Karate classes will be canceled tonight 8/26 due to Laura. There are curfews in effect in Iberia Parish that would preclude classes. If we have electricity, classes should resume tomorrow. I am sorry for these cancelations.

OSU,

Sensei Scott

 

The Karate School will be closed Monday August 24, 2020 as we will be under a hurricane watch for Marco.  I am watching the path of Laura to determine if we need to cancel any other classes this week and I will post it here.  

Thanks,

Sensei Scott

Thanks to everyone who came to karate last night.  We had 11 total members who trained.  Unfortunately, I did not realize I had to daily schedule the zoom meeting, so we played our zoom to no one apparently.  I am sorry and I am trying to understand how to do these meeting effectively.

Anyway, it should work now with the same address 819 257 9284 with PW still NIKI.  If it doesn’t work, please let me know and I will try to see what I can do to make it easier to access.

I look forward to seeing all the kids tonight or seeing you all on zoom.  Please note, the zoom classes are no longer interactive, so I can’t see you when you look at the training.  So please at least watch the classes to keep your spirits up when it comes to your training.

Thanks again and sorry for the mixup last night,

OSU,

Sensei Scott

Latest UPDATE: 

Given the Governor’s extension of the stay at home order and the presumption that
we will be in Phase II of the restart, it appears we won’t be able to reopen in Mid-May,
perhaps some time in June.  So, it is now critical that all students do at home karate
trainings according to JKA teachings. 

To that end we are establishing Zoom at home trainings for Tuesdays and Thursdays
at 5:30 p.m.  They are going to be on the calendar, along with all relevant information
for attending.  There are also LKA (Louisiana Karate Association) Friday zoom evening
trainings that are now on the calendar.  The calendar can be found at the bottom of our
web page / blog at www.newiberiakarate.com. 

There are a couple of rules, first you need to wear your Gi and you have to put the video and
audio on so that you can be seen by the moderator and other students.  There is also a
Louisiana Karate Association (LKA) Zoom Training every Friday at 5:30 that is now also
on the calendar from Metairie Louisiana.

For those who haven’t used Zoom before it is really easy and if you are using a mobile
device it’s better to install the app.  Before you sign on make sure the camera can see
you by putting the camera on and watching yourself in the image so that you can see
the entire body.

The classes will be as follows:  5:30 - 6:10 (all ranks) 5 minute break advanced belts will
come back to the meeting room for an additional 30 minutes of training.  You won’t need
a lot of room to train in as we will be working on close fighting techniques and footwork. 
I am going to email you the zoom instructions (if I have your email).  Please send me your
emails if I don’t or if you don’t receive it.  The first class will be on Thursday April 30, 2020
at 5:30 pm, so please make sure you have the registration information.

Secondly, please subscribe to the Youtube channel at Karate at Home.  You can even do
it on an apple tv, roku or firestick.  There are many excellent JKA teachers from all over
the world who have contributed classes there, including Sensei Ohta of England and
Dimitri from New Orleans.  

After watching the students train the black belts will be able, hopefully, to evaluate
where the students are and how to progress from there both in virtual trainings, and
perhaps virtual testing.  So with the addition of the zoom and youtube classes, hopefully
we can get back to some kind of a routine soon.  Because I don’t have wifi at the dojo,
I am not sure that I am going to be able to do the meetings from the karate school.  I
will have to experiment a little and I am sure it will NOT go smoothly at first and I may
end up having to do them eventually from home.  

I canceled the dues for May Monday.  I have to cancel each transaction individually,
so if your account accidentally gets debited, please let me know.  This week was
supposed to be our test and I greatly regret that you won’t be able to test at this time. 
I am hopeful that perhaps some students can participate in a virtual test or pretest if
they have kept up their karate.  I am hopeful that the Zoom trainings will expose this
and perhaps get us all back on track.

 OSU,

 Sensei Scott

I  am thinking about Sensei Okazaki today and missing the great man. Sensei Okazaki seems to have touched everyone that he taught. Everyone has their favorite moment with Sensei Okazaki, so here is mine.

It was 13 years ago at Master Camp training a kata class that was being taught by Sensei Yaguchi. Sensei Yaguchi is a great technician and excellent at teaching kata. I think the kata we were practicing was Chinte. I was positioned in a straight row near the middle of the class. Class started and everyone lined up and we began the kata after stretching a little.

When I did a big turn near the beginning of the kata, I suddenly noticed that Sensei Okazaki was right next to me doing the kata along with me and the class, in fact in line next to me. He didn't say a thing (except to kiai) and just vigorously performed the kata along with us. Of course his technique was flawless and crisp and he appeared quicker and stronger than everyone.

However, what was so unusual to me was that I had never seen Sensei Okazaki training at all before (I had seen him teaching many times), much less right next to me. I knew that he had to train sometimes in order to maintain his outstanding physical karate conditioning, but I had never seen it, except when he demonstrated while teaching. Then suddenly here he was, right next to me, training along with the class. It was easy to see from his expression that he was thoroughly enjoying the training.

I could also tell from the expressions of the people around me that they probably had never seen it either. Everyone suddenly perked up and did their best technique to attempt to imitate and perhaps impress the great Master. He did several katas with us, smiled broadly, bowed, and quietly left the dojo shortly before class ended.

Class continued and soon I noticed that there was a student near the back with a camera that was taking pictures. Although I had never met him before I tried to keep site of where he was off to as we bowed out. After finishing the class, I ran up the hill barefoot to try and catch him to ask if he had taken pictures of Sensei Okazaki performing the katas. He chuckled and said yes and seemed to know exactly what I was thinking. He told me that he would gladly send them to me if I would give him my e mail address at supper. So at supper I found him and gave him a card from the dojo and asked him to please send me those pictures. He sent me these three pictures the next week. It was a moment I appreciate being able to always remember.