Meet… Wout Traas

The Vechtsportautoriteit (Dutch Martial Arts Authority) consists of a board, a supervisory board and an office. They are supplied with expertise by a large number of advisers who sit on five committees. But what kind of people are they, actually?

Each VA committee focuses on one theme:

– Events and galas
– Medical and health
– Quality and licences
– Technical matters
– Communication

In this series we introduce a number of their members, to give you a better idea of the people who are substantively involved in the VA.

The committee member presented here is Wout Traas.

´I used to be a gym owner (Sportcentrum Rivium and Phuket Gym in Capelle aan den IJssel) and these days I work as a lifestyle coach and personal trainer. I am also a board member of WAKO, and at the VA I am a member of the Quality & Licences committee.´

´I have been around for a while by now: I am 65. Somewhere at the start of this century I became a board member of the World Professional Thai Boxing League, and later even its chairman. After an attempt to join the FOG we entered into a partnership with WAKO Nederland, where I am therefore still part of the board.´

´I hold martial arts in high regard, but as a pupil and athlete, and later as a trainer and coach, I never understood why there was so much division within the sport in the Netherlands. Even though we produced world champions in the past and still do so today. Why not more cooperation?´

´From the very beginning I took part in all the meetings that were meant to move the sport forward, and that eventually led to the founding of the VA. Together with, among others, the mayor of Amsterdam Van der Laan, who worked tremendously hard for our sport, and with many others. That is also how I came into contact with the gentlemen who, at the request of the government, carried out research and gathered advice, from which the VA ultimately emerged.´

´I very much wanted to be involved in that, and I was asked to become a member of the committee that advises the VA board on quality and licences in our sports. That suits me perfectly.´