Gold for Cooper

September 08th, 2016

Hard work and dedication have paid off for Adelaide Hills karate student Cooper Holmes, who has won a gold medal in a national competition in Melbourne.

Cooper won gold in the Junior Male 16-17 year old division, beating seven other athletes in the same category.

For Cooper, it's a victory which comes from more than eight years of training in the martial art.

"It's good to have a result from all the hard work," he said.

While this is Cooper's first gold in a national event, he has been competing at a high level for more than six years.

"When I started out with karate, I never thought I'd be doing competitions – it was never the goal for me," he said.

"But I went to a local tournament and it was really fun, I did well, and I've been doing them ever since."

While his win in Melbourne is his fifth time competing nationally, he admits it can still be nerve-wracking.

"I'm still nervous each time I compete on the stage, but I have a warm-up technique to run through, and that helps to keep me calm," he said.

For Cooper, his win on the national stage is the natural progression of years of working on his karate skills, putting in great time and effort.

Currently Cooper trains for at least 10 hours each week something which he admits can be hard to balance with his high school studies.

"I do three days of training each week after school, for around three hours a day," he said.

"It's a bit difficult to manage and I've had to learn some good time management skills," he said.

Coach and mentor Shannon Barton said that the level of commitment he'd seen from Cooper was impressive.

"I've only seen him miss a handful of lessons in the eight years I've been training him," Shannon said.

"Karate is really the centre of his world, and Cooper juggles that and school work."

Over the eight years he's been training Cooper, Shannon said he's seen him progress at a remarkable rate.

"It's fantastic to see a student like Cooper develop and grow with their skill in the martial art," he said.

"I've seen a real progression in application and maturity since Cooper started, it's been an amazing journey for him."

For Cooper, the gold medal represents the reward of that journey, although he remains humble about his achievement.

State coach Matt Johnson said it was good to see Cooper get a result, and it provided reassurance he was on the right path.

"The experienced trainers can see the potential and talent in the students, but often the students can't see it themselves, and our words of encouragement only do so much," he said.

"It's all about the medals for them, so it's great to see the confidence boost from the win, and Cooper deserves it, he's a lovely kid and excellent at the sport."

Since his win, Matt said that Cooper had become a role model for other kids in the state squad.

With a national win under his black belt, Cooper is determined to keep training.

"I don't want to stop now, I'd like to win the gold again next year," he said.

"Maybe I'll then do more after that, I definitely want to keep going."

His trainer Shannon hopes Cooper will follow in his own footsteps and compete internationally one day.

"I've had five national titles and competed overseas, and Cooper's always saying he'll beat my record one day," he said.

"I'd love to see him do that."

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