On Thursday October 15 we gathered at the See Sport Center in Caesarea, on the coast of the Mediterranean to conduct our annual two day training seminar.

Training on the first day included basics, kata and prearranged sparring (one step).

     On Friday morning at 06:30 AM, we went down to the beach for some warm up exercises, kata and meditation (after a good dip in the sea).
     Later on this morning, we continued our training with a ground work class, a reality based self-defense session and some intense free style full contact sparring matches.

     The main emphasis of this seminar was individual practice and improvement in familiar exercises. 

Several members of the dojo were deservingly promoted:

Mr. Ofer Feldman – 1 Kyu Mrs. Efrat Ben-Tovim Feldman – 2 Kyu

                        Ms. Na'ama Arie – 3 Kyu                        Mr.  Ran Shaham – 4 Kyu

                        Mr. Shraga Lapides – 4 Kyu            Mr. Randolf Benka – 6 Kyu

It was an excellent work out and a great social gathering. The most important feedback from our dojo members was – "We don't have to work so hard for a good BBQ dinner"

Thanks to the following GKK members who contributed to this years Newsletters.  I appreciate your help

Nimrod Astel,  Nancy Ault,  Kim Barrington,  John Barnes,  John Barton,  Trish Ballweg,  Howard Blum,  Mark Cramer,  Deb Crawford,  Robert J. DaLessio,  Greg Dodge,  Mike Galose,  Carol Gittins,  John Herrmann,  Bill Kane, 

Dr. Fred Koslowski,  Adrienne Leeman,  Tom Letizio,  Vic Lim,  Gary Mazzotti,  Roberto Mendez,  Gustavo Munoz,  Helen Muth,  Steven Muth,  Ed Myers,  Gail Oblinger,  Joe Ordonez,  Kayti Quesada,  Rachel Reitz,  Aleojin Rios, 

John Roath,  Steven Rusche,  Dwight Scales,  Rich Stamper,  Paul Stetsko,  Jeffrey Sullens,  Dan Taylor, 

D. Kumara Withanage,  Motoo Yamakura, Allen Zaklad

     A special thanks to the following guest authors who allowed their articles and book excerpts to be shared with our members;

Sumya Anani,  Dustin Baldis,  Tony Capasso,  Debra Anne Davis,  Brian Grasso, Tracy A. Hightower,  Lyle McDonald

Prof. Angel Spassov

We who have the honor of training with Yamakura Shihan have heard him state that Tai Chi Chuan is a major influence on Goju-Ryu.  This article is about my experiences in teaching Tai Chi to people with mental and physical disabilities. 

     When I was approaching my Shodan test in the mid-90’s, I looked hard at what I needed to improve.  One big area for me was what I perceived to be my lack of grace or fluidity of motion.  So I signed up for a Tai Chi class in my community.  It was a 90 minutes per week class and 10-15 people began with me, most rank beginners like myself.  Two years later, I had learned the complete (8-minute Yang Style short) form, but all the other students were long gone.  Since that time, I’ve continued daily Tai Chi practice along with my Goju practice.