Kaizen Gojukan (IKGA)

10/20/2026

We are on the list 🙌🏻 let’s go!!!!

196 dojos registered around the world for this year's Karate Day Challenge! Amazing! with still a few days to go we will top 200...

10/20/2026

All classes are full. Enrollment is now capped for the current semester.

Any further interest will be added to our waiting list, and subsequently be considered for admission in January 27’s Spring Semester.

We are grateful for the overwhelming support from our church, family and community. Thank you. 

10/20/2026

Welcome to the Kaizen Gojukan (IKGA) family!! Looking forward to getting to know you better and to train together

10/12/2026

Reminder: No Class today Monday, October 12th*
* This is done in keeping with our policy of Closing when LISD schools are closed.

See you again on Thursday, Oct. 15th

Remember to keep doing your Kata for Karate day & let sensei know the kata & reps


#空手道 #剛柔会

10/07/2026

QOW318 - “Even after many years, kata practice is never finished, for there is always something new to be learned about executing a movement.” — Shoshin Nagamine (Founder of Matsubayashi-Ryu Karate)

One of the great lessons of kata is that knowing the sequence is not the same as knowing the kata.

You may have practiced the same kata hundreds or even thousands of times. You know every turn, block, strike, and stance. Yet years later, your sensei adjusts the angle of your foot, changes your timing, explains a bunkai application, or points out how your breathing should connect with the movement. Suddenly, something you thought you knew takes on new meaning.

That is why experienced karateka keep returning to basic kata. Your kata may stay the same, but you don’t. Your balance changes. Your understanding of distance improves. Your body mechanics become clearer. You begin noticing details you simply could not recognize earlier in your training.

Try something during your next practice. Choose a kata you know well and perform it slowly. Forget about looking impressive. Pick one movement and study it. Where is your weight? What are your hips doing? When do you breathe? Where is the power coming from? What is the movement actually intended to accomplish?

Then ask yourself a harder question: Are you still studying your kata, or are you simply repeating it?

Years of practice should not make kata something you have finished. They should give you more ways to understand what has been there all along.

#空手道 #剛柔会

10/02/2026

100 KATA FOR KARATE DAY 2026
It’s that time of year again!

October is here, which means it’s time for our annual 100 Kata Challenge, inspired by the traditional karate expression:
百錬剛 — Hyaku Ren Gō
“Train one hundred times hard.”

The challenge is simple: choose a kata and work toward completing 100 repetitions during October. You can focus on one kata or, with Sensei’s approval, use several kata as part of your challenge.

At Kaizen Gōjūkan, we offer two ways to take part:

🥋 The October Challenge
Complete your 100 kata gradually throughout the month. Train at your own pace and keep a record of the date, kata practiced, and number of repetitions. At the end of the challenge, report your total to Sensei.

🔥 The Karate Day Challenge
For those wanting to take it to another level, complete all 100 kata in a single day, preferably on Karate Day, October 25. If October 25 does not work, choose another day in October as close to Karate Day as possible, in consultation with Sensei.

Everyone can participate. Children, adults, beginners, senior students, and black belts are all welcome. The purpose is not to compare yourself with anyone else. It is to train, repeat, refine, and discover what happens when you return to the same movements again and again.

And if you are wondering whether you can actually reach 100?
Start anyway.

Maybe you complete 100. Maybe you don't. Either way, every kata you perform is one more repetition you would not have done if you had never begun.

The only way to complete zero is not to start.

So choose your kata. Set your goal. Keep your record. And begin collecting those repetitions!

100 Kata for Karate Day 2026
Honor the past. Embrace the present. Shape the future.

🥋 October 1–31, 2026
🔥 Karate Day: October 25
💯 The goal: 100 Kata

10/01/2026

Karate Invoice - Oct.

Should be in your inbox - Please reach out with any queries on the sent-out invoices. Feel free to chat with me regarding ANY and ALL concerns you may have; happy to work something out

#空手道 #剛柔会

09/28/2026

Birthday greetings go out to our dear Kaicho, Goshi Yamaguchi Saiko-Shihan!

Posting a little earlier than usual as it’s already the 28th in Tokyo

09/18/2026

Happy 80th Birthday to my instructor, Peter Brandon Hanshi!

Today I want to add my voice to what I know will be echoed by karateka around the world who have had the privilege of knowing, training with, and learning from Brandon-Hanshi.

For decades, his generous instruction, leadership, mentorship, and genuine care for others have helped shape the development, growth, and legacy of Goju-kai across generations and continents.

Hanshi, I am deeply grateful for all that you have personally taught & generously done for me, for your encouragement and guidance, and for the example you continue to set.

Your legacy is not simply found in rank, organizations, or years of training. It lives in the people you have invested in, the karateka you have developed, and the Goju-kai spirit you have helped carry forward.

Happy 80th Birthday, Hanshi! 🎂🥋

With tremendous respect, appreciation, and gratitude for all you have given and continue to give.

And knowing you… I’m quite sure there is still plenty more to come! 😊

Goju-kai: It’s a matter of pride. 🙇✊🏻

🇿🇦 #空手道 #剛柔会

09/17/2026

QOW317 - "Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality."
~ Bruce Lee

In karate, losing and being defeated are not necessarily the same thing. You can lose a match, fail a grading, struggle with a kata, or spend years waiting for the next opportunity to advance. Those are outcomes. What happens next is your decision.

Maybe you were outperformed in kumite today. Instead of deciding, “I’m just not good enough,” ask, “What did that expose in my training?” Was it distance, timing, conditioning, hesitation, or technique? Identify one thing and work on it. Now the loss has given you something useful.

The same applies when progress feels slow. You may not control when opportunities appear, when recognition comes, or how quickly you advance. You do control whether you keep training, studying, correcting, and showing up.

So ask yourself: Have you actually been defeated, or are you simply disappointed with where you are right now? Are you allowing one result to decide what happens next?

Take the lesson. Make the correction. Train again.

A setback tells you what happened. It doesn’t get to decide what you do next.

#空手道 #剛柔会