Just got back from Fort Mill, S.C., where more than 200 martial artists took part in the four-day Shurite Martial Arts Conference. It was, as usual, a great event, with multiple instructors teaching multiple arts, ranging from karate and kobudo to arnis, jujitsu, knife and gun defense, Tai Chi, Bagua, Hsing Yi, Wing Chun, Jeet […]

Just returned from Fort Wayne, Indiana, for our annual International Shuri Ryu Association training seminar, which began Thursday afternoon with a training session at the hombo dojo of O’Sensei Robert Bowles. We had 15 senior karateka attend the training, which was great and focused on the Sente Exercises (empty hand) along with Sanchin, Sanmitsu and

Here’s a photo of the group from today’s (March 29) test, including those who oversaw the test.

Today, March 29, we tested three students – Karis Johnson for blue belt and Emily “Oak” Boyce and her 5-year-old son, Daniel, for yellow belt. All three passed, performing well in both the physical test (1-mile run, 500 front kicks, 5 minutes punch/backfist, 75 overhead strikes with 10 or 15 pound weights – 2 pounds

It is hard to believe, but today marks 15 years since the passing of Hanshi Ridgely Abele, who was not only a great Karateka but great human being who touched countless lives during his life. Hanshi Abele was my teacher for more than two decades, and I learned something every day I trained under him

Congratulations to Karis Johnson for earning her yellow belt Saturday, Oct. 26, during a 90-minute exam before three examiners – one seventh-dan along with a pair of fifth dans. The exam included Shuri Ryu’s required physical standards, including 500 front kicks and 300 situps along with punch-backfist for five minutes and 75 overhead strikes with

Just returned from three-day Shurite Bujutsu-Kai All-Curriculum training symposium in Dallas, N.C., at the Ormaza Martial Arts dojo. The symposium schedule focused on three tracks – Shuri Ryu karate, Shurite Ju Jitsu and Baguazhang/Xingyiquan, which was taught by sifu/kyoshi Paul Cote (see attached photo), who was a direct student of Robert Smith, one of the

Just finished up two-day Filipino Martial Arts seminar by Gat Puno Abon “Garimot” Baet, who is head of the Gairmot Arnis Training System. More than a dozen hard-core students attended the seminar at KORE Wellness near the Fairgrounds that was hosted by Torio Martial Arts. “Gat” worked a variety of drills that included the system’s

Just an early reminder: Shuri Ryu O’Sensei Robert Bowles will host his annual Kobudo seminar Nov. 2 in Fort Wayne, Ind. Below is the flyer for the seminar, which also will be available via Zoom.

We just returned from East Peoria, Ill., where we attended the 11th annual Kagami Biraki Gasshuku, also known as the Renewal of Spirit Seminar, which is put on by chief instructor Joey Johnston and his brother, Tony, along with students from the Academy of Okinawan Karate, among others. It was a great event with plenty