Congratulations to Toby Gray on promoting to Shodan. Below are videos from the promotion. Kata Bo Kumite This is a full video showing 10 consecutive matches without a break. I decided to show this in the long form, to let you watch the test as if you were sitting in the dojo.Read More →
Lost in Translation by Sensei Nago Matsuyama Modern Karate has become very different from the Karate that had been trained over the centuries in Okinawa, or after it was brought to the Japanese main island, for that matter. You may say that it is progress or that it is retrogression. It depends on how you look at it. To pursue the original meanings or purposes of the techniques in Kata, we first have to understand why and how the changes in Karate have happened, and then trace them back to the originals. Those changes have been made on a few occasions. The Okinawan masters whoRead More →
PUSH YOURSELF: Karate in Daily Life by Tom Shea “Make kiai!!!!!…..Show spirit!!!!….” It echoes through the night… “Again!!!! …..Last ten!!!!!……. Come on, push yourself!!!!! …….Harder, no stop!!!!……” I have heard Master Kazumi Tabata shout such commands for the last 24 years, spurring me on…. “One more time… OK, again, one more time….” OK, one more… I can do it…. sometimes it turns into more of a question… but I do one more… then another… and another… “This must be halfway at least,” I think, abandoning my efforts to keep an empty mind… What’s the drill this time? Front kicks? Punches in horse stance? Kata? No,Read More →