I have NEVER gotten the hang of blogs, as evidenced by the fact that it has been three years since I updated this one.  I need to spend more time learning about how to utilize this tool as well as getting comfortable putting videos on here and on YouTube.

New Videos

It's kind of a hassle to upload videos to the blog. It's easier for me to put them on YouTube. So, look to the video bar to your right and you should see a link to our most recent stuff.

Learning about Blogging

I put all of our kata on Youtube on the bar at the right.  This means that all of our kata up through Blue Belt are now available to view.  If anyone wants me to put side views, applications or anything else up, let me know.

Kihon Kata Ni (Yellow Belt Curriculum)

Here is the second of the three kata required for Yellow Belt, Kihon kata Ni.

Finally New Content

Here are some of our students doing Kihon kata as required for Yellow belt. First, we have Kihon Kata Ichi:

John Sells Seminar in Eugene!

Best Martial Arts Institute &
Northwest Karate Federation
Present
A Traditional Karate Kata Seminar
with John Sells, Hanshi
8th Dan in Shito-ryu Karate-do
World Renowned Author & Karate Historian
October 9 & 10, 2009
Best Martial Arts Institute - 1235 Willamette St, Eugene, Oregon 97401
Session 1 – Friday Evening, 6:00 – 9:00
Ufuchiku no Jo - Ni (#2)
“Ufuchiku” (Police inspector) Kanakushiku Sada (1829-1920) was a chief bodyguard to
the last Okinawan King, Sho Tai. He was a protégé of Bushi Matsumura. This is one version
of his kata using a 4’ staff.
Session 2 – Saturday Morning 10:30 – 1:30
Koryu Gojushiho
Meaning “54 steps,” Gojushiho is considered to be the most advanced of the shurite
empty-hand kata in widespread use.
Session 3 – Saturday Afternoon 3:00 - 5:30
Paipuren
Meaning “Eight Steps,” Paipuren is a short breathing kata, which came to karate directly
from Fujian White Crane Kung fu.
Cost - $25 per session
Ages 12 and up. Minimum of one-year experience required.
Please complete a liability release and make payments at the door.
(Make checks payable to NW Karate Federation)
For more information, contact:
Alan Best (541) 345-0684 or email - senseibest@bmai.org
Hank Prohm (503) 375-9715 or email - hankprohm@comcast.net
Potluck Dinner!
All participants are invited to join us for a potluck dinner Saturday evening
starting at 7:00. Directions to the location will be available at the seminar.
Out of town guests need only bring drinks. Locals please bring your own
drinks and a main dish or dessert to share.
Printable flier and liability release available at www.bmai.org

How do you like our new logo?

Like I said in my previous post, a lot has been happening with the NWKF.

For varaious reason, I have ended our association with the Shito-ryu group in Japan. We are still associated with John Sells hanshi and he will be helping me with setting standards and curriculum.

As a symbol of our new status, I've come up with a new logo. What do you folks think of it? It combines the "Shito fist" that Kotaka, Hayashi and Kuniba senseis used overlaying the Mabuni crest, paying homage to both

Happy New Year

Got to start keeping this blog up.

Much going on with the NWKF, will report later.

One more time

They took down the video of the Vietnamese woman doing kata.

Here she is again:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TkrMdYixodc

The "new" gold standard

This woman is INCREDIBLE.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=UP7ltirXYGI&feature=related

It is hard for me to imagine anyone doing better.

Watch, I'll immediately see someone I like even more.

BTW: Heiku is a kata that we have in our John Sells syllabus. If you senior students really like it I'll work at remembering it and teach it to you.

the "old" gold standard

For a number of years I've thought that Mimura Yuki was the BEST kata performer I'd ever seen:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-VVbbBN2NXI&feature=related

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JJyijs90oVE&feature=related

I've got a new gold standard.

Good article

Here is a good article:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Makiwara-Training&id=31146

In Hawaii, all the shito-ryu guys were known as having REALLY powerful punches. We didn't take a back seat to anyone, including the Kyokushinkai guys. A number of us used variations on the Tani-ha punch mentioned here and I still teach my interpretation/expansion on the Tani-ha method of developing power.

Welcome to Our Blog

Hello everyone, welcome to our blog, the first attempt to bring the Northwest Karate Federation into the age of the Internet. This is funny when you think of it because I've been using personal computers since 1980, used to have a business selling and repairing computers and have even written a novel on line back in the days before the Internet and the World Wide Web and have coached competitors in Africa and Malaysia over the Internet.. Somehow, it just didn't seem necessary to have the karate school connected to the world. Well, now it seems as though we need to provide more methods for our students, parents and teachers to communicate with each other so we will be experimenting with this blog and developing a web site to complement it. As they say in Japan: Irrashai Masse: please enter.