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View Full Version : What happened to Kent Moyer's Okinawan Goju-ryu Karate Kobudo Kenshikai?



the Khazar Kid
9th January 2003, 06:27
I walked by the dojo and there is graffiti all over the walls and trash piled up behind the locked door!! I never had the chance to train here, but it always seemed to me like the most "real" dojo in my immediate area, I mean it said traditional Okinawan style and had an NRA sticker in the window!

How could this happen? Meanwhile, Tae Kwan Do schools that shout "TAE KWAN DO" while punching and that "Katabami-ryu" school are still standing. This is horrible.

Jesse Peters

sanseiryu
9th January 2003, 18:11
Hello Jessie, I'm not quite sure what you mean by trash piled up behind the locked door. The mail is dropped thru the slot and with the amount that comes in, there are numerous pieces of junk mail along with the regular mail. If you walked past during the holidays, there were perhaps some days when the dojo was closed and the mail hadn't been picked up. But we are back to the regular schedule as posted. As the dojo is situated on Melrose Ave. one of the most visited and busy streets in Los Angeles, also right across the street from Fairfax High School, there are unfortunately a fair amount of vagrants, homeless and gangbanger types that can be found around here. In Los Angeles, graffiti is a common form of vandalism, can't stand guard over the dojo 24 hours a day. If you want to train Jessie, classes for adults are Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights at 7:00 p.m. Saturday mornings at 11:00 a.m. I trained last night with our small group, 2 nidans, a 1st kyu who just tested for shodan, a 1st kyu who will be testing for shodan in 6 months and a 6th kyu, working gohon kumite, ippon kumite, defense against an all out punch or kick and then working individual kata with each person there. Because we try to be a "traditional" karate dojo, whatever that means, we are not into 540 degree jump spin kicks, multiple flip round house kicks in the air while hopping on one leg turning in a circle as you would see in Tae Kwon Do schools. If however, you would like to feel the impact of a smashing round kick to your thighs, shins and body and continuous kumite for two minute rounds with just cloth hand guards and mouth and groin protector. Or just spend 40 minutes just working your shiko dachi for seiunchin kata till your legs give out, or spending half the class on hojo-undo training tools, you are welcome any time. We have a small enrollment, we scare off most of the people who try it out. Frankly, I prefer a small school. Okinawa Gojuryu isn't for everybody. They discover that fact as soon as we start them on body conditioning. Kent Moyer makes no money with this dojo, the enrollment doesn't pay for the rent. It only remains open because of the people who have the desire to come to class and train in a very difficult form of karate.
George Yanase

Dan Reizner
9th January 2003, 19:01
Wasn't Kent Moyer a part of Sensei Peter Urban's USAGA? What happened?

Dan Reizner

sanseiryu
9th January 2003, 20:12
Hi Dan,
Our site should fill you in on Kent Moyer.
http://kenshikaiusa.com/
George Yanase

stencil
9th January 2003, 21:28
George:

Your class sounds an awful lot like mine. I've been training at my dojo for over a year and not a single person has stayed on for more than a couple weeks after me. Most have been scared off.

We do, however, have a great and dedicated core. Classes rarely go above 9-10 people, and to me, that's a good thing.

-Joshua Fruhlinger

n2shotokai
10th January 2003, 02:30
Originally posted by sanseiryu
there are unfortunately a fair amount of vagrants, homeless and gangbanger types that can be found around here. In Los Angeles, graffiti is a common form of vandalism, can't stand guard over the dojo 24 hours a day. George Yanase

You just reminded me of how things used to be out back of our dojo. Across the parking lot was a bar which had a large number of very inebriated, obnoxious and dangerous looking patrons who used to hang out in the parking lot. When the senior students from the dojo showed up, the crowd moved to the far side of the lot, waved and smiled. When the lower ranked students showed up they migrated closer to the dojo obviously trying to intimidate. Every now and then they would get pushy and one of the senior students would go out and the crowd would retreat. No words or actions, just a stroll outside.

Every now and then sensei would go outside and everyone disappeared completely into the bar. Sensei has been in this town for 40 years and about 35 years ago a drunk tried to sneak up on him with a knife. Nobody has tried that again.

