The Mississauga Dojo was crawling with creatures at the annual Kick or Treat. See page 2 for more photos of Halloween fun.

THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE YOSHUKAN KARATE ASSOCIATION Fall 2010

ZANSHINHalloween Fun at the Dojo

Continued on Page 2

In this issue

At a recent Black Belt class I had mentioned that, on face value,martial arts training has a poor return-on-investment. What Imeant by this is that if a student trains for many years in martialarts, they will likely never have to use their skills for self-defense.Practically speaking, this would be seen as a poor ROI.

If our ability to defend ourselves is our only goal, investingyears... and decades... into our training seems to be a poordecision. Most of us will live out the remainder of our liveswithout ever having to defend ourselves.

KANCHO CORNER

Return on Investment3 Black Belt Essay

4 New Yoshukan Dojo

5 Black Belt Weekend

6 Competition Team Mississauga

7 Sensei Bakomihalis Returns

8 Kaiten No Ho

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At the same time, some students/parents fixate on getting the ‘BlackBelt’. Again, why train for many yearswhen there are many dojo that happilygive out Black Belts after 2 years orenough income. Of course the newBlack Belt isn't really worthy of the rankand doesn’t have the requisite skillcommensurate with the rank... butnontheless, they can tell friends/familythey are now ‘Black Belts’!

In both propositions, we see arelatively negative ROI in terms of time/effort/money for the return received. Sowhy do we invest so much of ourselvesinto the arduous study of martial arts?

The answer is in the ‘do’. In 1882,Professor Jigoro Kano consolidated hisstudy of Jiu-Jitsu (gentle art) andcreated Judo (The way of Gentleness).Essentially, Kano-Sensei removed themore dangerous techniques andpreached that the real study of Budo(Way of Martial Arts) is really aboutcharacter development. As such, manyarts followed suit (Ken-Jitsu becameKendo, Karate became Karate-do, Aiki-Jitsu became Aikido, etc.) and the artsevolved into an avenue for people topursue personal development.

This then is the real ROI for anydedicated martial arts student. It is thepursuit of personal development(gentleness; honour; spirit; loyalty; self-discipline; respect for self & others) thatis the true goal of each budoka (studentof the martial arts). Receiving a belt notearned, street-fighting, or showingdisrespect for others would indicate thestudent is not a true student of budo andtherefore does not understand the truereturn-on-investment of their efforts.

Ultimately, our study of martial artsis a never-ending path to personalimprovement. Whatever belt we wear,however many times we may need todefend ourselves or our loved ones, thetrue return on investment is how wecontinually work on improving ourselvesand how we live our lives.

In fact, a very good ROI that impactsus and everyone around us.

Kancho

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I was lucky enough to find a sport Iloved and could continue doing at anearly age. This was, of course, karate.My life, for as long as I can remember,has been divided into three settings:home, school, and the dojo. I’ve alwaysviewed the dojo as a sanctuary, and nomatter what was happening at home orat school; I would always go in and beable to come out a little happier. I thinkit was more than just endorphins: in thedojo, nothing discriminated. A thirteen-year-old brown belt could be sparringwith a forty-year-old black belt, and thedifference people would first noticewould be their belts. The only thing thatpeople paid attention to was your rank,not your age, height or weight. This wasmy first attraction to karate, but I soonfound many more. Karate has motivatedme, imparted on me self-confidence,and enabled me to view everything witha new perspective, which I applied toeveryday life.

Last year, I discovered during dramaclass that a disconcerting number ofteenagers couldn’t touch their toes.Although I could touch my toes, I foundmyself attempting to flatten my handsto the floor and go further. It was then Irealized that karate motivates me to domore. As quoted by Robin Williams inDead Poets Society ‘For me, sport isactually a chance for us to have otherhuman beings push us to excel’. Whensurrounded by people who can’t touchtheir toes, the person who can doesn’tfeel very motivated until confronted by aperson who can do the splits. It was inthe dojo that I discovered there isalways someone who can do betterthan me, and that inspired me to work

harder. If I ever need to feel motivatedwith a task life presents me, an hour inthe dojo will be enough.

