Karate Belt / kyu Rank Test
Posted by John in Pekin Area on October 11th, 2016
Thursday, November 3rd, 2016
Pekin YWCA
6pm to 9pm
For juniors and adults, for 10th kyu up to 1st kyu (white to brown)
Train hard!!!
Osu!
Sensei Brewer
October 1st Black Belt Dan Exam at Four Seasons Health Club in Bloomington
Posted by John in Pekin Area, Preview on September 11th, 2016
NOW, we need to all congratulate our two test takers on a wonderful job!!
We are so proud of Tomoko Busha for conquering NIDAN!,,, and Mike McCabe for a great YONDAN exam!!!!
October 1 is going to be a full day. There will be a one-hour class, then a kyu grading, and then a dan exam. Here’s the information you need to know, even if you’re just coming to watch.
Timeline:
Before September 24 Dan candidates should turn in forms, fees, and their thesis (if required) to their own instructor before September 24 – one week prior to the test.
On October 1 …
9:45 am Someone will be there to help non-members get in the door.
10:15 am Class begins – everyone is welcome to train
11:30 am Kyu grading begins
12:30 pm at the earliest Dan grading begins
Notes:
 The dan grading will begin no earlier than 12:30 pm. The kyu grading may run long, but if you’re there by 12:30, we won’t start without you.
ï‚· Candidates will get a 15-minute warm-up before the dan grading begins.
Location:
Four Seasons Health Club
904 Four Seasons Rd.
Bloomington, IL 61701.
Map: FourSeasonHealthClub
Entrance:
If you’re not a Four Seasons member, you will need help at the front desk. Here’s what to expect: (This applies whether you’re training, testing, or just observing.)
ï‚· We have a number of free passes which we will set aside on a first-come, first-served basis. If you want a pass, send names to info@centralillinoiskarate.com by September 30. (We need names, not just “4 peopleâ€.)
 If we have leftover passes, we will give them out at the door. If we run out of passes, you’ll be charged $8 at the desk. (That’s your incentive to let us know you’re coming.)
 Everyone will need to sign a waiver. It’s standard stuff, but that means that anyone under 18 will need someone who can sign on their behalf.
CHARITY CLINIC Pictures!!
Posted by John in An Upcoming Event, Preview on June 4th, 2016
Charity Clinic Pictures!
Select 2016_07_16_Karate_Clinic
For Slide Show, double click on first picture. Click the EYE icon in the upper right had corner.
CHARITY CLINIC ANNOUNCEMENT!!
The CENTRAL ILLINOIS SHOTOKAN KARATE ASSOCIATION, an ASKA affiliated association, will hold its second summer training clinic for traditional Shotokan Karate students. All proceeds will be donated to charity.
This is a non-profit clinic: There will be a $6.00. at the door. facility use charge.
Once inside the gym. we are asking for a $10.00 donation that we will be giving to the American Cancer Society.
There is no competition, just good karate training, seeing old friends and making new ones. All instructors are 5th Dans or above who are sharing what they have learned over decades of training. Just come to train and enjoy yourselves!
As last year, the first portion of the clinic will be open to all ranks and ages, After that, classes are primarily for brown and black belts.
Stay tuned for more details later!
Place and time:
Saturday. July 16th, at the Mapleton Rec-Center gymnasium, Mapleton, Illinois…
From 10;00 TO 2;00 PM
(Check in from 9-10)
There are both men and women locker rooms and showers. Vending machines available.
Hope to see you there! Feel free to post and share with your friends!
OSU!
ASKA Clinic – April 9th
   