The bar went out of business a few months ago and it is amazing how much less cleanup we have around the dojo :)

Steve Beale

Steve Beale

TheStrongest
10th January 2003, 02:35
[QUOTE]Originally posted by n2shotokai


You just reminded me of how things used to be out back of our dojo. Across the parking lot was a bar which had a large number of very inebriated, obnoxious and dangerous looking patrons who used to hang out in the parking lot. When the senior students from the dojo showed up, the crowd moved to the far side of the lot, waved and smiled. When the lower ranked students showed up they migrated closer to the dojo obviously trying to intimidate. Every now and then they would get pushy and one of the senior students would go out and the crowd would retreat. No words or actions, just a stroll outside.

Every now and then sensei would go outside and everyone disappeared completely into the bar. Sensei has been in this town for 40 years and about 35 years ago a drunk tried to sneak up on him with a knife. Nobody has tried that again.

The bar went out of business a few months ago and it is amazing how much less cleanup we have around the dojo :)

Steve Beale

Steve Beale [/QUOTE

Thats so cool....I still think it's amazing how much martial arts can offer you(self-defense wise).

sanseiryu
10th January 2003, 03:26
Originally posted by stencil
George:

Your class sounds an awful lot like mine. I've been training at my dojo for over a year and not a single person has stayed on for more than a couple weeks after me. Most have been scared off.
We do, however, have a great and dedicated core. Classes rarely go above 9-10 people, and to me, that's a good thing.

-Joshua Fruhlinger

Hi Joshua, there are times when I would like to have a larger enrollment, at least in order to promote Gojuryu. But then again it is nice to have just a small group that allows for individualized attention and focus. It's easier with the kids, but with the adults, it's like pulling teeth to get them to stay.:D
George Yanase

sanseiryu
10th January 2003, 03:46
i]Originally posted by n2shotokai [/i]
[B]
You just reminded me of how things used to be out back of our dojo. Sensei has been in this town for 40 years and about 35 years ago a drunk tried to sneak up on him with a knife. Nobody has tried that again.
Steve Beale
[QUOTE]

Hi Steve, I met you several years ago at the 2000 USANKF regionals. I enjoyed meeting and competing with you.
Your story about your sensei rings so true. Very similar thing happened with Kent a few years ago. In the parking lot behind the dojo, a group of gangbangers were loitering and Kent came outside to see what was going on. He had his cell phone in one hand. One of the group decided that he was going to take the phone and announced it to the group and to Kent. Kent played it cool and as the guy stepped up to Kent, the other two were close and to the side. Kent was wearing hard oxfords and slammed a roundhouse kick to the first guys head and before the other two could react, stepped across and put a side kick on the closest guy that sent him into the street. The remaining guy just hauled ass. Kent just went back into the dojo and called the sheriffs to come scrape the two off the street. :D
George Yanase

Brent Kistner
10th January 2003, 10:31
Originally posted by sanseiryu
Hello Jessie, I'm not quite sure what you mean by trash piled up behind the locked door. The mail is dropped thru the slot and with the amount that comes in, there are numerous pieces of junk mail along with the regular mail. If you walked past during the holidays, there were perhaps some days when the dojo was closed and the mail hadn't been picked up. But we are back to the regular schedule as posted. As the dojo is situated on Melrose Ave. one of the most visited and busy streets in Los Angeles, also right across the street from Fairfax High School, there are unfortunately a fair amount of vagrants, homeless and gangbanger types that can be found around here. In Los Angeles, graffiti is a common form of vandalism, can't stand guard over the dojo 24 hours a day. If you want to train Jessie, classes for adults are Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights at 7:00 p.m. Saturday mornings at 11:00 a.m. I trained last night with our small group, 2 nidans, a 1st kyu who just tested for shodan, a 1st kyu who will be testing for shodan in 6 months and a 6th kyu, working gohon kumite, ippon kumite, defense against an all out punch or kick and then working individual kata with each person there. Because we try to be a "traditional" karate dojo, whatever that means, we are not into 540 degree jump spin kicks, multiple flip round house kicks in the air while hopping on one leg turning in a circle as you would see in Tae Kwon Do schools. If however, you would like to feel the impact of a smashing round kick to your thighs, shins and body and continuous kumite for two minute rounds with just cloth hand guards and mouth and groin protector. Or just spend 40 minutes just working your shiko dachi for seiunchin kata till your legs give out, or spending half the class on hojo-undo training tools, you are welcome any time. We have a small enrollment, we scare off most of the people who try it out. Frankly, I prefer a small school. Okinawa Gojuryu isn't for everybody. They discover that fact as soon as we start them on body conditioning. Kent Moyer makes no money with this dojo, the enrollment doesn't pay for the rent. It only remains open because of the people who have the desire to come to class and train in a very difficult form of karate.
George Yanase


oh, to be brought back to the way things should be...

