Meet… Marjan de Roos

The Vechtsportautoriteit (Dutch Martial Arts Authority) consists of a board, a supervisory board and an office. They draw on the knowledge of a large number of advisers who sit on five committees. But who are the people on those committees?

Each VA committee focuses on a specific 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 we present this time is Marjan de Roos.

“During my studies at the Academy of Physical Education (Academie voor Lichamelijke Opvoeding, ALO) in Groningen, I had stopped my gymnastics career and I missed training. Via volleyball and rugby I ended up in martial arts. In the early 1990s I started pencak silat with Bert Toisuta. Before long I combined this with kickboxing. We did a lot of pencak silat demonstrations and kata competitions. On top of that, there were already mixed martial arts events in Groningen at that time.”

“Love brought me to Amsterdam. I had to look for new martial arts trainers. Mainly through my work with school leavers, who did a lot of martial arts, I came into contact with Jan Kallenbach sensei. I started training with Kallenbach and never left. I like to train in various places and in various martial arts, but my base is the dojo of Jan Kallenbach sensei. Sadly he passed away recently, the great loss is still fresh.”

“Through him I also became involved with the VA. He took me along to the National Martial Arts Symposium (Landelijk Vechtsport Symposium) at Theater Tobacco in 2015. Eberhard van der Laan made a strong case there for the regulation of martial arts. Something Kallenbach had been fighting for for a very long time. At that meeting I met Hanieh Kamran. She taught for the LMA at CIOS in Heerenveen. Jan Kallenbach felt that I could certainly do something with martial arts at CIOS Haarlem. No sooner said than done. I am now a teacher there of martial arts, movement & music and social skills.”

“From 2014 onwards I attended many meetings with NOC*NSF (Dutch Olympic Committee and Dutch Sports Federation) and other parties that laid the foundations for the creation of the VA. A forward-thinking group of people who genuinely want to achieve something in martial arts. Today I am a member of the Quality and Licences committee, and I am the confidential contact person for the VA.”

“Because of my work with school leavers in Amsterdam, I think it is very important that we get well-trained youth coaches. Martial arts can play a major role in someone’s life, for example when things are not going well at home or at school. Good youth coaches can make the difference. In addition, it is important for CIOS students that there are enough good work placement providers that can help train them. The cooperation between SKMO and CIOS is an example of that.”

“I still have plenty to learn in the field of martial arts. It is a wonderful way of training and I still meet a great many nice people through martial arts. I hope to be able to practise it actively for many years to come.”

Earlier in this series:

Meet… Fabrice Deters
Meet… Richard van Asdonck
Meet… Raimond Honig
Meet… Soeresh Bhatoe
Meet… Samart Prins