Today we’d like to introduce you to Sami Alkharrat
Hi Sami, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My name is Sami Alkharrat, I’m 18 years old and I’m in my freshman year of college studying on the Computer Science track at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. I’m half Arab (Syrian) and half American, and while I am currently Minneapolis-based, I’m pretty well traveled. I was born and raised in Dubai, U.A.E., for half of my life until my family moved to the U.S. at age 9 to San Jose, California. It was there that I finished primary school, middle school, and high school while picking up martial arts along the way and, eventually, competitive sport karate.
People get pretty surprised when they hear just how short of a timeline my athletic career has been on so far as a sport karate competitor. Just to put some perspective, I’ve only been competing on the NASKA circuit (North American Sport Karate Association) for a little over two years now and my greater martial arts experience spans the past 6 years since I started way back in 2018. I started my journey with Infinity Martial Arts back then when I was 12 years old. From the very first class, I was captivated by martial arts, and my drive to learn has only continued to grow since then. Whether it was achieving the next belt rank, competing in national tournaments, learning martial arts tricking, or eventually becoming an instructor, my passion for martial arts kept pushing me forward.
I started competing regularly in traditional forms at blue belt, and in 2021, I ended up winning 1st place in my division at THE LEAGUE Finals in Reno, NV. After being in the regional THE LEAGUE circuit for some time, I decided to dive into the national sport karate scene and competed in the NASKA circuit at Compete Internationals in Ontario, CA, for the first time in 2022. competing under the name of my martial arts school, Team Infinity, and my coaches, Julia Moreci and Austin Guanzon.
Around that time, I also started specializing in weapons, particularly the bo, and I competed in the Extreme Musical Weapons division at the US Open Karate tournament in Orlando, FL, later that year. I continued to compete in both traditional forms and extreme weapons in tournaments within both THE LEAGUE (a local tournament circuit predominantly in California) and NASKA circuits. A year later, I won my first-ever underbelt grand championship in Extreme Musical Weapons at Compete Internationals 2023 in Ontario, making this my first national title. Then, I won another underbelt grand championship in the same division later that year at the Diamond Nationals 2023 here in Minneapolis to close out my career as an underbelt. That year in November, I would pass my 1st degree black belt test and receive my rank officially which meant that I would move up to compete in the world rated black belt divisions for the first time in 2024.
I continued competing under Team Infinity in the NASKA circuit up until July with my last competition being the US Open tournament that year. I made the decision to go out of state for college and thus I had to move to Minneapolis where I am today! Lots of exciting things are happening right now with my competition career as I have been working virtually with my current coach, Kevin Kowalczik, who has gotten several world titles in the circuit and is now retired. He recently invited me to join his new competition team based in Colorado, Team Raptor, a request which I enthusiastically accepted. Having Kevin as my coach has been awesome and makes navigating this world and this industry as an adult for the first time a lot less scary. In Minnesota, I’ve been training with one of my close friends, Samantha Mitling, at her martial arts school. She also has won several world titles in the circuit. I will be competing under the Team Raptor for the first time a week after writing this at the Diamond Nationals here in Minneapolis, so it’s pretty exciting!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
As someone who is on the spectrum, I’ve faced some unique struggles throughout my martial arts journey. I worked as an instructor for my former school, Infinity Martial Arts, which was another step outside my comfort zone, but I love being able to share my passion for martial arts and pass on what I’ve learned to my students. Ultimately, I hope to show others that no matter what challenges they may face, they have the potential to excel and overcome any obstacles through determination, passion, and hard work. I
I’ve had several injuries that have put me out of training for a few weeks. I’ve gotten sick right before tournaments and had to compete anyway. I had a big fail on stage during one of my demo performances for Team Infinity earlier this year which set me back mentally for months, I had dropped my bo and then bailed on a backflip in one of my forms which caused me to land on my knees during that performance and that really messed with me for a while after that. I’ve had poor performances at tournaments, but really it’s not those experiences that define you, but it’s how you react to them and what you do about it. That can be hard to remember sometimes and it’s easy to be hard on yourself as an athlete, but you must also acknowledge that you are a human being who is going to make mistakes regardless of how hard you train.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Aside from being a professional athlete, I am currently offering virtual private lessons to teach people bo and work with them to create a form that they can compete with. I learned about my passion for teaching with my job at Infinity, and I wanted to keep doing something like that throughout college as well.
I also do freelance graphic design work on the side. I love being able to take people’s visions for their company identity, apparel, or whatever it is they are needing, and bringing that to life for them. There’s some other projects I have that are in the works as well. I am also a college student, so that is a big priority as well!
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Luck has definitely played a role. I’m lucky to be surrounded by so many positive influences in my life. My mom and dad and my coaches have been nothing but supportive, and I wouldn’t be able to be pursuing these things in my life without all that they’ve done for me. I’m a Muslim, so I believe that God has blessed me with the ability to excel in all the different areas of my life. It is ok to brag a little bit, but you also have to acknowledge the people who helped you along the way and recognize that no one is “self-made”. We all get lucky in some way to end up where we want to be, and it is important to be grateful and always thank God first.
Pricing:
- $50.00/hr for private lessons
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/msalk
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msalk.tr/