such a nice little flashback. thank you :)
i use to train in traditional goju ryu very similar to the way you described your school. but a couple years in the military and a few life changes and it was simply impossible to continue to train there any longer. i still get up every morning and work through the kata or kihon one and some modified jumbi undo, but its not the same as having someone throw a full force punch at your face. :) sure i have thought about going back, i've even checked in to see the class a few times... but too much has changed. its not even worth my time to go there anymore... 4 years detached from the place and i still miss the dojo and the way things used to be.

when i was still in class we had 4 belts total; white, green, brown, and black, with three stripes inbetween... and it took 5 years+ to get to black, including a year of "blackbelt in waiting" or shodan-ho (if i remember the terminology correctly). we started out with one white belt and dyed it to green brown and black, sticking as close to tradition as we could. now i go back to class and there is a white, yellow, gold, green, blue, purple, brown and then black belt system all of them with their stirpes and such. i was there studying for over 4 years straight, never missing a class that i coudl work my school schedule around even through some absolutely insane weather.. snowstorms and such...and i left with a 6th kyu rank. we had a system in place where you could only test is you had sufficent hours in, and between school and full time work i rarely had the time in to test...and here's the kicker, instead of being whiney and raising hell about it, i kept going to class and i kept training with them, not being interested in rank anyways. i never quit our school and went to some crappy "american karate" chain school junk. lol after a while i had been there for so long i ended up teaching some of the classes, with a green belt, simply because everyone there knew i had far more knowledge and skill than was normally associated with a green belt.

when i was in class we wore a cup and a mouth guard...maybe headgear if you werent sure of yourself... now i walk in the old dojo and see kids with basically full roit gear on. and i see kids, with black belts...yelling these geeky little weak airy "kiai" like sounds...there is no more sparring even at slow speed for those under green belt. our "warm up woudl have killed half the kidsin class today. basically the whole core of the class has changed. its now so much easier and candy coated. it makes me sad to think that this glorious class that i came to twice a week, to struggle, sweat and bleed through will never be the same. i learned so much about myself through that class, and its depressing to think that the kids there now will never experience the things i have there. it makes me sad to think that those kids will grow with the class thinking that what they are seeing is goju as it is meant to be, insteading of being witness to the seriously formidable fighting style and system it can be... not to mention the lack of spiritual training, which was a huge part of our studies. those floors have seen some serious work towards some of my lifelong goals. now all they are gonna see is $29.95 foot pads, shin pads, commercialism and weak weak technique/training.


eh i better quit before i get all teary eyed again:)
but seriously thank you and your dojo for representing a style the way it should be, and for not compromising the values of goju ryu, for the sake of easy marketing.

sincerely,
Brent Kistner
pacesetter_1@hotmail.com

stencil
10th January 2003, 21:16
when i was in class we wore a cup and a mouth guard...maybe headgear if you werent sure of yourself... now i walk in the old dojo and see kids with basically full roit gear on. and i see kids, with black belts...yelling these geeky little weak airy "kiai" like sounds...there is no more sparring even at slow speed for those under green belt. our "warm up woudl have killed half the kidsin class today. basically the whole core of the class has changed.

I wish we got to wear cups. If we get kicked in the boys, it's usually blamed on poor stance. Not that that happens all that often. Never to me, thank goodness.

We still have only White, Green, Brown, and Black. As it should be, IMO.

Regarding the warmup, we do the traditional Dharuma Taiso. It's tough, but by the time you get to spar and practice, you're so loose and warmed up that you feel you can do practically anything by the next day. Not sure if that makes sense...

Brent Kistner
10th January 2003, 22:47
Originally posted by stencil


I wish we got to wear cups. If we get kicked in the boys, it's usually blamed on poor stance. Not that that happens all that often. Never to me, thank goodness.

We still have only White, Green, Brown, and Black. As it should be, IMO.

Regarding the warmup, we do the traditional Dharuma Taiso. It's tough, but by the time you get to spar and practice, you're so loose and warmed up that you feel you can do practically anything by the next day. Not sure if that makes sense...

indeed it does make sense, and as for the cup... it was a class deal, it had to do something with insurance. i personally adhered to the same philosophy as your school does and rarely wore one. i was never kicked there but i have taken a few shots in that awefully close inner thigh region before. (that'll get your attention:)) i think the only time i personally wore a cup was when someone was testing for a black belt of shodan-ho, and they seemed a little amped up for the test.

man i miss class:)

Steven Malanosk
11th January 2003, 03:14
Hi Ken and Daniel San,

Oh yes he was, as well as with Merriman,then Higaonna, and now Hokama.

