Like most activities, you meet and train with all sorts of folks in the karate line-up. Young, old, men, women, professionals, craftsmen, college students, housewives, retirees….and so on. The karateka in our group look like anyone you might pass on the street or at the mall. Karate-do, of course, is not so much about how one looks on the outside, but what one carries on the inside. In my many years of training and teaching, there is one guy who always stuck out in my mind as what a mature asian martial artist should look like. Actually, with his short stocky build, close cropped hair, weathered tanned face, and quiet, serious eyes; I always thought that he resembled a buddhist monk. All he needed was a robe and bo to complete the image. In later years he often sported a goatee that added even more to this image. At 51, he was the oldest member of our dojo – ironically, he’d be about the youngest in our current second class, haha. When he first entered our SKC dojo nearly twenty years ago, it was after a long, long break from Shotokan training. A humble man, he entered our dojo, asking [...]

At a recent birthday party in my honor, my family played a slide show about my life, and naturally, there was a segment on karate through the years.  There were various impromptu shots taken of training in the dojo or outside, at some old gasshuko beach session.  A couple, however, were of me in karate gi, making a pre-determined karate pose – you know, the kind we hate to have taken, haha. Once in a great while, karateka will be asked to strike a favorite pose for a photograph.  It can be kind of an awkward moment and folks will place some thought into what movement from what kata or kumite posture they think best captures their skill or knowledge level (haha).  Good or bad, it’s caught for posterity and most karateka looking at it (critics, all) will have an opinion.  Personally, I have never given much thought about what pose I would use.  About 17 or 18 years ago, my fellow sensei and I decided to have professional photos taken of our karate club – by professional, I mean a photographer who specialized in taking sports clubs photos (like baseball, soccer, etc).  When it was my turn to pose, [...]

Just a quick reminder – as we enter the holiday season, there are several days when we won’t have training: Sat 26 Nov, 24 Dec (Christmas Eve) and 31 Dec (New Year’s Eve). I am very pleased with everyone’s improvement over the past couple of months as we concentrate on katas.  I feel that this progress will manifest itself in better exam results (coming up, Sat 10 Dec).  Keep up the good work, everyone.