Training with a chief instructor/seishan: experiences

[ChristianeHigashi]

Clue is in the title share your experiences

[chris0828]

As I'm new to my dojo never had a training session with my sensei yet. But all the senior students i've trained with have been excellent

[Dobbersky]

I am the Chief Instructor, but I have trained with some excellent Shihans and Kancho's from other organisations, namely Gary Chamberlain (Head of Enshin UK) and Kancho Ninomiya (Founder of Enshinkai). I also had the pleasure of training with Tony Bowyer Kaicho of Seidokan Wado Ryu UK

It made me realise that I NEEDED to move away from my Sensei as it changed my outlook to Karate. it changed my insight into the kata to the techniques to the What, Why, How and What-if to everything I do, my karate is completely different to what my instructor taught me and this is due to training with other Shihans etc.

[sensei8]

Having been the Chief Instructor for my Kyuodan Dojo, and then as the Chief Instructor of the Shindokan Hombu, both were different for me.

When I was the Chief Instructor for my Kyuodan Dojo, I was only responsible for my immediate students. Yet, when I was the Chief Instructor of the Shindokan Hombu, I was responsible for the entire Shindokan student body.

Our Dai-Soke, when he was the Kaicho, was the Shindokan Hombu's Chief Instructor for over 40 years under our Soke. Imho, our Dai-Soke was the quintessential Chief Instructor in both technique and administrative. When I became the Hombu's Chief Instructor, I wasn't trying to fill his shoes, that would've been impossible, however, I was trying to maintain my own balance while at the same time establishing my own identity that was separate and away from the largeness that was our Dai-Soke.

I was very honored to have served in that capacity!!

[Montana]

In June of 1978 I was a 1st kyu brown belt under my Nidan instructor when the head of our system, the late Sensei Kuda Yuichi (7th Dan) came to our small single car garage dojo in Northcentral Montana for a 3 week visit/training session.

Our class consisted of about a dozen hard working students with one shodan black belt and the rest were lower colored belts. Sensei Kuda worked with us for the first 2 weeks on kata, bunkai and other techniques, but we saw little of what he could actually do himself. On the 3rd week, Sensei Kuda went from an instructor and just telling us what to do, to a fewllow martial artist training with us. To say the least, he was VERY imprssive!!! His speed, timing, control and technique was the stuff I was aspiring to achieve in myself!

Sensei Kuda liked to use me for demonstration purposes, since I was the biggest guy in the class at 6' 6" tall and around 220 lbs. Sensei Kuda himself was a small man, as most Okinawans are, at about 5'5" tall and maybe 150 lbs. That man tossed me around the floor like a sack of grain, and no matter what I tried (and believe me, I tried!) to do against him, he easily controlled me and made it very clear who was in control and that he was just toying with me.

Towards the end of the 3rd week, our last, Sensei Kuda called us up one at a time and asked us to do various kata or techniques. We had done this several times before, so it was expected. After I completed what Sensei Kuda asked of me and returned to the side of the wall along with the rest of the class, my Sensei leaned over with extended hand and said "Congratulations...Shodan!"

I said "What???" And my Sensei told me I had just tested, and PASSED, my shodan test.

It was totally unexpected.

I had the opportunity to work with Sensei Kuda once again in the 1990's or so in Seattle, and Sensei Kuda passed away in 1999. He was a true martial artist and a great man, and is truly missed by those that had the opportunity to know and train with him.

[JohnASE]

Towards the end of the 3rd week, our last, Sensei Kuda called us up one at a time and asked us to do various kata or techniques. We had done this several times before, so it was expected. After I completed what Sensei Kuda asked of me and returned to the side of the wall along with the rest of the class, my Sensei leaned over with extended hand and said "Congratulations...Shodan!"

I said "What???" And my Sensei told me I had just tested, and PASSED, my shodan test.

Great story!

