Last night Contact Kicks Martial Arts, the headquarters for IFK Kyokushin Canada, had the pleasure of hosting the Israeli Shinkyokushin Team, under the tutelage of Shihan Gleb Rabinovich.

The Israeli 6 person team was in Canada to attend the Camille Ohan Branch 20th North American Shinkyokushin Championship, where they displayed impressive results in both kata and kumite:

9 – 1st place
7 – 2nd place
3 – 3rd place

The categories included: Junior Individual Kata, Adults Individual Kata, Elite Kata, Group Kata, Music Kata and Kumite (by weight categories).

Photo by Oleg Vainshtein

After the weekend event the team was invited, through CKMA’s Oleg Vainshtein, a former student in Israel, to visit the IFK Canada Honbu and Shihan Gleb Rabinovich to lead the class, with our own Sensei Steve Fogorasi.

Sensei Fogarasi kicked off the evening by introducing Shihan Rabinovich, and reminding us all the importance of sharing and learning from everyone, no matter which affiliation, as we are all one kyokushin at heart.

Photo by Oleg Vainshtein

Shihan Rabinovich led the class through a traditional warm-up and fast-past kihon, Ido Geiko practice. Shihan Rabinovich drilled the importance of a strong solid foundation many benefits of proper kihon. Explaining to the class the use of balance, centre of gravity and that ever block can and should be a strike.

Photo by Oleg Vainshtein

We truly benefited from his years of practice and teaching, and it certainly resonated with everyone in attendance, myself no exception. His explanation of blocks was very logical and you could see how this was distilled and a solid part of his own students in attendance, who moved across

Photo by Oleg Vainshtein

the floor with grace and power.

Shihan Rabinovich also commented on the woman of the dojo, and how proud he was that they practice in Kyokushin, saying  “I have great respect for all women that are training in kyokushin karate. It is the hardest karate style. OSU!”

We felt very honoured to not only be taught by such a great martial artist, but to be in the presence of some very outstanding students. It was an inspirational evening for all of us.
At the end of class, we honoured with a demonstration of Seipai and Seienchin kata by two of his top students (videos below).

Photo by Oleg Vainshtein

On behalf of all of us at CKMA I wish to thank Shihan Gleb Rabinovich and the Israeli team for taking the time to join us in Vaughan (Toronto), and sharing in your knowledge. It is the only way for Kyokushin to grow.

Osu!

Seipai performed by our guest from Shinkyokushin Israel:

Seienchin performance by one of the Shinkyokushin Israel team members: