"The more you sweat in training the less you bleed in battle!"

    Before the movie "300" (the tale of Spartan warriors) came out I was touting in the dojo these words of training advice to the deshi.  They understand the importance of this.  Pushing yourself to the limits and then beyond.  I always tell the students that "I will make harder in the dojo during training that it will ever get outside."  It is important because most people will train to a point on their own and when they start to tire out decide that is enough and never train to exhaustion only to the point of being tired.  Pushing yourself is always the hardest but of course it is my job to do just that.  I have been in training when I felt like I was going to pass out, even just recently in Virginia at the Butokusai training in the ocean on the beach at about 30 degrees outside at 5:30am in the morning with just a karate dogi on.  I survived(bearly) but I survived and believe I am stronger for it.(or simply nuts!

   If it weren't for others around me doing the same thing and sensei edging me and the others on I might have simply said "this is enough!" but I didn't.  I am glad that I did not give up but stretched my limits.  I hope that you too will find yourself being challenged and your limits pushed.  No matter what budo art you practice, mines being karatedo, find a way to stetch your limits and go beyond your normal boundaries to find that you can not only survive the training but expand your horizons in life itself.  I look forward to sharing more on what little I know of karatedo. Osu!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_zmL6BRCOA&feature=related

My dojo:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgeleVAvQW0 

Andre Bertel Sensei scheduled for August 2011

CORRECTION:  In a previous Blog I apparently posted that Andre Bertel Sensei was rescheduled and not coming in August.  This was an error on my part.  He is being scheduled for Cincinnati Ohio the last weekend in August of 2011(this year!).  Please post and mark your calendars for this time. 

      You can RSVP me at karateofjapan@yahoo.com  so I can ensure we have enough space to accommodate those wishing to attend.  Place and times to be announced(TBA).  

*Special Seminar scheduled for the last weekend of August 26th/27th.

I am certain you will find this one of the best seminars you will attend in 2011!
Contact me via the email to RSVP: karateofjapan@yahoo.com 

Humbly your friend through Karate-do,
Dwight Holley

Karate in Japan...

I wanted to simply make a quick note regarding Karate in Japan and my experience.  Though when I first went to Japan in 1974 I was already the holder of the rank of Shodan having earned that rank in 1969 while in high school in Cincinnati, Ohio.  I found that I was not nearly as good as I thought I was.  Boy did I find that out quickly.  Fortunately I was guided well upon my arrival in my first Japanese dojo to bring and wear a shiro obi(white belt).  I think it helped me get accepted by my sensei and get privy to learning the more advanced Shotokan kata like Unsu, Gojushiho and others which at that time I was not learned in.  I was infected by the likes of Bruce Lee and the incredible movies of that period like Kung Fu Invisible Fist and the Five Fingers of Death.  I even mimic'd many of the fighting sounds and style of these movies so when I went to Japan my karate was sloppy and truly somewhat useless. 

I was like the nail sticking up from the floor that had to be hammered back down and polished again.  It was a great learning experience.  My sensei was one of the best in Japan I could have lucked into, Isao Aioki at the time a Godan and under the JKA and still alinged with Hirokazu Kanazawa Hancho.  I have fond memories of those days of training there in Higashi Fuchu at Fuchu Air Station.  Later I will share more of this training but I have added a youtube link being one of my favorite of some of the JKA sensei demostrating my beloved standard JKA Shotokan of which the world is more familiar with in it's more pure form and practiced by some of the "old guard".  What explosive and wonderful skill.  I hope to someday get somewhat close to before I die.  Enjoy!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4KSLUzv3sQ


Humbly your friend through karate-do, Osu!

Andre Bertel Shihan

    After several conversations I am able to secure the last week of August 2011 to have Bertel Shihan to come to Cincinnati Ohio to execute a seminar on Shotokan/Asai Ryuha Karate-do.  He is one of the most prolific and dynamic Shotokan practitioners I know who is not Japanese.  He is to the point, practical and a definite example of the late Asai Hanshi of JKA Shotokan Karate-do.  He is gentle and kind and in conversation with him I find him to be open and understanding and appreciative of those who wish to promote and practice traditional Shotokan karate-do.  More importantly we share a simular idea on the status of many of the Japanese Hombu and their concepts and teaching the complete art to non-Japanese.  More importantly he seems to be devoid of political favorites and holds true to the art of karate-do.

