Thoughts for the year 2001

Will the Year 2001 bring peace and harmony to the Kyokushin world? I hope so but I doubt it. As long as we continue to fight amongst ourselves about who is the official IKO there will be no true Kyokushin. Sosai said that Kyokushin was for everybody, not just for one group or even one person.

If you surf the net looking for Kyokushin you will come across many pages of information about Kyokushin. For some strange reason we have been categorized into groups, IKO 1,2,3 etc. For my part I am simply a student of Sosai and wish to continue teaching Kyokushin the way I believe it should be taught, the only group I belong to is Kyokushin.

I travel extensively teaching Kyokushin and during my travels I am asked about the situation of Kyokushin in the world and who is the biggest or who is the strongest? Does the biggest mean the most members, does the strongest mean the strongest fighters, my answer is NO. We need to focus on how Kyokushin should develop and grow, technically and morally. Not just to have a big organization.

Self defense is a word I hear very often show me some self-defense, demonstrate self-defense. What is Kyokushin if not self-defense? You cannot take parts of Kyokushin and say that this is self-defense and what is left is not. It is a word that is used to often, now we are going to learn self-defense. This comment shows how little understanding of our style that some people have. Self-defense is not only defending yourself against physical attack but mental also. Consider those moments when you are tired and you feel like giving up, at work, in school or in the Dojo it does not matter, you must have the mental strength to keep going. This is also a kind of self-defense although a more philosophical approach still very important.