How We Train
Technique
The core of effective Karate for both competition and self-defense is technical skill. Our students begin with the basics and gradually move towards executing complex techniques and incorporating strategies into their sparring that will help them cement movement pathways that enable a quick and automatic response when presented with a threat.
A major focus within our technical drills is on the execution of offensive strikes and strategies while negating the opportunities an opponent has to counter and mitigating damage taken.
Conditioning
Conditioning in Karate is the cultivation of the ability of the body to take damage and still continue with a high level of output. We practice traditional and contemporary body conditioning drills in order to elevate this ability to elite levels. Our practice includes shin, forearm and knuckle drills using hammers, sandbags and other tools in order to gradually increase one’s ability to ignore pain and function at a high level in bare-knuckle, full contact matches, regardless of damage.
Output
Output refers to how hard and how long a person can perform. We practice “No Finish-Line Training”, which means that we push our cardio, strength and power generating drills well beyond the comfort zone in order to stimulate overload and develop performance. Through this kind of high intensity interval training, our students develop elite levels of performance in order to make competition feel easy. Expect intense heavy bag circuits, weight training, partner drills and sparring rounds.
Flexibility
A high degree of flexibility is essential for every Karate student to possess. It enables higher kicks, prevents injury and creates a resilient body that can withstand intense training. We perform solo and partner stretching drills to progressively develop our students capabilities beyond what many believe is possible for them to achieve.
Kumite & Sparring
Sparring at our dojo is a cooperative space where students can work on technique. Our senior students carefully guide and cultivate effective combinations and techniques in others in both bare-knuckle and safety geared sparring rounds to help cement the basics in a dynamic arena.
Competitive kumite is where it all comes together, our dojo has participated in and hosted numerous full-contact tournaments and opportunities are available to compete in Canada, the US and Japan.
Kata & Kobudo
Kata is the use of both empty hand and weapons techniques in a series of movements that cements the fundamentals of martial arts movements in a student.
Our dojo teaches a combination of Shotokan, Yoshukai and Ryukyu Kobudo (weapons) Kata to create a rounded curriculum that is rooted in the ancient traditions of Japanese Karate.
Advancement
Belt Ranks
There are only 4 belts in Seienjuku Karate, each demonstrating another major level of competence. In order to advance, one must show humility, respect, discipline and skill in dojo and in their personal life. The mantra of “Continuous Improvement” is paramount in the mentality that achieving a high rank requires in Seienjuku.
10 Man Kumite
In order to achieve a first-degree black belt or “shodan”, one must truly embody a warrior in both body and mind. With years of dedicated training accomplished and having demonstrated the personal attitude befitting the rank, a student must undergo the 10 Man Kumite in order to receive their black belt. Among other trials, this test involves performing ten, two-minute bare-knuckle, full-contact rounds against 10 different opponents.
Special Events
Spirit Training
Spirit training is a special form of Karate training in which participants expose themselves to intense external training factors in order to create conditions that require one’s mind to persevere beyond what their body is telling them is possible. This type of training is accomplished through our annual winter training or “Kangeiko” in which our dojo performs techniques, squats and kata in the freezing waters off Vancouver Island. Another form is via "sweat training”, where participants wear extra layers and train in a dojo heated to 30 degrees celcius.
Japan &
Canada
Key to our style is our deep connection to Japan and the Japanese methods of training. Our founder, Kaicho Masataka Wakatsuki is a multiple time all-japan full-contact karate champion who maintains a dojo in Osaka, Japan. We travel to train with Wakatsuki and his students annually and incorporate his teachings into our classes every day.
“I enjoy training here because it is a place where I can safely try out that technique I have been thinking of, or empty my mind of the outside world and just focus on Karate. ”