  
25 CISKA Instructors in ASKA BLACK BELT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM,
TRIBUTE CLINIC, in St. Louis
April 9th, 3 of our Central Illinois Shotokan Karate Association’s (CISKA) senior instructors taught and presented at our American Shotokan Karate Alliance (ASKA) chapter, and 25 in all, participated in a memorial clinic and service in St. Louis on Saturday.
Sensei Rick Brewer, Sensei Jim Hartman, and Sensei Jim Stahly (standing in for Sensei Carl Hartter who is having major surgery this week) all taught, along with Sensei Chuck Kerrigan of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania at the day-long event. The majority of the 35 plus participants were black belts with many decades of training each. This was a very dedicated and seasoned group of karateka.
It was a bitter-sweet remembrance and celebration of our time with O Sensei, Randall G Hassell and his tremendous contributions to Shotokan Karate. He began his training with Hidetaka Nishiyama when he was 12 years old. He wrote, edited, and published 29 books and over a hundred articles worldwide.
_______________________________________
The clinic began with the ASKA Shihankai members making welcoming remarks to the group and outlining the day’s activities.
ASKA Shihankai member, Sensei Rick Brewer taught the first session of kumite strategies. He covered Sen No Sen, Mushin, correct body posture, vision, interception skills, and developing powerful and instantaneous reactions to attack. Then, the next session was taught by James Hartman who stressed strategies, tactics, and techniques for kumite attacking. Hartman Sensei worked with the group on efficient uses of hips in attacking with punching and kicking.
Midway through the clinic, Shihankai members Rick Brewer, Merlin Taylor, and Chuck Kerrigan, shared their own heart-felt experiences, many adventures, and many humorous reflections, that all had with Sensei Randall Hassell over many decades. Randall Hassell’s son, Brian Hassell, shared his feelings of gratitude with the group as Marilyn Hassell, O Sensei’s wife, looked on.
Next, Sensei Jim Stahly taught an energetic hour of a wide variety of defensive kumite techniques and strategies. And to bring the last portion of the clinic to a close, Sensei Chuck Kerrigan taught many principles of the kata, Hangetsu.
______________________________________________
-More in depth-
From Sensei Brewer
“Sensei Hartter and I joined forces with Sensei Hassell in the late 1980s. Our Central Illinois Shotokan became nationally affiliated with American JKA Karate Association (AJKA) founded by Randall Hassell, Ray Dalke, and others. Soon after, the American Shotokan Karate Alliance was founded with Randall Hassell as its Chief instructor, and with us on its board of directors. (If you refer to the Spring Masters Magazine issue on line, you can see an extensive 15 page biography of Sensei Hassell’s karate contributions that I wrote at the request of its editor and publisher, and my regular column was a tribute to him as well)
Through his hard work, our Central Illinois Shotokan Karate students enjoyed many wonderful first hand and up close experiences and visits with Sensei Osamu Ozawa (in Illinois and in Las Vegas!), who was the most senior Shotokan Master in the Western Hemisphere at that time. We had many wonderful and insightful conversations with Shihan Ozawa! We had more enriching clinics and conversations here with the legendary Stan Schmidt (8th Dan in the JKA and member of the Shihankai in Japan) in Bloomington and St. Louis: again, as a result of Sensei Hassell’s help and friendship. That list goes on and on. His enthusiasm for teaching karate was honest, abounding, always an informative treat, and highly contagious! He was humble and dedicated to his karate students. And, out on the dojo floor he bubbled with energy! He lived the karate way, Budo, in his everyday life. He will be missed, but through his students, his literary works, and his life commitment to karate-do, his legacy will endure!â€
OSU!
   
  
  
   
March 31, 2016 Belt test went great!
Posted by John in Pekin Area, Preview on March 31st, 2016
FALL CLINIC – Nov 7th at our Mapleton dojo
Posted by John in Bloomington Area, National, Pekin Area on November 9th, 2015
FREE FALL CLINIC Nov 7th at our Mapleton dojo
Posted by John in Bloomington Area, National, Pekin Area on November 7th, 2015
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July Black Belt Clinic Update!
Posted by John in Uncategorized on October 20th, 2015
On Saturday July 19th
We had a very large group of our Central Illinois Shotokan, ASKA certified black and brown belts attend the American Shotokan Karate Alliance’s summer Black Belt Development Clinic in St Louis. Our area karate students that participated Saturday ranged from 4th kyu colored belts, up through 5th Dan black belts
Hosted by Sensei Randall G Hassell, ASKA Chief Instructor, at our ASKA Headquarters dojo (St. Charles, MO), the day included hourly classes on advanced black belt development, concluding with Dan Testing at the completion of the clinics.
At the clinic, the main focus featured the development of advanced, Dan-level training and teaching skill sets, including Kumite (sparring), Kihon (basics), and successful teaching methods for current and future karate instructors. The average class size was 25-30 so it was excellent training and with great student- instructor interaction. Black belts and other students from several Midwest states trained together in a very friendly productive learning environment. It was great to see old friends and make new ones while training together in good traditional Shotokan karate!
Several of our very own senior instructors taught. The first session of Kumite was taught by Sensei James Hartman, 5th Dan. It was the second part of a 2-part series of sparring tactics and strategies presented by Sensei Hartman. It included a wide variety of partner-training sparring drills. He incorporated his own brand of “attacking zone†tactics, similar to what he teaches police officers at the Peoria IL Police Dept. (Where he teaches Defensive Tactics and Firearms Tactics)
In afternoon instructor training classes Sensei Hassell divided a group of about 30 prospective instructors, all the way up to 4th dan, into groups of three. He assigned each group a technique or major karate concept to teach at each of three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. He gave them all 20 minutes to prepare a lesson for their assigned technique for all three levels of students.
Each “instructor†taught the entire class with their “karate lesson†changing accordingly to whether their target audience were beginning, intermediate, or advanced karateka. At the completion of each, Sensei Rick Brewer and Sensei Carl Hartter evaluated each and every presentation, giving each participant immediate feedback and pointers for improvement of their teaching methods and strategies used. This is a critical skill for karate instructors to have because you have to teach according to the level of student in front of you. Karate instructors need to be able to “reach†the level of student they are teaching. Students are different ages, sizes, skill levels, and the like. Knowing only one way to teach a technique and then start counting is not good karate instruction, and certainly NOT highly effective karate teaching. Often you never know which students will show up in class each night, so you have to be able to teach them all.
“Highly Effective Karate Instruction†was definitely the theme of the day. In fact, it’s a bench mark, a goal that we train and strive for in all of our Central Illinois Shotokan Karate programs. Continual growth and improvement is what we expect of our black belts. As always, our ASKA Black Belt Development program participation last Saturday proved to be highly challenging and productive. After all, the future of karate-do depends on the quality of instructors out there, trying to “pass on†Master Funakoshi’s karate “straight and well.â€