Self-confidence was one of theharder points for me to master. But itwas at junior blue belt that I had tomake a choice, which had nothing to dowith anyone else. The only time I everdoubted leaving was when I was stuckat junior blue. Without a doubt, it wasthe most depressing belt I’ve ever had.I knew that it was my last chance toturn back. For me, full blue meant youwere a lifer. If I got my blue belt, Iwould just have to get my brown, andthen black — essentially, I was in it forgood. However I had also just comeback from a very long vacation on thecoast of France, feeling very unfit and‘out of it’. All my friends were ahead ofme, and I had two choices: either turnback now, or keep working at it. In theend, it was up to me, and I told myselfthat I could do it. The turning pointcame after a Saturday morning class atthe Rock, where I decided thatsomething that made me feel this goodwasn’t something to give up on. Itwasn’t about my parents, my friends orthe kid across the street. Sadly, a lot ofmy friends did end up leaving, but bythen I had already made my choice. If itfelt right to me, I would continue doingit. From then on, when it came toexams at school or even organizingparties, I knew that if I worked hardenough at it I’d be able to do anything.

I have recently discovered that oneof the reasons so many people enjoykarate is because it suits so manydifferent types of personalities. I was aperfectionist, consequently being drawn

to kata more than anything, because thetechnique had to be perfect. Whatkarate allowed my to do was explore thedifferent aspects of my personality. Withsparring I discovered determination,with bunkai I found creativity. Thisaffected my school as well: I was strongacademically, but my athletic and artistictalent grew stronger as well. Making upa variation for bunkai was like creating anew scene with the same set ofcharacters. Setting up an opponent waslike setting up a play for soccer. Karateseemed to be able to translate intoeverything I did outside the dojo as well.

There aren’t enough words todescribe how karate makes me feel.Until I was introduced to it, I had no ideahow I survived without it in the firstplace. In the end, karate is somethingthat simply fits, that makes me happyand introduced me to an entirely newway of life.

Natasha Campbell is currentlycompleting her Masters in a CognitiveNeuroscience lab at McGill University –focusing her research on the mind-bodyinteraction.

The following is an essay submitted by Natasha Campbell in July, 2005 as part of her Black Belt Examination. The question presented to her was: How has training in karate affected you and your perspective on life?

How Karate Affects Me

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A new Yoshukan dojo opens the doors for karate students inLachine, Québec. Sempai Calistru, chef instructor, pursuing hisdream, is starting this new adventure with enthusiasm,

supported by his friends and family. Here are a few imagesfrom the very first day at “Karate-do”.

Montreal Yoshukan students from NDG dojo, celebrate theirsuccessful brown belt examination. Here are the “brownies”Ian Barret and Andrei Roma enjoying the moment.

Photo by Shana Frutcher

New Yoshukan Dojo

“Brownies”

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Louise Provencher, Betty Gormley, Peter Bakomihalis,Sebastian Calistru, Zeljko Violoni, Sarah Perez, LucasRuecker, Raluca Stanescu, Constantin Calistru

Advanced Junior class at the Mississauga Dojo

Kobudo training

Black belt group

Toshin kata in the park

Black Belt Weekend

Japanese Moment

A lovely thing to see:Through the paper window’s hole,The Galaxy.

Haiku by Kobayashi Issa

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Competition Team MississaugaAs a Yoshukan black belt I’ve learned to discover that the realart in karate is that of building character and developing oneself.Our motto has always been ‘building life champions’ andalthough I do not see myself as a champion in the sport arena Ido feel that I’ve taken away a lot of life lessons from the dojothat have allowed me to excel in other areas of life because ofthe confidence I gained from training. I attribute budo to be oneof the greatest arts taught because it can be applied to a rangeof ages and every person takes something different from it.However, due to my competitive background I would be lying ifI said that sport karate has had no impact on me.

