You might think this will be an extended advertisement for our dojo, but depending on what you’re looking for, there well may be a different club which would suit you better. There are many clubs in Edmonton to choose from, some of which are excellent and some of which are not. 

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If dream of being in the UFC and want to be an MMA fighter, you shouldn’t be considering karate at all. While there have been some high-level professional MMA competitors with a karate background, as in every serious sport, if you want to get good at MMA, you should train in MMA. Look for good muay thai and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu clubs. For a muay thai coach, you cannot do better than Gasper Bonomo at Kamikaze Punishment. I trained with him for years. 

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If you want to do full-contact bare-knuckle fighting, there are very good Kyokushin karate clubs. Kyokushin produces some really tough fighters. We spar in our dojo, but we prohibit contact to the head because that's very bad for long-term physical and mental health. We want to be still doing good karate in our 80s, not suffering from CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) or concussions. But if you want to hit someone hard and get hit, go to Kyokushin.

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If you’re interested in sport karate and want to win medals, there are many clubs you can choose from. Not ours, though. Even before COVID made tournaments as risky as any other crowded indoor event, we were not oriented to them. We only entered one as a dojo, and while we did well in it, our emphasis has always been  on practice, not competition, and that remains true today. There’s a difference in priorities. Sports karate boasts some tremendous athletes, but we don’t practice karate as a sport or a competition.

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If you think kata (a traditional choreographed sequence of techniques) is a waste of time and useless for fighting, we’re not the dojo for you. Krav Maga or Jeet Kune Do might be a better fit. We teach traditional Okinawan karate, and the heart of that tradition is kata. In our dojo, we take get so much pleasure and learn so much from doing kata which have been passed down to us over centuries. We seek to embody our traditions.

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If you are genuinely interested in the traditions of karate, then avoid clubs where instructors say they are sensei. In Japan, "Sensei" is used only as a sign of respect for others and never, ever yourself. Likewise, "sempai" is about a relationship of seniority between two people generally. Almost every practitioner is sempai to one person and kōhai (junior) to another. It does not mean a rank, such as a blue belt, or assistant instructor status. Likewise, avoid clubs that fetishize the belt, like saying it should never touch the floor or never be washed. Both of those would be thought ludicrous in Japan. Edmonton is not Japan or Okinawa, but if Japanese terms or conventions are used here, anyone with genuine respect for the culture will make the effort to use them correctly. 

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If you want to get a black belt in three years going to classes twice a week, you'll be disappointed by our dojo. It takes much longer with us. Seibukan karate is difficult and demanding, and requires a great deal of training. Moreover, if you’re very focused on rank, you won’t be happy with us. Our focus on is practice. Rank comes at its own measured pace. Be leery of clubs which have a huge number of ranks (belt colors and stripes) and frequent gradings, because they generally use testing fees to drive profits.

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If you’re a gifted athlete and want to train only with other great athletes, try some other club that advertises itself as a center for high-performance sport. We welcome anyone with a good soul, regardless of whether they’re strong or weak, young or old, supple or inflexible, fast or slow, very muscular or overweight, naturally graceful or clumsy. We take people as they come, and help them make themselves better.

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If you think you know more about COVID than Anthony Fauci or Peter Hotez or other highly trained infectious disease specialists, then you don't belong in our dojo. If you think COVID is a hoax or vaccines and masks don't work, you don't either. Our expectation is the objectivity and humility to pay attention to science and not promote misinformation. Our requirement is that to care enough about others in the dojo and the community to safeguard their health, and not be so self-centered to insist on the "freedom" to do harm. Our members have the discipline and commitment to inconvenience themselves for the greater good. 

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We run two high-grade HEPA filters and insure good ventilation by opening windows and monitoring CO2 levels. We adjust our COVID protocols according to local conditions and the best expert advice we can obtain. While COVID remains a serious public health threat, N95 or KN95 or better masks are required. Masks are optional when we train outdoors in summer. We are fortunate to receive the advice of an international public health expert who has advised governments, and we follow his recommendations.

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Finally, if you hate Muslims or immigrants, if you don't want to be around people from different ethnicities or cultures, if you think everyone should speak only in English, if you think gays or trans people are unnatural, if you refuse to use someone’s preferred pronouns, if you think there is only one acceptable form of family, if you think women should be subservient to men and the ills of this culture can be blamed on feminists, if you think that Christianity or any other religion should control all aspects of life, please go elsewhere. We welcome all kinds of people, but we have no tolerance for hate, bigotry, or narrow-mindedness.

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There is a simple test for what we value. If you visit a dojo, do its members come and welcome you, or does only the instructor greet you? There's a wide range of kindness and support across clubs. In some places, newcomers are left to stand awkwardly and self-consciously by themselves while veterans chat and ignore them. In our dojo, every member will introduce themselves to a visitor to the dojo and make sure they feel welcome. We believe that karate is a way of striving to be better as a human being, and taking care of others is just as important to us as learning to kick or punch.

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Karate comes in different forms, which pursue different ends, according to different values. You can learn about our dojo's other values, practices, and classes elsewhere on this website. But in Edmonton, you have a great range of alternatives. So be scrupulous, ask questions, avoid clubs with instructors who were expelled from their previous ones (because there are some), reflect on what you want from karate, and find the club which can give that to you. Best of luck.