Annual Seiyo Shorin-Ryu Clinic

2011-08-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

We began preparations for our annual Seiyo No Shorin-Ryu Karate and Kobudo clinic along with the Public Self-Defense clinic at the University of Wyoming at the end of September. In past years, the University of Wyoming has invited me to teach Shorin-Ryu clinics to members of various Shorin-Ryu schools in Wyoming, many are students at the UW Campus Shorin-Ryu karate and kobudo club, while others are alumni who travel from Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Arizona to train at this once a year clinic.

As part of this program, I have been invited to teach an evening clinic for the general public and university faculty and staff. These clinics are always well attended and typically considerable fun.

The rest of the year, I train at the Seiyo Kai International Hombu in Mesa, Arizona where I teach classes to members of the Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler, Scottsdale, Tempe and Phoenix communities. These classes have the top rating in the Phoenix Valley.

Otherwise, you may find me teaching martial arts at the Utah Shorin-Kai in Murray or East Canyon Utah, at Gillette, Wyoming, or Casper, Wyoming. Once or twice a year, I try to attend Juko Kai International clinics in Texas.

Traditional Karate
by Arizona School of Traditional Karate - Mesa

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SEIYO SHORIN RYU KARATE ANNIVERSARY

2009-03-22T11:09:00.001-07:00

SEIYO KAI INTERNATIONAL ANNIVERSARY

Where did the time go?

Soke-Dai Eric Hausel and Soke Hausel
at the Arizona School of Traditional
Karate in Mesa

In 2010, I find myself in Phoenix's East Valley. People around here call this area Mesa and Gilbert. In 2006, I was still living in the remote village of Laramie - not quite the North Pole, but cold enough in the winter that I would joke about comparing Laramie's climate to Nome, Alaska and Yellowknife, Canada. If you ever have experienced a -50 degrees Fahrenheit, you would understand what I mean: the grease in your truck is so close to freezing that it makes it difficult to turn your steering wheel. The oil in the crankcase doesn't want to wake up and complains if you try to turn the engine over, and then there's the problem of turning the engine over. So you give up and ski to work - bad idea.

With the wind blowing at its typical non-stop 30 to 50 mph with gusts up to 120 mph (other places call this a hurricane, Wyoming calls it another day), it is almost impossible to catch a tail wind. So don't ski unless you want to ski into a hurricane in both directions (never could catch a tail wind in Wyoming). Then there is the problem of frostbite, where the windchill reaches fingers through the best of gloves - it makes you wonder if even Apollo Spacesuits could keep you warm in the Wyoming winters. So, I retired from the Geological Survey at the University of Wyoming, went to work for DiamonEx Ltd, consulted for other mining companies while we packed up and moved to the other extreme on our planet: Phoenix. But on our way to Phoenix, I began thinking about buying a building to house my Hombu dojo to continue teaching karate. I was looking forward to opening the Arizona School of Traditional Karate where we could expose people to the traditions and philosophy of martial arts.

A rare day in Wyoming (right) - no boulders are blowing by. Photo by Sharon Hausel taken of the Red Mask mine west of Laramie. Below, typical day in Gilbert as the sun sets the lake on fire.

In the Phoenix Valley, temperatures are high enough that I periodically check my Wyoming truck (which has no air conditioning - didn't need one in Wyoming) to see if it has melted into a puddle of red metal, rubber, and plastic. It is so hot in Phoenix, that I swear it got up to 123 degrees Fahrenheit in the first March I lived here. However, my wife thinks I was delusional (heat does that to the brain). It only got to 119 degrees (or maybe a little lower, but it was hot)! But really, it does get upwards to 125 degrees in the summer. Hot enough to fry eggs and feet on the pavement. The only heat I ever experienced this intense was in the outback of Australia searching for diamonds near the Fitzroy River. Bill Bryson wrote in his book on the Australian outback entitled, "In Sunburned Country" that the highest temperatures recorded on earth were in Australia's Outback: 145 degrees Fahrenheit, enough to melt Kangaroo. So after I arrived in the East Valley, I started teaching at ASU. Almost forgot how bad the bureaucracy could be at a university unless a program had a rare individual in charge because of the extreme socialism in the education system (and we did not run into that one rare person), so we opened our Hombu dojo on the border of Mesa and Gilbert on Baseline Road near Country Club.

In 2008, I went back to Siberia - err, I mean Laramie. The University of Wyoming Campus Shorin-Ryu Karate and Kobudo Club was celebrating its 30th anniversary. It had out-lasted some departments on campus such as the Department of Physical Education, Department of Kinesiology, Nursing, MMRRI and others.

The club was established in 1977-1978, and through the years, we put a few thousand students through this program from all over the world. While students were working on BS, MS, and PhD degrees, many graduated with honors and took home certifications for black belt or mudansha (lower level color belt). Few other universities in North America provided such an opportunity. A student graduating in geology, for instance, had the added benefit of going to work for industry as a geologist and earning a certificate in karate that could potentially be used as an added profession - they could open their own dojo and earn added income, or just teach part time at the local gym. And if nothing else, if they forgot a rock hammer on the way to the field, no problem, we also taught all of our students how to break rocks with their hands!

