This is just another preview of our upcoming spring clinic and black belt test. The clinics have been open and “economical†to all related and local Shotokan and traditional karate students who just want to train with other like-minded, mostly green belt and up, but we open the classes up to all ranks who want to challenge themselves with a more advanced enrichment training experience. Rick Brewer and Carl Hartter are cofounders of the Central States Shotokan that started in the 1980s originally.
The instructors you could expect to learn from are all black belts with 30-50 years of training and teaching experience. A prime example is Carl Hartter who is a senior 7th Dan, who to name a few, has directed the Central Illinois Karate Association, the ISU Karate club, The Illinois Wesleyan University club and accredited programs and now is Chief Instructor “Emeritus†and director for Central Illinois Shotokan Karate in the Bloomington area. Together, he and Sensei Brewer have cheerfully met many challenges resulting in a vigorous natural growth of our regional Central Illinois Shotokan and Central States programs. They also originally served Sensei Randall Hassell’s American Shotokan Karate Alliance (ASKA), where we were originally Board and Shihankai members before Sensei Hassell passed away. Sensei Hartter once won 1st place in Kumite at one of the first AJKA national tournaments in Riverside CA. and the following year won 2nd in Kumite in the same tournament. Sensei Hartter and Sensei Brewer have worked together to build dojos in universities, high schools, community centers, and the like for 50 years, in order to create excellent training environments for thousands of students.
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Senseis Carl Hartter and Rick Brewer worked on many events to host, and in some cases, became friends with numerous famous instructors over the years like Osamu Ozawa, Hirokazu Kanazawa, Shojiro Sugiyama, Stan Schmidt, Randall Hassell, and the like. Those experiences afforded priceless learning opportunities for our students. If they were accused of trying to give karate students no-frills, hardcore, old-fashioned Shotokan karate, they would proudly plead “Guilty!â€
Other 6th Dan and Shihankai instructors teaching at our clinics (and who are Dan Test judges as well) are Elayne Hartter, Ted Quinn, Elston Flowers, James Hartman, and Chris Travers, Jim Stahly, Michael Busha, Ed Chandler, Kevin Oedewaldt, and Mike McCabe.
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So, sometime this April, TBA, please think about joining us all in some good training!