Special Self-Defense Workshops taking place this week: Monday (8/13): 1-3pm (7-10 year olds) Tuesday (8/14): 1-3pm (11-14 year olds) Friday (8/17): 7-8:15pm (regular monthly class for adults and teens 15+) Saturday (8/18): 11am-1pm (15 years old+, including college students) Cost is just $25 for each 2-hour workshop. schedule can be seen here: http://www.svkarate.com/class-schedule/ more info […]
Current/Upcoming Events/Announcements: Our weekly schedule now includes 10 youth classes/week (one general kids’ class each day Mon-Sat, two advanced kids’ class and two teens classes), as well as 10 hours/week of adult classes. We will be adding several more kids’ classes toward the end of the summer! See the latest schedule here. Special self-defense workshops […]
Sensei Rachel Pham was not only on the prestigious list of instructors at the WTKO International Summer Camp held in Toronto, Canada, this August. She also entered the competition and took 2nd place in the black belt women division. Also representing Silicon Valley Karate, Brent Cyca took 3rd in the under black belt men’s kata […]
We are now studying Bassai-dai in our Saturday classes. This kata is very old and versions of it are practiced by people in various styles of Karate. Older versions may go by the name ‘Patsai” and the -dai suffix was added when a secondary version (-sho) was created a little over 100 years ago. More […]
We are now studying Jitte (十手) in our Saturday classes. Jitte is also sometimes written as “Jutte.” The characters used are those for 10 (“Ju”: 十) and hand(s) (“Te” : 手). This could imply that we have the ability to fight off 10 opponents. But it could also have something to do with the defensive […]
We will again be entering the annual Chili Cook Off in Palo Alto on July 4. If you are interested in volunteering to help prepare and/or serve the chili, please contact jon@svkarate.com. Regardless, all are encouraged to participate in the demonstration that afternoon and of course to come by and sample the chili! For more […]
We are now studying Jion (慈恩) in our Saturday classes. You can see very good examples of people from the JKA doing the kata here and here. And here is part 1 of 3 of Yahara Sensei teaching Jion details. Even if we’re beyond the kata you’re practicing, it’s great to begin to learn […]
Silicon Valley Karate had a total of 16 competitors at Shinkyu Shotokan’s annual youth tournament. black belt boys kata: 1st place (Matthew) brown belt girls kata: 2nd place (Sophia), 3rd place (Victoria) purple and brown belt boys kata: 2nd place (Achilles) 4th place (Jacob) purple belt boys kumite: 5th place (Achilles) purple belt girls kata: […]
Silicon Valley Karate hosted internationally-acclaimed self-defense expert and author Mr. Rory Miller on Thursday, April 12, 6-9pm for a special workshop. Various subjects were discussed and trained. We covered two subjects. The first was “Context of Violence; an overview of the seven things that any self defense class must cover: • Legal and Ethical dimensions […]
We are now studying Tekki Sandan (鉄騎三段) in our Saturday classes. As with the Heian kata, the Tekki kata came to Japan from Okinawa, based on the Naihanchi kata. Tekki means “iron horse,” referring to the characteristic kibadachi (literally “horse-riding stance”). There are three Tekki kata, which may have all been one kata at one […]
