"With a new federation, the martial arts will really come of age"

"At the moment work is under way to build up an organisation, so that a fully fledged federation can be operating within a number of months", Barry Smit tells the platform Sport & Strategie, referring to the Nederlandse Vechtsportbond (NVB, the Dutch Martial Arts Federation). In their work at the Nederlandse Vechtsportautoriteit (the Dutch Martial Arts Authority), he and his colleagues supported the establishment of this new sports federation over the past year.

Nine existing martial arts organisations active in kickboxing, muaythai and mixed martial arts (MMA) are merging into it. "For some forty years, these three sports had around ten organisations that mainly competed with each other, without any overall picture. There was very little cooperation. That time is now over."

Although everything is still under construction, the new federation has various ambitions, such as developing a policy for grassroots sport. "That did not exist at all yet", Smit stresses. "Supporting young talent, for example in cooperation with the Topsport Talentenscholen (elite sport talent schools, formerly known as Loot schools, ed.), so that education can be combined with a career in elite sport. Facilities of that kind, and all sorts of facilities provided by NOC*NSF, such as those at Papendal, were never available to young martial artists. Someone like Rico Verhoeven had to figure it all out for himself, unlike his contemporaries who were good at judo or speed skating."

Read the full interview on the website Sport & Strategie.