     With that having been said take a look at his video and you decide on his value to the preservation of the art. Osu!
Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2QTfnlcVcM&feature=related

     I had the privelige of training at the historic Honbu dojo in Covington Ky of the USA Chitokai Karate-do run by  William Dometrich Hanshi.  The occassion was the Kagami Biraki held in conjunction with the Dai Nippon Butokukai of which I am a member.  The training was definitely great as we shared several techniques of Shotokan, Chito ryu and Okinawan Ti which was shared by Devorah Yoshiko who holds 8th Dan in Ryukyu Kobudo and a student of Onaga Sensei from Okinawa.  She shared the technique of Koshi and makiwara practice as done in Okinawa by Onaga Sensei.  It was very enlightening.

       Sonny Kim,6th Dan Shotokan shared his concepts on Mae Geri and Melvin Lewis,6th Dan Shotokan shared a kumite technique of kizami zuki and uraken uchi.  All in all it was simply a good time to simply practice our karate-do amongst friends.  For me it was a little difficult as I have agitated my right shoulder and apparently the rotator cup which is very painful currently.  I will have to go back into rehab mode again to hopefully bring it back to more strenght. 

      I am looking forward to learning to use this medium better and become more frequent in it's use.  I am hopeful that everyone's year is off to a great start and training has become more intensified.  I promised to become more active here and sharing some ideas regarding training and maybe some excerpts from my upcoming second book, "The Blueprint of Karate-do".  I will write more soon.  Ganbatte!

My Journey

No worries, not a long story here as I will save that for another book. For now let me merely say that I started my journey when I was probably 8 or 9 going to a catholic school and being the small frail child I was I was an easy target for the public school kids who would taunt us since we had to wear uniforms and such. Worst was I was picked on by my own classmates even which was no help for my self esteem or confidence at the time. After watching some martial arts on some tv shows like I-Spy and Man from Uncle, the Green Hornet and Kung Fu the series and a few others I was inspired and began to search out somewhere to train. I got a hold of two books, one by Bruce Tegner and one by Bobby Lowe from Hawaii on Kyokushinkai. In 1965 I found a Korean Tang Soo do class and eventually a guy named Jerome who claimed to be a 3rd Dan in Shotokan Karate whom while practicing Tang Soo Do I studied with Jerome as well. I found the Japanese katas to be more appealing to me and not being a great kicker it played into my hands even more so. I also was able to study under a Victor Moore whom at the time was teaching a brand of Okinawan karate called Shorin Ryu.

     By the time I had discovered Black Belt Magazine and read more on Japanese Karate and particularly a man named Tommy Morita who lived in Hawaii and was a student of Chito Ryu karate-do and had spoke of his desire to go to Okinawa to study the spiritual depths of karate under the great Okinawan master Shoshin Nagamine who founded Matsubayashi Shorin Ryu I decided I wanned to go to Japan myself somehow but at the age of 14 I did not know how.  By 1969 I had been promoted to Shodan by Jerome in a hybrid form of Shotokan and gone to high school finally.  By the start of my senior year I found my means to Japan, joining the military and after my conversation with a recruiter found myself two weeks after graduation headed to basic training in the US Air Force in San Atonio Texas.  Four months later I was on a plane headed to the Philippines by way of Japan. Yeah!  After less than a year in the Philippines I was given a special assignment to Higashi Fuchu Japan which allowed me to realize my dream...to study in Japan under a karate master.  First day in Japan with my then mentor and sensei, Charles Taylor we both found the proper Shotokan dojo to train under a student of Hirokazu Kanazawa and the JKA, Mr. Isao Aioki.  The rest as they say is history.  Today over 45 years later I was recently elevated by several martial arts associations/federations to the rank of Hachidan, 8th Dan. My 7th Dan was certified by the Dai Nippon Butokukai which is endorsed by members of Japans Emperial Family and the Japanese government.  It is among the highest honors one can receive in Budo.  Fortunately I know I have much room for improvement and remain on the constant search to someday master the art of karate-do.   I have learned one thing for sure that I believe will bring me closer.  Karate is easy, we as a people complicate it, thus I maintain as a philosophy to simply "shut up and train!"  Osu!

Humbly your friend through our karate-do,
Dwight Holley