I know of at least one case where a student in geology graduated with a MS and decided that karate was more lucrative. He still operates his dojo in Albuquerque after 35 years. The University of Wyoming club includes many faculty, staff and members of the Laramie Community. We even had a couple of priests and missionaries, and are proud to say our organization has more PhDs, scientists, engineers, etc per capita than any other martial arts association in the world! If we can't beat you in a fight, we surely can build a bridge or road much faster than any other martial arts organization. Over the years, many of our members indicated they had picked the University of Wyoming over other universities simply because of the martial arts program that included training in karate, kobudo, self-defense, jujutsu and other samurai arts and our international associations made our organization impeccible - our primary associations include Juko Kai International, Zen Kokusai Soke Budo Bugei Renmei and Seiyo Kai.

But the UW club was not the only anniversary to be celebrated. In 1964, I began training in Kyokushinkai karate at the Black Eagle Federation dojo in Salt Lake City, Utah. We were initially told we were training in Goju Karate, but that's another story.Thus, in addition to the University of Wyoming's Karate Club anniversary, 2009 is my 45th anniversary in martial arts. It's hard to believe that I've been kicking for that long.

In 1969, I began teaching karate at the University of Utah Shotokan Club a form of Shorin-Ryu. This is my 40th anniversary teaching martial arts. In 1999, I was appointed the Sokeshodai of Seiyo No Shorin-Ryu Karate Kobudo Kai – This is my 10th anniversary as Soke (Grandmaster) of Shorin-Ryu Seiyo-Kai Karate. And of course, 1999, Soke Sacharnoski and the Zen Kokusai Soke Budo Bugei Remnei certified Seiyo No Shorin-Ryu Karate Kobudo Kai as a new form of Shorin-Ryu. So this style has been officially in existence for 10 years. There are probably other anniversaries I haven't thought of yet.

Over the years I taught at the University of New Mexico, Arizona State University, University of Utah, University of Wyoming, Gold's Gym, KourtHouse, Methodist Church and elsewhere. I really enjoyed teaching at universities because of the type of students, but all universities are filled with bureaucracies that would make any czars of the Obama Administration happy - they promise you everything and give you nothing. Our martial arts association now has students scattered all over the world who are geologists, artists, writers, astronomers, biologists, zoologists, law enforcement agents, linguists, civil engineers, electrical engineers, petroleum engineers, mechanical engineers, teachers, professors, physicists, mathematicians, business owners and more.

So, here we are in the East Valley sweating profusely and training at the Arizona School of Traditional Karate. I tried teaching at ASU, but they seemed to be more interested in improving their bureaucratic skills. Thus, in 2008, we decided to open a Hombu training center in Mesa at 60 W. Baseline. We made this Arizona dojo look as traditional as possible and we invite everyone to stop by to talk about martial arts. We look forward to meeting you!

At the dojo, we teach traditional karate and kobudo for adults. No person and in particular, no woman in the Phoenix valley should be without self-defense training – it is dangerous here. And with so many democrats running around, one must be prepared for anything. You can find out more about us by visiting our dojo in Mesa and learning about our international martial arts association. We practice traditional karate as it has been taught for the past few hundred years in Okinawa, we strive to be the best people we can be, learn some Japanese, focus on traditions of the dojo and Budo, and strive to meet interesting people and have a great time sharing our art.

Our training center is open to the public - we focus on Adults and Families. Come learn the traditions of Okinawan Karate & Kobudo. Much of the class is conducted in both Japanese and English to help students learn Japanese. We also teach meditation, philosophy and martial arts history interjected in karate classes. Our schedule is as follows:

Tuesdays
6:45-7:50 pm Shorin-Ryu Karate Kihon & Kata

7:50-8:20 pm Advanced Shorin-Ryu Kata & Bunkai

Wednesdays

3-4 pm Family Shorin-Ryu Karate & Kobudo

4-5 pm Shorin-Ryu Kids Karate (by invitation only).

6:45-7:50 pm Shorin-Ryu Self-Defense & Jujutsu.

7:50-8:20 pm Samurai Arts (Iaido, Yari, Naginata, Hojojutsu, Hanbojutsu)

Ryan Harden shows his power in blocks at the
Arizona School of Traditional Karate in Mesa,
Gilbert and Chandler in the East Valley of Phoenix

Thursdays

6:45-7:50 pm Shorin-Ryu Kobudo & Bunkai

7:50-8:20 pm Advanced Kobudo & Bunkai

FEES
We have some of the lowest rates in the East Valley. No sign up fees. Start as soon as you pay for your first lesson or first month. You can pay either month by month or day by day - its up to you.

International Shorin-Ryu Karate Association
by Seiyo Kai International

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Hope to see you soon - Visit My Website (Arizona Karate)

Visit My Website (Seiyo-Shorin Ryu)

And stop in and say hello. We are at the Arizona School of Traditional Karate near Walmart and SunDevil Auto.

LINKS OF INTEREST

http://seiyokai.blogspot.com/

http://sokeshodai.blogspot.com/
http://azhombu.blogspot.com/

http://manofyear.blogspot.com/

http://kidskarate.blogspot.com/

http://arizonatraditionalkarate.blogspot.com/
http://az-kobudo.blogspot.com/
http://sai-kobudo.blogspot.com/
http://grandmaster.pbworks.com/

Merchant Circle

OUR Karate ANNIVERSARY

Annual Seiyo Shorin-Ryu Clinic

SEIYO SHORIN RYU KARATE ANNIVERSARY