South Surrey Karate is part of the international Gima-ha Shotokan-ryu Karate Association. The club under the leadership of Sensei Andrew Statz and Sensei Jim Hawkins, helps many young people to work hard to develop their martial arts skills.
Shodan black belt students Mutte Chen, Joseph Khoo Kang Xu, and Luke Chen assist and always find time to help those they can. Helping others comes from a long, old tradition in martial art training, perhaps we can refer to Japan and our master Gima. Master Kobayashi, a Buddhist priest from Niigata is Sensei Statz’s instructor and inspiration.
Our master Gima (Hanshi Makoto Gima, seen in the picture below) was a person of pure thought, who did not consider money, honor, or position to be his reason for fulfillment in life. However, he did live with the knowledge of duty for the development of karate since he was a young boy in Okinawa. Master Gima though not in good health in his youth, grew strong as he developed his martial art skills. One area that he worked on and felt quite strongly about was kata and one of his favorites was Naihanchi. Kata during his time was becoming neglected in favor of kumite, the concern of the fighters (kumite) being primarily to defeat an opponent. The masters trained for years at kata to improve their strength, health and flexibility. Sensei Jim is also a firm believer in kata as well and carries on Master Gima’s tradition in the Dojo.
At Pacific Heights we work to develop both kata and kumite. Karate is as much a mental discipline as a physical sport.
Dojo Kun
The dojo kun serves as a set of five guiding principles, recited in a seiza (kneeling) position at the end of each training session and is intended to frame the practice with an ethical context.
- Seek perfection of character;
- Be faithful;
- Endeavor;
- Respect others;
- Refrain from violent behavior.