Dojo Curriculum
The Classical Arts
Classical Jujitsu, Traditional Karate and Tai Chi Chuan — Nagai Ryu, Shin Go Ju Ryu and the Chen style — with the sword, youth and foundation classes that sit alongside them. Every class below is open to visitors and the first month is free, with one exception: Yawara is black belt, by invitation.
Classical Jujitsu
Nagai Ryu
Wednesday · 7:30 – 9:30 PM · Senior Instructor Jim Hansen
The classical art of grappling, control holds, throws, matwork, and weapons. You'll learn how to control an attacker and escape from threatening physical situations. This coursework is used by many law enforcement agencies for its ability to physically neutralize an opponent. It is highly recommended for women.
Class begins with Ukemi, the art of break falling. Students learn how to fall properly from forward, backward and sideways positions. Class then proceeds to kata — series of attacks and defenses using evading, blocking, kicking and control holds such as arm bars and wrist locks. Our jujitsu class often includes the practice of Judo throws and grappling.
This is more than a grappling art. Most of it happens standing: locks, chokes, throws and kuzushi applied from your feet, against an opponent on theirs. Matwork is one part of that rather than the destination. What you learn here is trained for the stairwell rather than the ring.
Kano → Mifune · Nagai · Ichi Jima → Shihan Goody → Yama Arashi →
Traditional Karate
Shin Go Ju Ryu
Thursday · 7:30 – 9:30 PM · Senior Instructor George Donovan
The most widely known of the martial arts. You'll develop power and focus while learning how to punch, kick, and block. Sparring exercises are also offered, and tournament participation is up to the individual student.
Our class starts with basic punching and kicking drills, learning proper technique to avoid injuries. We then move on to kata, which simulates the blocks, punches and kicks that might be used in an actual fight. Class often includes two-person drills with attacks and defenses, and sparring. Some weapons kata are also taught.
This class provides excellent strength, flexibility and balance, and is a very good cardio workout. Come ready to work hard.
This is traditional karate. Kata is the centre of it, not a warm-up for competition, and tournament participation is up to the individual student rather than the point of training. Our style is Shin Go Ju Ryu — the "new hard-soft school" founded by Ting Yang, who certified Shihan Frank Goody in it in 1956.
Kid's Karate
Shin Go Ju Ryu
Saturday · 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM · Senior Instructor Mark Nothdurft
Yama Arashi offers classes specially geared for children ages five and up. Through the classical philosophies of the martial arts, your child will learn the virtues of Respect, Discipline, Motivation and Perseverance. And of course, they will have fun learning an art form that will last a lifetime.
A typical class consists of Ukemi (learning how to fall), punching and kicking drills, kata, two-person drills, Judo throws and techniques, and Kumite. Each class ends with a story that relates to the study and principles of martial arts.
Tai Chi Chuan
Chen Style
Tuesday · 7:30 – 9:00 PM · Senior Instructor Mark Nothdurft
Through this Chinese slow motion martial art, you'll develop greater mental clarity and spiritual focus. Performed by young and old alike, Tai Chi Chuan is both a martial art and a means to physical well being. It is excellent for flexibility, focus and balance.
Yama Arashi teaches the Chen style — the oldest of the family styles, and the root from which the others descend. Our head instructor has studied extensively with Master Chen and is licensed to teach this ancient style.
Kenjitsu
Tuesday · 9:00 – 10:00 PM · Adam Surber
The classical art of the Japanese sword. Kenjitsu is the older, combative parent of modern kendo: where kendo is a sport with armour and scoring, kenjitsu keeps the sword work as a martial discipline — drawing, cutting, distance and timing, practised in paired kata rather than in free sparring.
Training is with the bokken, the wooden sword, and emphasises exactness over force. A cut is either correct in line, distance and moment, or it is not; the sword offers no way to muscle past a mistake. That precision is why the sword has always been taught alongside the empty-hand arts rather than apart from them.
The class runs immediately after Tai Chi on Tuesday evenings, and is open to students who have found their footing in the other arts.
Yawara
Black belt, by invitation
Wednesday · By Invitation Only
By invitation only. Yawara is taught to black belts. It is listed here because it is part of what this school preserves, not as a class to turn up to.
Yawara is the older name for the art that became jujitsu — the close-quarters work of the unarmed hand. In our dojo it is the foundation set: the escapes, the wrist and arm locks, the vital-point techniques and the small joint manipulations that everything else is built on.
Where the Wednesday jujitsu class works throws and matwork, yawara is the quieter half of the same evening: short techniques, done slowly, until the structure is right. Most of it is practical at a distance where a throw is not available — a grabbed wrist, a hand on the lapel, a hold from behind.
Yawara runs deep in this school. Between 1945 and 1951 Frank Goody promoted yawara tournaments at his judo school in Denver, and he held the art at seventh dan as Ichi Ban to Frank Matsuyama, Hereditary Grand Master of the Matsuyama Yawarakai — a system taught in only a few Hatamoto family schools. Matsuyama named Goody his successor on his passing in 1957. The Wednesday class is a direct continuation of that, which is also why it is not a class anyone can simply join.
Come and watch
Visitors are always welcome to sit quietly and observe any active class, without advance notice. When you want to step on the mat, the first month is free.