I had seven years of beating by the bigger boys,” he said.
Seale said he witnessed a martial arts bout between Michael King and Roger Coleman on Brandons Beach in the 1950s that changed his life.
“These guys were sparring and then all of a sudden, King struck Coleman against the jugular vein and the blood started to gush from his nostril. I said that is what I want to study, something that will enable me to defend myself.
“I have always practised martial arts with the idea of self-defence. Sport is secondary. In self-defence, you cannot afford to lose. In sport, if you lose, there are rules. In self-defence, the only rule is for you to survive.”
Seale, a third degree black belt in shotokan karate, is spending time in Eckstein, St Michael before heading back to Connecticut just after Christmas.
