Poul Williams

In a special training session this past weekend with Matsuyama Sensei, the many advanced students present were first reminded of the importance of always practicing basics with a never ending mindset of improving.  Sensei warned that lazy basics will lead to ineffective kumite techniques.  From there, the class transitioned to tai-jutsu, focusing on two of the techniques in the Doshi-Kai curriculum, kote hineri and kote gaeshi.  Sensei showed how these techniques could be transitioned to smoothly within heian nidan.  Finally, the bo staffs were brought out, and kihon ippon kaeshi kumite techniques were taught and practiced.Read More →

We had a great special training session with Matsuyama Sensei on Saturday, June 28, 2025!  We learned about some of the finer points in basics (kihon) and when in fighting stance (jiyu kamae).  From there, we covered throwing techniques including kote gaeshi and trained with bo staff, both of which we use to gain a deeper insight into Shotokan Karate bunkai.Read More →

In Doshi-Kai’s monthly class on tai-jutsu, we practiced hiji-garame nage (entangled elbow throw), proper falling technique, and where this throw can be employed smoothly from locations in several kata.Read More →