Joliet teen is a champion at World Shotokan Karate tournament

JOLIET – On Nov. 8 at the Illinois Shotokan Karate Club in Schaumburg, Abby Ford, 15, of Joliet will do two kata demonstrations and receive two awards – Competitor of the Year and Assistant of the year.

Abby, who started karate at age 7, said she also is hoping to merit some scholarships. But then, Abby’s goal is the top: She wants to compete in the Olympics and be a role model for other youth.

“It’s the highest you can reach,” Abby said of the Olympics. “I want to leave a legacy in karate and teach the next generation.”

She is well on her way. On Oct. 3, Abby took the world championship in youth female for individual kata in the World Shotokan Karate tournament in Poland. Kata, Abby said, is a routine of karate moves. Abby said she has five different routines.

Through the years, according to Sue Thompson of Joliet, Abby’s grandmother and guardian, Abby also has been a national champion four times, a junior international cup champion five times, and junior U.S. team member twice, and placed second in the North American Cup.

Furthermore, she accomplished these honors while maintaining a high honor roll, Thompson said. Abby is a student at Plainfield Central High School. Her family is extremely proud of her.

“We are her biggest fans,” Thompson said.

Abby said karate has taught her confidence and self-discipline, and doing well in school is part of the discipline. She said her sensei Predrag “Peja” Bajic maintains that school comes first.

“It just makes you a better person overall,” Abby said. “You carry stuff from karate to your real work. You try to be better in school and in other sports.”

Other sports?

“I used to play basketball in middle school,” Abby said, “but I wasn’t very good at it.”

But Abby has excelled in karate and she attributes that success to Bajic.

“He’s like my second dad; he’s my role model,” Abby said. “Especially during the summer, I see him every day, sometimes twice a day, and he’s become a big part of my life. He’s always trying to improve, to be better than he was last year.”

Abby said she started karate because a friend – who also was in karate – suggested it. Abby said that same year, she met her teacher’s brother, which was Bajic.

“She said, ‘You have to train this little girl. She is very good,’ ” Abby said. “He started working with me on his own.”

And why did he? Because of Abby’s strong emotion, Bajic said. Having experienced war and then a move to the U.S. without knowing English, Bajic recognized in Abby a passion and self-motivation she could channel into karate.

The skill, he knew, would come with proper training – and it did. For instance, Bajic said Abby earned her second-degree black belt in four and a half years, when it’s nearly impossible to earn one in less than five.

“She can do anything she puts her mind and emotion into,” Bajic said.

At age 8, Abby began competing at national competitions and earning medals in kata, Thompson said. At 12, Abby started training to qualify for the United States team, she added. Competitors must attain the top two positions at nationals to qualify for the U.S. team, Abby said.

In 2014, Abby said she qualified to compete in Peru with the U.S. team, qualifying in fighting – kumite – not kata. Abby qualified again this year and again in kumite; that competition was held in September in Bolivia, she said.

The Peru and Bolivian events were Pan American events for just North and South America and included all styles of karate, Abby said. In Bolivia, Abby said she won the first match and lost in overtime.

“I wasn’t on my best that day,” Abby said.

To become the best takes work. Thompson said Abby trains about 40 hours a week and also assists sensei at several of his classes.

What makes Abby a good teacher? Love, Bajic said, love for karate and love for people, as well as Abby’s obvious results.

“This is the magic,” Bajic said. “She has really good results and people respect her results.”