UNOFFICIAL Dojo T-shirt

Remember that we had a T-shirt design contest a couple of months ago?  Melissa came up with some great designs but we had to modify and made just one kids shirt design.  But I really liked her original designs, so I decided to personally order this one (FYI, she designed 5 differrent animals: dog, bear, tiger, bunny and monkey, of which the first 3 were used for our official kids shirt).

...And of course I have to add this text on the back.

Let me know if any of you're interested in buying this shirt.  It will be somewhere around $30 (neither I nor dojo is making any profit).  I know it's not cheap but think it's worth it.  This will be the only chance to own this T-shirt (except for dog or tiger design, which I might order someday). 

EDIT: Since they are offering 30% off for this weekend, I'm taking orders in the next 2 days!  So hurry!

August 19 - 26 (Kyu Exam), 2012

Congratulations to your achievement!  You all did your best.  But as always, the next one will not be as easy as this one (as if this one was easy...!), so keep on training.

Oh, now I have to teach you all a new Kata?  OK...

August 12 - 18, 2012

OK, one more week till the exam.  Good luck to those who are testing!

We've been spending a lot of time going over Kihon, and Sen drill and its application.  I know how difficult it is to do the timing drill right especially if you're a beginner, but believe me, you just have to keep on trying.  And it is the base of all Kumite timing and strategies, and there is no other way to go about.  "Feeling" the opponent's action is something you can only get from the experience, and I hope you get to understand it soon if not yet.

Now my concern is about the party after the exam... :-)

July 22 - August 11, 2012

I've been trying to update this blog every week but apparently I'm not good at it.  3 weeks have passed already since the last update.  Wow.

Only 2 more weeks until the exam.  Keep working hard!  Some of you are already ready, and some are not.  I will try my best to get everyone prepared, but ultimately it's your responsibility.

As you all know our dojo strives to be the best traditional karate dojo around.  The best facility, the best teaching quality, the best tuition, the best people...  It makes me happy to hear that someone finds us after a long search for a "good karate dojo".  Why did we start this dojo in the first place?  It's because we didn't have a place to train ourselves in the area.  We do this for the love of karate, pure and simple.  Of course there are people who may not find us "the best" for any reasons.  But we're proud of what we do here, and you can count on us that we keep ourselves true to the karate principles and traditions.

For me, it's less than 2 more months before the world championship in Poland.  I'll try to push myself a little harder for the next month or so.  I just wish that this crazy heat wave would calm down a little...!

Training subject: Sen (or more like Sen-no-sen), and some exam basics.  In the last couple of tournaments I felt pretty confident tha my "Sen" timing would work and did score a point or two using it.  Before that when I was teaching I was trying to explain what I was not confident about, but now I know that it works and have proven it.  It is very deep and one can never practice it enough.  We will continue with it and try to relate it to other applications/strategies.