Bringing in interstate/international instructors

[Nidan Melbourne]

1 hour ago, Spartacus Maximus said:

This topic is interesting. When there are no others to train with nearby and one’s instructor live too far away. 

for everyone, what is required for inviting the head of your style or high seniors to teach? Being a karate orphan can be challenging, especially when the hanshi and even the nearest senior is an 6~8 hour flight away. 

Inviting them to come teach private? 

Possible; you would just need to take into account the costs for them to come travel your way for x amount of time. So airfare, accommodation, car hire, and general expenses. 

 

Group Situation? 

You're at least able to divvy up the overall costs between however many people that will attend. 

 

However if that person happens to be coming your way, and you ask if they can spare a few hours to help you out. And they say yes, then i'd offer to pay them for their time that they're sacrificing. But I wouldn't interfere if it was a Family Holiday.

[sensei8]

As far as providing accommodation, whenever our Soke and Dai-Soke invited an instructor from out of the USA, which wasn’t quite often, the guest would stay at either of their homes spare bedroom; they had free range of the home inside and outside. 

One of us Seniors would drive them wherever they wanted to go no matter the time of the day.

Airfare and general expenses was taken care of by the SKKA. Most of the time the guest would provide a lot of their own general expenses even if we insisted.

Gifts were always exchanged between host and guest(s).

[Spartacus Maximus]

As a student without a dojo, there is nobody else to share any costs with. Obviously the basic thing to do is covering the plane ticket, but there must be other things to do.

The plan would be to invite the CI of the main dojo(my sensei), or one of the seniors. The CI already travels to teach in Latin America and Europe regularly. 

Basically, the goal is to keep training as well as setting up a shibu dojo in a region/country where Okinawan karate is virtually absent.

[Nidan Melbourne]

On 7/26/2025 at 3:53 AM, sensei8 said:

As far as providing accommodation, whenever our Soke and Dai-Soke invited an instructor from out of the USA, which wasn’t quite often, the guest would stay at either of their homes spare bedroom; they had free range of the home inside and outside. 

One of us Seniors would drive them wherever they wanted to go no matter the time of the day.

Airfare and general expenses was taken care of by the SKKA. Most of the time the guest would provide a lot of their own general expenses even if we insisted.

Gifts were always exchanged between host and guest(s).

Was there much of a limit for airfare? Like in in terms of Economy/Business/First Class and then pricing for Return Flights? 

For instance flights for me economy from Melbourne to Las Vegas is around $1700 minimum. 

I have a few dojos that I have on my travel list both here in Australia and overseas. Some of which, I would do a road trip to go train at for a few days at each. 

- Yarrawonga - Albury - Canberra

          - All 3 are drivable from home, so would be a fun road trip. 

        - I'd make a trip out of it and go up to Sydney for a few days.

- Eudmundi (QLD) 

 

 

14 hours ago, Spartacus Maximus said:

As a student without a dojo, there is nobody else to share any costs with. Obviously the basic thing to do is covering the plane ticket, but there must be other things to do.

The plan would be to invite the CI of the main dojo(my sensei), or one of the seniors. The CI already travels to teach in Latin America and Europe regularly. 

Basically, the goal is to keep training as well as setting up a shibu dojo in a region/country where Okinawan karate is virtually absent.

Where are you normally based? 

Is travelling to South America or Europe affordable to you if the CI travels that way to train? 

[Spartacus Maximus]

Europe would be the closest and least expensive, but going almost anywhere else would likely cost as much as going to where the CI lives and teaches most of the time. 

Sending videos is probably the best solution, but there are only a few things that can be evaluated without being present in person. 

trained intensively for just shy of ten years before life happened and being forced away. Although it is a project, lack of resources and a full time job make it impossible for the time being to open a branch dojo. 

[sensei8]

10 hours ago, Nidan Melbourne said:

Was there much of a limit for airfare? Like in in terms of Economy/Business/First Class and then pricing for Return Flights? 

Nope!! First Class; both ways!! Our thoughts on this is that if we invite, and the guest(s) accept our invite, then it’s our responsibility and obligation to provide the Airfare. However, we set a limit as how many we’d include in the Airfare; 3 was the limit because some guest instructors travel with a lot of assistants, etc., so if they want to bring 5, including the guest instructor, they’d have to pay the airfare for 2, and so on.

Of course, it’s not like we invited guest instructors every month. No!! There was no set method of our madness. On an average we’d invite 1 guest instructor a year, usually right after our annual Testing Cycle at the Hombu, with was held every June/July. Many times we wouldn’t invite a guest instructor for several years. Let be serious, there’s not that many effective guest instructor globally but there’s a ton of ineffective instructors all over the world. 

And if a guest instructor wowed up across the board, we’d invite them more than once.

Can’t put a price on a great guest instructor, so while it can take a bit out of our wallet, but that’s why there’s a budget and planning department that oversees things like that. 

Okinawans, and this isn’t an insult, can be quite frugal, and in rare cases, quite frivolous to a point; Soke and Dai-Soke were, that’s for sure.

[Nidan Melbourne]

On 7/28/2025 at 3:44 AM, sensei8 said:

Nope!! First Class; both ways!! Our thoughts on this is that if we invite, and the guest(s) accept our invite, then it’s our responsibility and obligation to provide the Airfare. However, we set a limit as how many we’d include in the Airfare; 3 was the limit because some guest instructors travel with a lot of assistants, etc., so if they want to bring 5, including the guest instructor, they’d have to pay the airfare for 2, and so on.

Of course, it’s not like we invited guest instructors every month. No!! There was no set method of our madness. On an average we’d invite 1 guest instructor a year, usually right after our annual Testing Cycle at the Hombu, with was held every June/July. Many times we wouldn’t invite a guest instructor for several years. Let be serious, there’s not that many effective guest instructor globally but there’s a ton of ineffective instructors all over the world. 

And if a guest instructor wowed up across the board, we’d invite them more than once.

Can’t put a price on a great guest instructor, so while it can take a bit out of our wallet, but that’s why there’s a budget and planning department that oversees things like that. 

Okinawans, and this isn’t an insult, can be quite frugal, and in rare cases, quite frivolous to a point; Soke and Dai-Soke were, that’s for sure.

I'm sure thats just local (US wise) in relation to First Class? I'm sure you wouldn't want to fork out the $20k (AUD) before extras are factored in to have me fly from Melbourne. 

But if the club was to pay that (including other fees payable), i'd make my time there worthwhile and same for the club. For me as an instructor; with that cost alone you should get me for at least for a week. 

But I also do suggest to the club, to organise my travel there with 2 or 3 clubs to split the costs of me being there. 

Although when I do seminars, i dislike the usage of Guest Instructors; because I can use the participants to help demonstrate for me. And if i did need assistants, it means I have overdone it in terms of what I want to teach or have too many people in the session.