Tabata Sensei Legacy Seminar Tekki Nidan

10/16/2022

On Sunday 10/16/2022 we had another exciting inter-college training seminar in the MIT T-Club Lounge! Vazrik Sensei taught Tekki Nidan to over 20 students - first going through the choreography, then explaining hand-foot timing and hip vibration details. Many students do not see Tekki Nidan until after they reach black belt in a typical Karate curriculum, but Tabata Sensei used to teach Tekki Nidan and Tekki Sandan to students before reaching black belt, and in that spirit, we hosted this special kata seminar. Students ranging from beginner up through black belt enjoyed learning this kata together and strengthening their kiba dachi. In honor of Tabata Sensei’s openness to share knowledge and in that same light, we were proud to deliver the choreography and kata fundamentals of Tekki Nidan to beginners and advanced students from the various colleges in this special kata seminar event.

In addition to learning Tekki Nidan, we also went through kumite and kata drills in preparation for the UConn Husky Cup tournament coming up on Saturday, November 5th. Students practiced their Heian kata, Tekki Shodan, as well as various Sentei kata to be ready to compete in several weeks.

On Sunday, 10/30/2022, we had a special intercollege seminar day indoors at MIT. Instead of wearing the usual Karate belts signifying each student’s rank, we wore pink belts to raise awareness as October is breast cancer awareness month.

Did you know that 1 in 8 women in the US will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime and that 85% of breast cancer diagnoses happen with no prior family history? Our goal with this seminar was to educate ourselves and our students of the basic facts of this illness and how it can be prevented, as well as bring awareness of this to the broader Karate community with our training event.

Vazrik Sensei bought all of the pink belts for the students to utilize for this event and for future such events, and proceeds of these purchases go towards breast cancer awareness. During the class, his training focused on preparing students for the upcoming UConn Husky Cup tournament on Sunday 11/05/22. The students simulated the kumite and kata they were expected to perform at the tournament at their respect skill level while Vazrik Sensei provided feedback on what to work on to be even better prepared for the tournament.

We also had a special guest join us on this Karate training day: Sophia Peña’s mother Teresa Peña. She got to experience first hand the joy that Karate brings to her daughter and be able to train and see the beauty of Karate as well!