Week 26 – 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 and so I showed up at the set time and there was that small group of students. The class was held by Andreas Wagner, a blue belt (one level below brown belt in the style he was practicing) at the time. With that belt he was the highest ranking karateka out of the five and became my first teacher.

He helped me on my first steps. Patiently, with a smile he explained that there is no book where I can look up the moves of the first kata. This was something totally opposite to my university student brain – go to the library, get a book and look it up. Not in karate, verbal tradition from teacher to student only.

We had a lot of fun with our small group over the years. It did not take long for Andreas to earn his black belt in Okinana Shorin Ryu Shidokan Karate Do, and with that he became my first sensei. I owe Andreas san a lot of gratitude to be my mentor during my first years of my path.

Thank you, sir – I hope to practice with you soon again.

Andreas is still leading his own dojo today as a 6.Dan Renshi in Chemnitz, Saxony Germany (https://www.shorinryu-chemnitz.com/).

My current Challenge progress as of December 23, 2024.