[KumitePanda]

shihan takahashi is an 8th dan OAM and absolutely hilarious!!! i've had 3 gradings with him and although awkward as i'm generally the only female grading he can see how awkward i feel and says 'say kiyai!' so i say it he's like 'no no no, spirit feeling now say kiyai' he's like my own little mr.miyagi....i told him that and he grinned, but i get hit alot with his stick he's always like 'make longer stance rhi' hes very encougraging, especially since he knows my limits and me being an epileptic (not always there in the brain)

[nanook660]

I've had a Private Training Session with my Sensei (Sensei Alex 7th Dan) at his home. It was a tad scary at first. But once I settled down I was fine. He's big on Basics. We did straight Basics for 90 minutes. It was a lot of fun. I've also had the pleasure of Sparring with Sensei. Sensei tones down his Sparring to match the person he Spars with. The Girls he takes it easy on and does do a lot of helping and encouraging. My first Sparring bout with Sensei was scary but once I got in there and realized that he was pulling back it made the Match enjoyable.

[sensei8]

In June of 1978 I was a 1st kyu brown belt under my Nidan instructor when the head of our system, the late Sensei Kuda Yuichi (7th Dan) came to our small single car garage dojo in Northcentral Montana for a 3 week visit/training session.

Our class consisted of about a dozen hard working students with one shodan black belt and the rest were lower colored belts. Sensei Kuda worked with us for the first 2 weeks on kata, bunkai and other techniques, but we saw little of what he could actually do himself. On the 3rd week, Sensei Kuda went from an instructor and just telling us what to do, to a fewllow martial artist training with us. To say the least, he was VERY imprssive!!! His speed, timing, control and technique was the stuff I was aspiring to achieve in myself!

Sensei Kuda liked to use me for demonstration purposes, since I was the biggest guy in the class at 6' 6" tall and around 220 lbs. Sensei Kuda himself was a small man, as most Okinawans are, at about 5'5" tall and maybe 150 lbs. That man tossed me around the floor like a sack of grain, and no matter what I tried (and believe me, I tried!) to do against him, he easily controlled me and made it very clear who was in control and that he was just toying with me.

Towards the end of the 3rd week, our last, Sensei Kuda called us up one at a time and asked us to do various kata or techniques. We had done this several times before, so it was expected. After I completed what Sensei Kuda asked of me and returned to the side of the wall along with the rest of the class, my Sensei leaned over with extended hand and said "Congratulations...Shodan!"

I said "What???" And my Sensei told me I had just tested, and PASSED, my shodan test.

It was totally unexpected.

I had the opportunity to work with Sensei Kuda once again in the 1990's or so in Seattle, and Sensei Kuda passed away in 1999. He was a true martial artist and a great man, and is truly missed by those that had the opportunity to know and train with him.

A very solid and moving post; it truly brought both a smile to my face as well as a tear in my eyes. Thank you Montana!!

[Shizentai]

Well wow, where do I begin!? My main sensei from age 16 onward is also the Chief Instructor of our JKA branch, so I have a lot of stories. I guess my favorite one for personal reasons is this one though:

When I was a purple belt, age 16 or so, our senpai taught a difficult advanced class while Sensei watched (which was very unusual at the time). Being a less-than-coordinated youth, I struggled quite a bit with the different teaching style, and with memorizing seemingly random sequences of movements. During class Sensei said nothing, but after it was over for some reason he came up to me (the lowest-ranking student at the time) and struck up a conversation:

Sensei: "What did you think of your senpai's class? Too hard or too easy?"

Me: "Well, probably for most students it was good, but my mind is just a little slow sometimes so I had a hard time."

Sensei: "Slow!? What do you mean!? You're mentally handicapped?"

Me: "No! No, that wasn't what I meant! I- I'm just bad at-"

Sensei: "Oh, so you have a brain that functions normally then?"

Me: "Well, yes-"

Sensei: "Ok, well if that's the case then I should expect no less from you than the capacity to do anything any man on earth can do."

Me: "...uh?"

Sensei: "If you are just as smart as everyone else, and you train your body and mind just as hard, then if it is possible for anyone in this world to do something, then it is possible for you to do it too. You need to think this way from now on."

At that time in my life, no one had ever spoken of me with such confidence. Not even my own mother expected anything better from me than slightly sub-par. I was a smaller-than-average girl with a stutter, weak ankles and an a tendency to sleep through most of the school day. Yet here was a sage-like karate master telling me that he quite literally expected the world.

The simple weight of it... To go from feeling worthless to feeling, even on a bad day, like I was worth the same as anyone else I encounter in life... To finally be pushed.

At that moment I decided that I would never stop training.

Since then I never have.