New Tatami Mats for the Dojo

 I am happy to say we finally invested in commercial-grade tatami mats for the Dojo.  Our previous 1" puzzle mats were excellent, but I wanted to move up to this top grade since so many students train on them. 

The new ones are ZEBRA 6'-7" x 3'4" x 1.5" thickness. They have a light rice-straw texture for grip without tearing up your feet during hours of training. www.ZebraAthletics.com  Check out their "About Us" tab and see whom all they serve as partners. These mats will serve us in karatedo, kobudo, takedowns and grappling, and yoga!

In karate, we have to protect our feet. The constant pounding and friction are hard on them. I love training on wood floors, but they can be too hard unless the subfloor has spring. Our subfloor is concrete.

Happy to have these!

James Pounds

SEIWAKAI PRESIDENT NO LONGER

 I have recently resigned as the President of the USA SEIWAKAI KARATE ORGANIZATION, our sport non-profit governing body.  I have served almost 4 years in that capacity and felt it was time to pass the torch so I can concentrate more time on my own dojo and my real estate business. 

I think the most importatant thing I have accomplished in addition to providing leadership was to have shepherded the 510(c)3 structure into existence. This structure will allow businesses and individuals to donate funds to support traditional karatedo in the United States and receive a tax deduction for doing so. 

It will also make it easier for USA Seiwakai to seamlessly move into the future with a solid Board of Directors and a perpetuity not typically found in most karate organizations. As many of our senior people age, we have sought to put together an organization that is dynamic and welcoming of new leaders and new energy from within our ranks. Fresh ideas and new energy!

Too often, karate organizations are headed by one founder or head instructor, which works well until that person retires or passes away. Because there was no clear path of succession, the organization typically splinters into multiple new groups, falters, or ceases to be. We wanted to avoid that and to empower members, while still acknowledging and respecting that Seiwakai International is headed by Seiichi Fujiwara Hanshi.

CHOP WOOD CARRY WATER: JAPAN IN 2022?

It has been too long since we have made it to Japan for summer training, and many of us are getting nostalgic because the training is so amazingly hot and hard, but also because the country is so welcoming.

But...Covid-19 is still around and the Japanese have been very protective of their own population by limiting who they allow into the country. Currently, other than Japanese citizens, only fully vaccinated foreign students studying there and business travelers are allowed in. There is speculation that these restrictions may ease after the national elections in July, but we are training there during previous national elections, because the Omagari Daisen city uses the Budokan (Martial Training Hall) as a polling location and we get bumped to other locations for several days.

We are currently trying to solve this situation by applying as business travelers, since that is what we are. We travel to Japan to train and learn so we can take what we learn back to our own country to our students. As members of both the Japan Karate Federation Goju-Kai and also Seiwakai International, we are in fact branches of Japanese business and the cultural art of Karate-do. Our businesses support their businesses, and vice-versa. 

Stay tuned. We hope to have good news about this soon. We are acting proactively because July will be here in no time. 

Meanwhile, we will continue to train hard -- chop wood, carry water.

FINALLY, A NEW WEBSITE!

 It’s been over two years since I updated our website and it has been long overdue.  In March of 2020, we lost our training space when Core Fitness closed because of Covid. I went back to training in my home dojo and it was just my son Jacob, Sensei Theresa, and myself for about a year.  We continued to teach and train on Zoom with limited success and then cautiously began training with others — keeping the dojo doors open and the fans blowing out.

During the Covid shutdown I began training in Okinawa Kobudo (weapons), taking instruction from my old friends Sheree Adams Sensei and Mary Margaret Graham Sensei, who had moved from Austin to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada two years ago and started a new dojo there: North Island Karate and Kobudo. The dojo is a member dojo of Akamine Hiroshi Sensei’s Ryukyu Kobudo Shimbukan. It has been quite an experience to learn most of what I now know via Zoom, and it has probably made me a better instructor to understand what some of my students go through with remote learning. Training kobudo has been such a rewarding adjunct to my karate practice.

Training in Japan has been on hold due to travel restrictions but we are planning to train together this July, which will be the 50th anniversary of Tasaki Shuji’s founding of Seiwakai. While there I am hoping to also visit Okinawa and the Shimbukan Honbu Dojo. If you travel that far it behooves you to travel a bit as well as to train.

Pan America Seiwakai had it’s first in-person gasshuku training and seminar in the new Honbu Dojo in Los Angeles in November. Despite Fujiwara Sensei not being able to be there because of the travel restrictions, Vassie Naidoo Sensei, Seiwakai International Vice-President, was the head instructor. So great to be training face-to-face again!

Things are coming back around. Even my little club here in Johnson City is growing. If you are in the area and interested in training, please check us out: www.KarateSeiwakaiTX.com