Kostyantyn Nevmerzhytskiy from Novohrad-Volynskiy was a finalist in this year’s Happy Palms Festival for talented orphans. The 15-year old won distinction in the Sports Nomination for his numerous victories in Kyokushinkai karate competitions. In 2017, Kostyantyn won the Kyokushinkai Karate Open Championship in Zhytomyr Oblast. And in 2016, he won a bronze medal at the All-Ukrainian Championship. After four years of training, the young man has learned the philosophy of the martial art combat well. To win at Kyokushinkai Karate, first and foremost, you need to be flexible, fast and enduring.
“To be successful in Kyokushinkai Karate you need to work hard. You will need to be able to do different kinds of splits for this karate style. I can do two types of splits, but I managed to achieve this only after two years of training. Besides the splits, you need to be in great shape, and you need to work out at a gym.
The number of trainings depends on you alone. You can work out two-three times a week and do your best or you can work out six and seven times a week, but have a weaker result. I usually train three times a week.
If you compare boxing and Kyokushinkai Karate, for example, you need strength and a good punch for the former, and more endurance, good blow technique and speed for the latter.
First, when I just started, I trained for strength and not endurance. That’s what every rookie does. When you go to your first few competitions, you don’t know how to fight properly or how to dodge a blow. So you just go all in. You go headlong and you don’t know anything. That’s how I did it at first. And then I realized that there was no sense in going around with bruises. So I began to stretch more and work on my endurance.
The more you train, the more you learn. Later, you start seeing which side your opponent moves his shoulder, where he can hit, and that’s when you can inflict a blow. You learn as you fight, so to speak, because if you don’t react to the blow on time, you’ll be the one to suffer.
Karate is a hobby for me. I’ve been dreaming of enrolling in the military ever since I was a child. I like it and that’s all there is to it. I want to finish my freshman year at the vocational school and transfer to Kyiv Ivan Bohun Military Lyceum. Karate will help me in this, because you need to by physically fit in order to enroll.
I live with my grandma. My mom passed away when I was eight and my dad died, when I was three months old.
My grandma approves of karate and my desire to join the military, although she didn’t want to let me go study in Kyiv at first. Be that as it may, I want to go there; I don’t want to study here.
What would I like to see Ukraine like in 20-30 years? I don’t know what to say. I want it to develop its army so that we could defend ourselves.
I’d like to see peace in the future world. In a situation we have now, peace is the most important thing.”
