Last night was my first class back at Contact Kicks Dojo in a week. It’s been a rough month being sick with the flu. Last night was the first day in a while that I was beginning to feel like my old self. It was also the first really warm day of the year, at around 29 °C. So, it was …
Training & Tips from Sensei Darren Stringer
Reprinted from Sensei Darren Stringer’s site, by permission. Sensei Darren Stringer is one of the few “all rounders” in Kyokushin today. He is as home performing in a kata competition as he is fighting in full contact knockdown tournaments. Sensei Darren began his training in 1990, gained Shodan in 1996, Nidan in 2001 and Sensei 2007. His accolades and tournament wins …
Discovering Myself Through Kyokushin
We had testing on Friday night, which was physically demanding. I am still feeling the aftereffects of the conditioning. Yesterday I had my private class with Fogarasi Sensei. We worked one simple combination, with the focus on power and making it second nature. As I have written about before on here, I am fast and I have great reflexes, especially …
Forging the Kyokushin Toolbox
Two days before testing so I assumed it would be a lot of kata, kihon, etc., but instead we worked on our “Toolbox”. As Fogarasi Sensei said best, which I am still chuckling about, “you can’t make a pig fat in two days”! Osu! He tells us this is a Romanian saying used around the holidays, when preparing a pig …
Seiza
“Fudō-dachi” Fogarasi Sensei calls. We all move into stance and yell “OSU”! “Seiza”! We step back and down into formal kneeling position. Fist at our hips. “Fudō-dachi!” Fogarasi Sensei calls again. We all get back up with “Osu!” “Seiza”! Again, we step back and down into kneeling position. Fist at our hips. “Fudō-dachi!” Fogarasi Sensei calls again. We all get …
2014 Gold Cup
This past weekend I attended the 2014 Gold Cup Open Karate Tournament in Quebec, presented by The Ohan Brothers Dojo. I went as part of my dojo, and we had some members competing. This was my first time at such an event, and I was really looking forward to it. It was a long drive from Toronto to Lavel, Quebec, but …