Danine van den Ham & Maaike Weijl

Hi all! We are Maaike Weijl (23, left on the picture) and Danine van den Ham (24, right on the picture)! We have been teaching traditional JKA karate to kids of all ages for 3 years, and can’t wait to teach more kids this wonderful sport and its values.

Maaike is still in university studying Nutritional Sciences. She started with karate when she was 7 years old and grew up with the sport. She mostly loves the learning style and life lessons that come with it. Also, that it truly is a self-defence sport, not a fighting one. Next to karate, Maaike is also active in other sports. Together with karate, she has competitions in these sports both in the Netherlands and internationally.

Danine recently graduated university in the communications sector. She has started karate when she was 12 years old, and has never left since. She started to gain more confidence in herself, and fell in love with the sport and the Japanese culture that came with it. For 10 years, she has been part of the national team of JKA Netherlands, going to competitions small and big internationally.

Karate teaches more than just self-defence, it helps with confidence, teaches how to respect others, but also is a fun way to be active and make friends. Like us, as we met in the karate dojo in 2015 and have been friends since!