Personal Details
Morné Swanepoel
Resides in Amanzimtoti, Durban, KZN
Home Tel: 031 903 6011
Mobile: 082 454 6021
e-Mail address: morne@jkdu.co.za
Website address: www.jkd.co.za

Skills and Career Summary
Morné is a full time coach and practitioner and is certified as one of the most qualified Jeet Kune Do (JKD) instructors in the world. Travelling to many international destinations in the past 12 years and featuring in almost every media medium, both in South Africa and worldwide over the past couple of years, Morné is one of the leading figures in realistic Martial Arts today.

JKD High Performance Street Fighting is a popular and realistic Self-defence/Street fighting system practiced today due to its functional approach and concepts. It has become one of the most dynamic fighting systems here in South Africa due to Morné’s continuous efforts.

Jeet Kune Do is a non-competitive martial art - compared to arts such as Karate, Wushu, Kung Fu etc. - that is practiced for competence and realism in high-pressure situations i.e. Street Fighting. The aim of JKD is to be able to be proficient in all ranges, with or without weapons, against one or multiple opponents in a variety of environments.

Combat athletes
All the students at JKD High Performance Street Fighting are coached as combat athletes. We focus on performance (aliveness) orientated training in all the ranges of combat against a resisting opponent. Besides correct training, our students are also educated and encouraged to improve their performance, health and well being by supplementary training advice, correct use of nutritional supplements, positive thinking, healthy eating and sleeping (resting) patterns.

Coaching vs. Instructing
Morné emphasizes the importance of coaching his athletes instead of instructing them. All our staff are actively involved in the classes, training in a live environment with fellow students as our focus is on performance, not titles, hierarchy or rituals!

“Coaching is about unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance, and helping them to learn rather than teaching them. This idea is not new; Socrates had voiced the same thing 2000 years ago. If the quality of performance, or learning from experience is important, coaching is a must." -John Whitmore

Tournaments
We train first and foremost for street self-defence. We train to be effective in the street environment, then make adjustments to the training for students who wish to enter sporting competitions - not the other way around.

Training seminars
Morné also hosts and conducts major international and national training seminars where people from all over the world come together for a realistic training experience.

Morné is often invited to, and hosts, seminars in South Africa and abroad to share international coaching. The demand for functional and realistic training is rapidly on the increase as more and more people are moving away from the traditional, classical forms of martial arts. Morné has had to open branches throughout South Africa in order to meet this demand, and now also offers long distance high performance and coach-in-progress training programs.

Instructional DVD's/video's
Morné has released his own JKD Coaching Series designed to assist long distance training members and group leaders who need to keep their training in check and up to standard. Morné is busy with an all new self defence for ladies curriculum and multi-media series.

Key Achievements
Morné is the President of JKD High Performance Street Fighting and heads training groups that have opened nationally and abroad. Morné is sponsored by Muscle Science and forms part of their Performance Team profile.

In August 2005 Morné attended a training camp for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (groundfighting) in Brazil where 7 of the world’s BJJ black-belt champions hosted an intense 10 day training camp for 15 selected attendees. Morné was the only South African who attended this camp. See www.brazilianblackbelt.com. Morné was also the only South African invited by the French government to represent SA and train with the World’s best Kick boxers and to build ties between SA and France in the French art of Kickboxing (Savate). In addition, he was endorsed as one of the World’s most Dynamic Coaches in the World of Functional Mixed Martial Arts By Burton Richardson from Honolulu, Hawaii. President of JKD Unlimited. Ref. www.jkdunlimited.com

Qualifications
After 27 years of Martial Arts experience in various styles and systems and receiving multiple Dan Grades and status nationally and internationally recognized, Morné has moved on to coach students to train proficiently in all the ranges of combat.

Morné has been awarded his full credentials as the first JKD UNLIMITED instructor internationally to head an official JKD Unlimited branch outside the international headquarters in Hawaii by Burton Richardson, head of JKD Unlimited, world renowned instructor and practitioner and monthly contributor to the world’s leading Martial Arts magazine, “Black Belt”.

Career History
At the age of 4, Morné Swanepoel was introduced to amateur wrestling, karate and boxing. After 5 years Morné achieved his local championships, Transvaal colours and became national champion in Amateur Wrestling.

While training in wrestling, he was also participating in competitive karate, where he competed up to provincial and national level. Kickboxing and boxing later also became part of his artillery.

Morné joined up with various other Martial Arts competitive associations and in a short space of time he once again achieved national colours and became provincial team manager, as well as serving as a referee and arbitrator at national level – all this at only 18 years old.

After leaving the competitive Martial Arts scenes he then joined up with a traditional, classical Martial Arts system where he achieved multiple Dan grades and international recognition and holds a 5th Dan status in traditional Martial Arts (Kobudo-karate).

During his training in Traditional Arts, Morné started exploring the more realistic arts and training methods. He was involved in training the National Police and security forces. He has been working as a professional doorman for the past 8 years. Morné has training in Bodyguarding, Personal protection services and tactical firearms. Morné is a professional full time Coach in Realistic and Functional Martial Arts and continues to teach and train on a daily basis.