I started competition at a young age, probably around 5 or 6years old, back when I was still competing in a girls and boysdivision! When I look back on my tournament experiences Ialways had a role model who would inspire me and would makeme want to be a better competitor. With this being said I think Iwas fortunate enough to be in close proximity to these peoplebecause I would often go outside of my own dojo to train withdifferent dojos and teachers. Funny enough, this is actually a

rare thing in the sport karate world because often students arenot encouraged to go out of their dojo and learn from differentSenseis because they are not to mix with their competitors.However, Yoshukan has a different philosophy, we encouragelearning and expanding our knowledge and in doing so buildingourselves. With this philosophy and the love I have forcompetition we had introduced a competition team program for

our younger students who were eager to learn more about sportkarate and push themselves to do better in tournaments.

The competition team program began in 2008 under theinstruction of Kancho Robertson. The team was open to anyindividual who wanted to participate in tournament, either inkumite or kata and the idea was to bring in the best of the bestto teach and inspire our students. Among the list of instructors,we had many international competitors and well respectedCanadian judges such as Pat Grant, Chris de Sousa Costa,Daphne Trahan-Perreault, Karl Sutten, Nassim Varasteh, BillCarr, Antonia Terrera, etc. We have always selected teacherswho were positive and had a passion to teach and who weknew would make the experience fun. With this being said, Ibelieve this is a contributing factor why the competition teamhas run for 3 years now and is still going strong!

The Competition team program is not time consuming butis definitely a different push from regular training. Classes runthe first Friday of every month for 10 months in which, 5months are taught by an instructor from our dojo (that beingme for the last 2 years) and 5 months from differentcompetitors and judges. We focus on kumite drills such asfootwork, tactics, distance and timing, and rules andregulations along with kata training, which concentrate moreon technique and how to best perform for the judges.

After all the years that the competition team has run, onething has remained constant. It has always enticed studentswho are particularly dedicated and determined because theyare the ones that are willing to push themselves and put inthat extra to be the best. As we can see that extra bit hashelped because our dojo has shown to be very successfulthese past few years with over 100 medals won in Provincialcompetition and three of our students being selected to theProvincial team.

Competition Team members proudly hold their certificatesfrom the 09-10 season.

Daphne Trahan-Perreault, National Kata Champion, poseswith the Competition Team after an enlightening class asguest instructor.

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HEE'SS BACK! Sensei Bakomihalis returns to NDG Dojo

Photos by Ian Barrett

Sensei Peter Bakomihalis has rejoined the teaching staff(Sensei Robert Kalinowicz; Sensei Rebecca Khoury; SempaiMalcolm Mazumdar) at NDG Dojo this past summer. With anumber of Yoshukan Black Belts at the dojo (Sarah Perez,Henri Tchibozo, Simon Mercier-Nguyen, Miki Nishida,Balgovind Pande, Charles Mayer) the club has continued its42-year tradition as one of Canada’s longest running karatedojos.

Sensei Peter began his martial arts study in 1974 withKancho Robertson and Sensei Michael Litwinczuk at theLaSalle Dojo and has been a loyal and dedicated student &teacher ever since. With Sensei Khoury and Sensei Kalinowicz

all in the same dojo, there is a wealth of experience andknowledge for the NDG students to tap into.

The NDG Dojo was originally founded in 1968 by SenseiMike Litwinczuk and then Kancho Robertson took over asChief Instructor in 1974. Over the past 42 years thousands oflocal students have trained in its halls and dozens ofnoteworthy Black Belts have graduated from this iconictraining location. If the walls could talk there would be manystories about great battles, personal accomplishments andsoul-shattering defeats. With Sensei Bakomihalis back at thedojo, it will again connect the past with the present andYoshukan’s future in this small part of the city.

Yoshukan DVDs – White Belt to 5th DanAll Kata; Bunkai; Kumite; Ukemi; Kobudo and Goshin Jutsudemonstrated by Kancho Robertson from beginner to 5thDegree Black Belt in the Yoshukan System.

$29.95 each or both for $49.95. Please add $15 forshipping & handling charges. Payments can be madeby credit card or check at the Mississauga dojo.

ZANSHIN2355 Royal Windsor Drive, Unit 9Mississauga, ON L5H 3S2Phone: 905.919.1919Email: iaito@sympatico.caWebsite: www.yoshukankarate.com

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