Throwback Thursday – Part 3 The style of karate I was practicing in Germany was Shorin-ryu Shidokan. It was founded in 1948 by Katsuya Miyahira, who was a student of Chokki Motubo and Choshin Chibana. Chibana was one of the main representatives of the Shorin-ryu (also read as Kobayashi) on Okinawa. In 1956 Miyahira built […]
Written by Dirk Herfurth
Throwback Thursday – Part 2 After I finished my study in 2004 I had to move back to my parents. Job market for civil engineers in Germany was super bad at the time. Over the course of a year I wrote 300+ applications all over Europe trying to find a job. During that time my […]
Written by Dirk Herfurth
Throwback Thursday My karate journey started some 20 years ago at the beginning of the 2000s. At that time I was still studying Civil Engineering in Cottbus, Brandenburg Germany. My friend Gunnar asked me if I wanted to do some self-defense. He knows somebody who is also a student and teaches karate. I was interested […]
Written by David Brezinski
More miles on my journey… Had the opportunity to meet with some running friends in Portland to participate in the annual Hood to Coast 196 mile relay run. The relay starts at the base of Mt. Hood and winds its way down through multiple towns, through Portland and ends on the coast at Seaside. I […]
Written by David Brezinski
Training in the alpine air! A few weeks ago, Dirk-san and I took a trip to my family cabin up at Huntington Lake. We departed from Sacramento after Thursday night sparring class, and arrived at the cabin after midnight Friday AM. After unloading and settling in a bit, we proceeded to get a restful nights […]
Written by Dirk Herfurth
Hello Zen Martial Arts family, Today I would like to address you on a personal matter. As you might know October is Breast Cancer awareness month. This type of cancer is the most common type of cancer with 290k new cases in 2022 in the US alone. Chances are that you know someone that has […]
Written by David Brezinski
Another check on my bucket list. I know I have shared this with some of my friends in the dojo and I may have even posted about it earlier this year. My niece and her fiance’ asked me to marry them (to officiate their wedding) which is truly an honor. When they asked me it […]
Written by David Brezinski
Kusanku & kata @ 7100′ A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend a week up at our family cabin; I immensely enjoyed the solitude, filling my lungs with the alpine air while getting some kata practice in on the cabin deck. A few chipmunks seemed to watch with interest, as did a […]
Written by Dirk Herfurth
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! Guess who got Covid? – Right, me! I am not sure if I have had Covid before. Yes, I was sick a few times for just a day or two in the last two years and it could have been Covid, or just a nasty cold. Who knows? […]
Written by Dirk Herfurth
You know what is cruel? Recovering from injury and getting back to pre-injury performance. You are losing stamina and strength super quick when you stop exercising, but it takes you so much longer to get back to where you used to be.I have reached a level where 200 pushups a day were no problem. Now […]
