Goju-Ryu Futari Geiko

I thought I would announce that my long awaited book on Goju-Ryu two person exercises "Goju-Ryu Futari Geiko" is now completed and ready for distribution. below is the publishers release;

"Goju-Ryu Futari Geiko draws extensively on the authors 39 years of personal experience, training and research in Okinawan GojuRyu Karate-do. This work covers blocking drills, Sandan Gi, Ippon Kumite, Nihon Kumite, Rensoku Waza, flow drills, kakie and kumigata, ranging from simple to complex partner training drills that will benefit not only the novice but also the most experienced karate-ka. If you are looking for training drills from Old style Okinawan karate, look no further."

I know it has taken a while for this to be released, but I hope that you will be pleased with the results. One aspect of training that I feel doesn’t get much attention is Futari Geiko or if you prefer Nijin Keiko, both literally mean two person training. Most all Okinawan Goju-ryu dojo include some type of two person drills, most include ude tanren or kote kitai, kakie and sandan gi, some also utilize some type of yakusoku kumite. However the majority of other ryu-ha do not spend any significant amount of time on these subjects. I have also trained with Goju-Ryu instructors that require little more than kata in their dojo.

What I have tried to do with this book is provide the reader with a step by step description with accompanying photographs of several two person drills that run the spectrum from beginner to advanced practitioner. It is not all encompassing by any means. I started with a simple stationary drill called Shodan Uke Harai, which is divided up into there sections; Jodan, chudan and gedan, I then moved into Sandan Uke Harai which is a bit more complicated and I showed eight of these drills, I then moved on to Sandan Gi and one variation of this drill, then I moved on to ippon and nihon kumite drills, Body conditioning, flow drills, Kumigata and Kakie, There are some drills in this book that have never been show before in another book, I hope you find it as a good resource. 

Buy Now - Goju-Ryu Futari Geiko

Gekisai Bunkai/Oyo

Here is a small clip of some bunkai or oyo for the beginning section of Gekisai Dai Ichi that I taught in class the other day and thought you might enjoy it.

Status Update and New Dojo

Well it has been a while since I have made a blog entry. I have retired from law enforcement and decided to open up another dojo in Marion, Indiana in conjunction with my father.

We started the construction on the Marion dojo on October 3rd. The building that we are located in was a terrible mess and needed a ton of work, it had sat empty for at least 10 years. when we walked in the door my dad said "This will take us years to get ready", I said three months and we had our first class on January 19th.

walking in the door

Once we got in the building, my father, my son (Curtis) and I put in 10-18 hour days. We usually took a break on Sunday's but not always. We also had help from the students from both Dads Komakai Academy of Karate and my Yushikan dojo, along with my wife Amber, my son's Alec and Nick and my nephew Codie. There was a lot of hard work put into the development of the new dojo.

Since 1994 Dad and I have maintained separate dojo, even though students cross trained and we sat on each others promotion boards over the years and taught in each others dojo from time to time, we were separate and not teaching exactly the same things and Sensei of our own dojos.

We sat down together and hashed out a curriculum and picked the name Okinawan Martial Arts Center for the new dojo (www.okinawanmartialartscenter.org). He had his dojo name since 1977 and I had mine since 1994, so with a new beginning came a new name. We also chose a new logo for the new dojo, separate from the two logo we had previously used. 

After construction

Since we finished the new dojo, we hosted the Central Indiana National Karate Championships and the Keeney Cup and have hosted a seminar with Col. (ret.) Roy J. Hobbs Sensei, with participants as far away as Baltimore. We have combined the two dojo and added several new students to the new dojo. Things are going well and I have been teaching so much, that I have not had time to write much for the blog. I have squeezed in the time to write a dojo training manual and I am working on a second edition of "Entering Through the Gateway of Gojuryu". I am also working on books for Kobudo, Jujutsu/Iaido and another Gojuryu book.

I will try to keep up with the blog and write some new articles for my faithful readers and keep you up to date better on events and happenings. The Yushikan is still here and not going anywhere but I am equally invested in making the new dojo a sucess.

Until next time, train hard and take care.