Redding Shotokan Karate

I made it to Yodan Practice with Walt Branam and Craig Stephens both of Sacramento Shotokan. The amazingly beautiful and peaceful Shotokan Ohshima Dojo welcomed us. There were about 30 yodans from across the nation and Canada. I was the only woman on the dojo floor there. I felt a little pressure, but I was proud and honored to practice with all those high-level big tough guys. I'm one tough woman as well. It was great to see Ohshima Sensei again in good spirits and great shape. He said he just turned to 78 years old. Wow, he looks and moves much younger than that. Happy Birthday, Sensei! » read the entire item »

It's been a super busy and amazing summer, and I'm finally going to complete this blog! With her consent, here are the excerpts (preview) from the article about the practice written by Rue Avant (SKA brown belt, Berkeley, California). A full story is coming up soon in the Shotokan Newsletter fall issue. Thank you, Rue.

A photo at http://www.reddingshotokan.org/node/178 » read the entire item »

We said good-bye to another student this week. We're losing Jun Nakamiya to the Portland (Oregon) dojo.

Jun joined us via Hiroko's Japanese language class at Shasta College. In just a couple weeks, he quickly proved himself an interested and apt student. Jun's work ethic is amazing, and his desire to improve correctly is an example to us all. » read the entire item »

Mother’s Day Weekend 5/9/08 – 5/11/08

Saturday, May 10

8:00 am » read the entire item »

Mother’s Day Weekend 5/9/08 – 5/11/08

At Jim Sagawa's practice (both the Friday night before, and the Saturday practice), and at the Sunday practice last week after Daniel Chemla's memorial, Mr. Sagawa had the class practice breathing and stepping in front stance. There's more to it, of course. Jim is doing stuff I can only hope to understand later, but if he thinks it's what we should do, I'm going to do it. » read the entire item »

Scott Kingsbury's practice on Monday (5/5/2008) was excellent. Not only did I enjoy it and learn a lot - thanks for all the matches and advice! - I really enjoyed seeing Hiroko laugh so much. She was really getting into the eye-hand coordination practice, and her laugh was so infectious that she had most of the rest of the class doing it, too. Of course, I was so serious you could have mistook me for the Buddha Fudo...not. » read the entire item »

I thoroughly enjoyed Scott’s practice tonight. Wow, we learned a lot from him. He is a dojo leader of Westside Shotokan, another SKA dojo in town. He was one of my teachers when I started training at SKA Redding Dojo (then leader: Godan Ken Osborne) in November, 1985. » read the entire item »n>

In this week's Hot News, Nidan Scott Kingsbury will lead a jiyu-kumite practice at Sun Oaks tonight (5/5/2008) at 6:40pm.

It's too bad that Jun hurt his foot two weekends ago at the Central Coast Tournament. He's not supposed to practice for a couple more weeks, according to the docs, but I'm sure he's itching to! He'll watch tonight, I hope. » read the entire item »