Aidan MacLeod will get his kicks in next weekend in Las Vegas.
The 16-year-old black belt from the Desa School of Karate will compete for Canada at the Junior Cup on Friday and the U.S. Open on Saturday and Sunday.
Podium finishes at the international tournaments will result in points towards qualification for major meets in the future.
“With those points I can be put on the Pan American team roster, so that means I can compete at the Pan Am Games,” said MacLeod, who is working towards the World Karate Federation Training Camp and Karate 1 Youth World Cup in July in Umag, Croatia, and the Pan American Junior, Cadet and U21 Championships in August in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
His goal for Las Vegas is simple.
“Win gold,” stated the Grade 11 Bellerose Composite High School student.
MacLeod put himself in position for international success after a bronze-medal showing at his first nationals in the kumite individual male junior (16-17) minus-61 kilogram division.
The result at the Richmond Olympic Oval in January was the culmination of a daily schedule of workouts that still continues and will hopefully result in MacLeod qualifying for the 2020 Olympics, “which is what I want to do.”
Four out of seven days are spent perfecting his craft in the Desa dojo.
“I also do stamina and exercise to build up strength and endurance outside of the dojo at my fitness centre at the school. I also go to the dojo in Edmonton to train for more sparring and fighting. I have a fitness trainer that helps me build strength in my legs and overall my whole body. I stretch every day and I do (hot) yoga twice a week,” MacLeod said.
A long list of MacLeod’s strengths starts with his striking abilities.
“I’m really good at kicking, like body kicks. I’m really aggressive too. I guess I move in a lot. I’m not so much defensive, I’m more of an offensive fighter,” he said. “I think just my drive too. A lot of people don’t have the same drive that I do.
“I also stretch a lot. A lot of people on the team don’t stretch as much as me. I make sure I stretch every single day so I have the flexibility to throw high kicks and other stuff and not have as much injuries.”
Karate is more than a sport for MacLeod.
“It’s sort of like a thing you can do for life. I’m probably going to be doing this until I’m in my grave basically. I really enjoy it,” he said. “I really like the fighting aspect to it and protecting yourself.”
MacLeod was introduced to karate 10 years ago but really embraced it after attending a life-altering session featuring a world-calibre competitor.
“My mom (Tracy) used to drag me here because she thought it would be good for my co-ordination and it would give me exercise,” he said. “Then three years ago, there was this training session with I think a 10-time national champion and like a two-time Pan American champion. He was having this special training session and we’ve never done anything like it before. It was my first time going to one of these outside of the dojo and when I went there I just saw how fast all the athletes and himself were. I was just blown away and I wanted to be just like them and I’ve been training like crazy every since.”
Another memorable moment was passing his black-belt test.
“I just remembered it vividly. I remembered I had tears of joy and I was really happy,” MacLeod said. “I don’t feel like you can get really anything like that again in karate. I got my black belt and I might get my second degree but I don’t think it will be the same level of excitement as getting my black belt because that’s just seen as sort of a really big accomplishment.”
