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New martial arts federation: "You get further when you join forces"
On 30 November in Rotterdam, Jan Willem Landré hopes to present the board of the new Dutch martial arts federation (Nederlandse Vechtsportbond) for kickboxing, muaythai and MMA (mixed martial arts). As project leader (kwartiermaker) on behalf of the Dutch Olympic Committee and Dutch Sports Federation (NOC*NSF), Landré has been working since January on bringing the parties involved together. "You can achieve much more when you join forces in a single federation", Landré says in the latest edition of the magazine SportKnowhowXL.
With the new federation, NOC*NSF hopes to bring together the fragmented landscape of organisations in the various martial arts, in elite sport and above all in grassroots sport. "The number of recreational participants is between 200,000 and 400,000", according to Landré. "They often practise the sport with local providers, but they are hard to reach because there is no single umbrella organisation. In addition, there are many worthwhile social projects, for example on resilience for children, but these are all local and one-off. Something else that this branch of sport wants to regulate better is…