Shihan
Alain Breugelmans, 7th Dan
Shuseki / Chairman of the European Kyokushinkai Tezuka Group
Alain Breugelmans was born on the 1947-02-21 in Orleans, France. He started Kyokushin Karate in 1973, the first year he trained under Senpai Brants
and Senpai van der Stelt who were running a Dojo under Shihan Loek Hollander’s wings.
After
about a year he was advised to join the Dutch Honbu Dojo of Shihan Hollander in Rotterdam. There he was not only lucky to
train directly under Shihan Loek Hollander but also under Shihan Loek Hollander's right hand, Shihan Peter Voogt.
Also Shihan Henny Ruberg and Shihan Roel Wildeboer have been of great importance to him as sensei.
In
January 1980 he went, together with Shihan Roel Wildeboer, to the U.S.A. to train
under Soshu Shigeru Oyama in Fairfield, Connecticut.
There
he trained 6 days a week, 4 hours
to 5 hours a day during his 5,5 months stay.
Besides Soshu Shigeru Oyama he was very lucky to have Shihan Fuchiwara
and Sensei Hioki as teacher.
In 1983 again he went back to the USA to train
for one month under Soshu Shigeru Oyama.
In
1985 he started his own sport centre “ De SPORTARCADE “with a separate
karate dojo called “ NINTAI “. In 1988 the N.K.A. (of with he
was a member) left Shihan Hollander and joined Soshu Shigeru Oyama, who had started his WORLD OYAMA KARATE organization a
couple of years before.
After the N.K.A. separated from the W.K.O. in the summer of 1994 he stayed with Soshu Oyama, unfortunately this was the last contact he had with Soshu Shigeru Oyama, even after several trials to communicate. He still considers Soshu Shigeru Oyama as a respected friend and as the teacher
who influenced him the most.
Before moving to Belgium he handed over his Dojo NIN-TAI to his black belts.
Very
soon he was involved with Karate again but now in Belgium, he also had to go back to his roots, Kyokushin Karate, because
there were no W.K.O. Dojo in Belgium and all the people he met where Kyokushin (but of course Oyama Karate and Kyokushin Karate are very related).
In
1999 he was asked by several clubs to become Belgian country representative of the I.F.K. (Hanshi Steve Arneil) which he accepted,
but only for one year.
After
that year he decided to stop completely with Karate and left the Belgian I.F.K., having enough of all politics and games that
where going on. After several invitations from Shihan Sjaak van de Velde he accepted to participate at a Kyokushin Reunion. To his surprise he was nominated Godan by
Kaicho Jon Bluming for all the work and effort he had done in all those years (I.B.K.).
In 2001 he was invited at I.B.K. summer camp in Hungary, there he was unexpectedly
promoted to Rokudan by Kaicho Jon Bluming (I.B.K.).
In 2004 he visited Canada to Shihan Michel Bégin to meet Kaicho Tezuka after several meetings he decided to join
the International Kyokushin Tezuka Group, after he had teached several times in his presence he was well accepted as a Rokudan
by Kaicho Tezuka. Soon afterwards he became technical director for Europe.
In
July 2005 during his stay in Japan with Kaicho Tezuka he was asked to be chairman/ shuseki of the European Kyokushinkai
Tezuka Group. Knowing that this would mean a lot of work, he accepted this task.
For
several years he has a Dojo-kan in Brasschaat Belgium, here Belgian and Dutch Yudansha from the various Kyokushin groups train
together under his guidance regardless of affiliation, thus following the Kyokushin
Way to preserve Sosai’s heritage the best he can.