Merriman took the JunDoKan "Okinawa" road, after his affiliation with DeBase,then Yamamoto,and then Higaonna.

n2shotokai
11th January 2003, 03:42
Originally posted by sanseiryu
Hi Steve, I met you several years ago at the 2000 USANKF regionals. I enjoyed meeting and competing with you.
George Yanase [/B]

Sorry, must have been someone else.

1. I have not competed for 25+ years.
2. The only tournaments I have been to in the last 5 years is SKA Nisei week and Kubotas tourney @ Occidental College.

Since we live in the same area perhaps we will meet someday. It would be a pleasure!

Peace

Steven Malanosk
11th January 2003, 03:58
Neither here nor there.

For Q: on him, ask he, not me.

Steven Malanosk
11th January 2003, 13:09
Back at ya!
:smilejapa

sanseiryu
12th January 2003, 00:03
Originally posted by n2shotokai


Sorry, must have been someone else.

1. I have not competed for 25+ years.
2. The only tournaments I have been to in the last 5 years is SKA Nisei week and Kubotas tourney @ Occidental College.

Since we live in the same area perhaps we will meet someday. It would be a pleasure!

Peace

Sorry Steve, it must be my old age creeping up on me. My apologies.
George Yanase

sanseiryu
12th January 2003, 00:04
Originally posted by n2shotokai


Sorry, must have been someone else.

1. I have not competed for 25+ years.
2. The only tournaments I have been to in the last 5 years is SKA Nisei week and Kubotas tourney @ Occidental College.

Since we live in the same area perhaps we will meet someday. It would be a pleasure!

Peace

Sorry Steve, it must be my old age creeping up on me. My apologies.
George Yanase

the Khazar Kid
14th January 2003, 00:38
Wow, thanks!! Glad to hear you're still going strong! It sounds very real.

Do you think I should drop my current training in the by comparison very fake and weak "Korean Karate" I'm in now? I think I'm about to get my "red belt", there was a belt test recently, it might be a good time to try something different!

On the other hand, I've only been taking classes three nights a week, once I get my red belt I'll be allowed to train every night there and get back in better shape. These classes are the only time I get for serious exercise, as my totalitarian parents won't let me exercise around their house (??!!?), I generally try to show up before the class so I can practice some extra calisthenics on my own first. Maybe I should wait and get myself back in shape training every night before I'd feel in shape enough to properly appreciate hard heavy real Goju classes! I don't know if I'll be ready for it until then! What do you think?

Jesse Peters

sanseiryu
15th January 2003, 21:38
Hi Jesse,
It is hard to say what would be best for you. As you are about to reach red belt, which is brown belt in karate, I don't think that you should just drop it for something else just because another style sounds more real. You have your black belt in tae kwon do in sight, I think you should go ahead and achieve that first. You sound young, so you have time to change styles in the future. And certainly this is something you should discuss with your folks. Some reasons to change schools are, you can't afford it, teacher isn't fulfilling their obligation to you as a student by not teaching you what you need to know or training there is dangerous. If you can come up with a well-reasoned decision as to why you want to change styles or schools then you need to discuss this with your folks as they are probably the ones paying for your training. As for weak Korean karate, there are many of those, but there are also some very strong Korean schools here in L.A. I would suggest you speak with your teacher first and see if he feels that a more intensive program can be done for you, with more realistic self-defense which may incorporate joint locks, sweeping, low kicks, knee stikes, elbows and boxing combinations. He may or may not be receptive to that, perhaps he will think that you are too young or not yet at a level to be able to incorporate it into your training. Or he may simply not have that sort of training in mind for his school. These are things you need to find out.
George Yanase

the Khazar Kid
15th January 2003, 23:27
Thanks!! Actually the style I'm currently training in is Korean Tang Soo Do Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan, and I'm 21 years old. I think maybe I'll wait until I get a "black belt".

Jesse Peters

the Khazar Kid
15th May 2006, 22:48
3 years later how time flies. I've got my blackbelt, my tuition payment to my previous school just ran out, your school has moved right next to me, and I'm ready to train any time! Should I come in for Wednesday evening class? What would be the best deal for membership (If I can train long term I would love to)? I already have a couple of plain white karategis white belt to train in.

Jesse Peters