Redding Shotokan Karate was honored to host SKA Godan Marty Cullenward, from the Foothill Dojo, on July 30-31.

Mr. Cullenward held two practices, one on Friday night and one Saturday morning. The first part of the Friday practice focused on Heian Nidan and its applications (helping our Nisei Week attendees, Hiroko and Jake, prepare for the NorCal contingent's demonstration. The second part was focused on helping Brad and Spencer with torite.

Saturday's practice included lots of oizuki practice, followed by kumite drills - ippon gumite, sanbon gumite, and jiyu kumite. All members in attendance profited immensely by Marty's instruction. Hiroko commented that if we pay attention and practice hard, a visit like this can save us 10 years of practice on our own.

Aside from the remarkable demonstration of buyobudaoshi Marty performed on me (I guess once every 10 years is good), part of Marty's instruction that I remember is the mantra "close distance, break ma, hit the opponent". His demonstrations will guide my oizuki practice for years to come.

Hiroko requested that Marty watch and critique my Empi kata (a surprise to me, not having practiced it since Jim Sagawa's Stanford practice I attended in June). Lynette, our resident professional photographer, kindly shared this photo. Too bad she didn't Photoshop a little more altitude in my jump...

Redding Shotokan Karate, and me especially, thank Mr. Cullenward for his generosity and patience. I think he did save me 10 years' practice - but he gave me 10 years' worth of things to practice!