I was in San Diego this past weekend to referee at the annual UCSD tournament hosted by Sensei Alfonso Gomoez of Ryuei-Ryu (similar to Uechi-ryu). On Sunday morning, I took the time to visit and train with Paul Haydu and a student of mine who now trains under Paul. To my surprise, Paul pulled out a ...

Bill, Mr. Prouty, Mr. Hawkins, et al. Thank you for sharing your wisdom, opinions and experience concerning Tensho and breathing. I had pretty much dismissed the "folk tales" about Goju breathing techniques leading to strokes but I wanted to be sure since I am one of those individuals who ...

Maxwell, There is a misconception that Tensho represents the "soft" vs "hard" aspect of Goju-ryu. Advanced practitioners of Goju believe that Tensho is actually represents a "hard" aspect of the system. Jim, I am looking to expand my repertoire of kata and I thought I w...

"Take away the forced breathing (which could be dangerous)"

Someone please explain why the Goju forced breathing may be dangerous.

Thank you,

Mike DeDonato
www.uechi-la.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qAtvZ8Poi4 Goju Tensho form performed by Master Chinen. Before I incorporate this form into my practice, I would like to hear opinions from the Uechi community concerning the kata and the performance as demonstrated by Master Chinen. Comments? Thanks, Mike DeDonato ww...

In the past two months, I have received calls from various individuals who have had trouble finding a Uechi-ryu instructor in the Los Angeles area. I am writing to reiterate that I offer no-fee training sessions on Mondays and Wednesday nights at my home which is located a stone's throw from LAX. I ...

Bill, et al. I checked the "Wayback Machine" at http://www.archive.org/web/web.php which has archived billions of web pages. Unfortunately, the UVA site blocked "crawlers" through a "robots.txt" file and thus was not available for archive by this resource. If and when t...

Bill, Hapy New Year! Hopefully, the weather gods have been kind to you this winter. I am writing to comment on the original video you posted in this subject. I have read the posts and do not have the knowledge to comment on the musical sub-thread other than to say that improvisation is an important ...

Smith Sensei wrote: "It’s dyamic, it’s visual, it’s fun to watch the best of the best. Better than most kung fu movies, and it’s coming to your homes real soon. " I saw power, grace, beauty and athleticism in the videos. All of these elemnts were not present in all of the performances but ...

Mary, I suspect that many teach because students have come to ask for instruction. In my opinion, it is difficult to turn away from someone who has sought you out for instruction and who shows dedication and determination to continue to train on a regular basis. There are lots of benefits to teachin...

To all.

I finally was able to pull together the beginnings of a web site.

Anyone wishing to train in the LA area, feel free to contact me.

The web site is www.uechi-la.org

All the best,

Mike DeDonato

Dave, Thanks for the summation of the sources used to develop your training sessions. I would be more than happy to attend a session if we can work it out in Southern Cal. or Central Cal. FYI, Joe G. is based in Orange County, CA and Steve G. is based in San Luis Obispo which is Central Coast (about...

Dave and Van: I sincerely hope that either or both of you will be able to travel to the West Coast for a seminar. Should you host an event here in Cal., I will be sure to attend and encourage others to join us for the "fun". (Unfortunately, I am personally not in a position to sponsor such...

Van wrote: "The average Joe cannot do the breaking you refer to, Mike. Take a look at the average karate student in a class. " Van, I guess we have to define the term "average". I have been speaking about dan ranked students who have been training under a serious instructor withi...

I wrote: "if the student is willing to train to the appropriate level and if the teacher has the knowledge to transmit the information to the student. " Stryke replied "thats a hell of a lot of If`s Mike , what if one of those if`s falls down .... " Well. Stryke, the same if's co...