Clive Hinds has spent a lifetime paying back the sport that has made him rich in well-being.
For the last four decades, the 74-year-old has stood by an oath he made to himself to teach others about respect and self-development through budo, the philosophical discipline of karate.
Hinds stood among some of the rarest athletes in the martial art for 11 years as he held the seventh dan — or seventh-degree black belt — ranking. Recently, he joined an ultra-exclusive group when he completed his eighth dan in Guyana.
Practically speaking, the eighth dan is the highest achievement someone can reach in karate. With this notch in his belt, Hinds can test more people, including up to sixth-degree black belts, and has furthered his qualification as an instructor, examiner and tournament director.
However, perhaps the most important thing that Hinds demonstrated was that he was still willing to improve himself, despite being a master of a martial art.
“Here we are today and I just keep pushing just to get my students on board. I have some students that have been with me 30 years… and if I don’t live by the example, I can’t speak it,” Hinds said.
“So, I continue to train. I continue to move forward and give them that ability to see that I teach by example.”
Hinds spent 12 days in Guyana, where he only intended to judge a world tournament. At the event, he was asked about increasing his ranking, however. Hinds obliged almost immediately.
He was put through several situations that required him to defend himself while demonstrating exceptional composure. The testing was rigorous, he said, but completely worth it in the end.
“It was a bit taxing at my age because you had to demonstrate that you can make self-defence, as well as control motions and everything,” Hinds said. “It’s not about sparring anymore, but mostly for self-defence, you have to be able to make and show self-defence — that you can get out of many different aspects of someone grabbing you from behind, someone holding you down, punching, kicking whatever.
“It’s mostly (about) how you have handled yourself because now you’re a top leader in the organization and you have to demonstrate as such. You have to show manners, and respect and be able to portray that in your regular lifestyle, as well.”
Hinds emigrated to Winnipeg from his hometown Kingston, Jamaica in 1963 after his father was asked to relocate to Canada for business.
Hinds first landed in East Kildonan, then settled in Transcona. Upon graduating to high school, he was subjected to racism, being one of the few black students in the school.
By the time he was 15, Hinds’ father enrolled him in Kung Fu so he could learn how to defend himself, but that didn’t stick very long.
“I went through that phase a little bit and realized that the Japanese martial arts was really what I was looking for — something that was longevity, and where I could train without the showing off and without the bragging and all that,” Hinds said.
“I was very active in sports when I was very young,” he said. “I was pretty fast. But I was also very sickly — I was an asthmatic. Still am. So, when it comes to a sports day… I would win the race and die after because I couldn’t breathe.”
Then came karate, which was less taxing on his lung condition and provided Hinds with the physical and mental tools to defend himself regardless of the situation. Hinds could choose between three styles of karate — Budo, traditional, which emphasizes defending oneself, and sports karate, which is about attacking in competition — but chose Budo due to its emphasis on self-improvement.
Forty-three years later, Hinds is among the most accomplished, and his wife, Deborah, is right there with him as a sixth-degree black belt.
“It has done wonders for me not only health-wise… but most of all, in business, it has given me that inner strength, inner vision, to relax, to approach things in a totally different matter,” Hinds said.
“That you can control your emotions, whether you’re in business — and I have been extremely successful in the business — whether it’s running the membership, or being on council or running a business for myself, my wife.”
After receiving his third dan, Clive opened Winnipeg Budokai in 1996, his own dojo in the Manitoba capital, which is now home to many black belts who help others begin their path to self-improvement. Later, after moving to Stonewall, Hinds and his wife opened Stonewall Karate, which Deborah now successfully operates.
“Karate is not just about kicking and punching, it is also development,” Hinds said. “That’s what most of my students — all the years that I’ve been teaching — that’s what I teach them is manners and respect, and be humble and never brag and show off and want to take your karate on to the street and demonstrate it on people.”
Hinds, who served as Stonewall’s mayor from 2018-2020, will continue his role as the chief instructor for the International Karate Daigaku of Manitoba, which oversees four different clubs across the province. There’s no telling what’s next for him, but he knows there is still plenty to give back.
“The idea of karate — most people believe it’s the goal to fight and kick. It is part of karate… but the most important part of it is manners and respect. So all students, you’ll find even the school teachers tell us that those that were they were having troubles in school, that come and join karate, changed their way of behaviour,” he said.
“It’s a huge part of what we do, try to develop and make society a better place to live.”
