Let's Talk About Your Instructor!!

[sensei8]

Every KF member can tell you the reason(s) why they ever started to learn the style they practice now.

So...

Why did YOUR Instructor ever learn the style that he/she teaches you?

My Dai-Soke started to learn, what would finally become Shindokan, from our Soke because of pure fasination that was birthed in him from watching our Soke conduct an amazing demonstration in the Okinawan village that he lived in when he was just a kid.

[bushido_man96]

My current instructor started his training under the GM of our organization when he went to college. I think he took it as a college credit to begin with. It went on from there.

[Montana]

My sensei was stationed on Okinawa while serving in the US Navy in the late 60's, early 70's. A friend of his there was taking classes from OSensei Soken Hohan and Sensei Kuda Yuichi and dragged my sensei to class one night.

The rest is history.

[Shizentai]

My sensei was a child growing up in Japan during WWII. He never speaks of the hard times I'm sure he saw, but he often tells us that the reason he started training after the war was over, was to build up a strong spirit. He told us that he wanted to have confidence in himself. He also wanted people to be confident in his generation... that the future of Japan would move on to better more peaceful days.

[CTTKDKing]

My teacher was born in Korean and studied Chung Do Kwan as a youth. He switched to Taekwondo as a young teen and trained Korean soldiers for 7 years in TKD as a young adult. After that he moved to the states to be an assistant instructor in Springfield, CT under his former teacher who had moved here to the states. My head instructor earned his 5th Dan under his old master in Springfield while teaching there and then was asked if he'd run a second location of the school in Manchester, CT. The rest is history (he's been here about 10 years give or take).

[Lee M]

I think my Instructor was just a great athlete but decided not to go pro - amatuer sport and decided upon Karate and competition.

[Dobbersky]

My Ashihara Instructor Searched for a Style that fitted in with what he needed for his size, abilty and effectiveness on the street, he trained in Shukokai, Shotokan and a few other Martial Arts before he practiced/taught Ashihara.

My Wado Instructor Found that from the beginning Wado was for him, it fitted his size and ability and the ethos and deeper meaning he was searching for.

My Tang Soo Do Instructor looked for an Art that gave him something he could use on the street to make hin effective and accompany the years of boxing he did prior to taking up TSD.

For me, It was virtually the same. I searched for an art that fitted with "me", I trained in "3" main Arts but the Core was Ashihara Karate. It was for me, perfect for my size, build, abilities and effectivenss for street confrontations. It gave me more than Tang Soo Do and more than Wado Ryu, although training in them made me see what was "hidden" within the art I now teach to my students. Although I lable my Art as Ashihara karate it is not pure as it is also Tang Soo Do and it is also Wado Ryu, If you understand what I mean

[IcemanSK]

My GM began the study of Chung Do Kwan while stationed at Osan Air Force Base in Korea in 1961. In 1967, he came back to the US & opened a dojang. He was the American representative when the Kukkiwon opened in the early 70's.

[theJCism]

The head instructor of my school went along to watch his friends train when he was in his early 20s back in 1972, obviously he kept going long after they left.

[etali]

The chief instructor of my school is the son of the founder of the school. The Senseis that teach at the class I go to are married. I'm not sure which of them started training first, but they've been training together for a long time, and now their whole family is involved.