Innovation Square Wankan Seminar

Innovation Square in Kendall, Wankan Seminar July07/02/2022 2, 2022

In late June, Vazrik Sensei had taught Kanku Sho, an advanced black belt kata, to students in the TClub Lounge of MIT. In early July, we reviewed Kanku Sho and learned another advanced kata, Wankan. Vazrik Sensei taught Wankan (King’s Crown) to students ranging from complete beginners up through black belt. One of the goals of our Karate group is not to hold knowledge but to share it widely. Every summer, we hold classes that are unique and exciting, teaching advanced kumite (sparring) principles and also advanced kata to students to push them to think more deeply about Karate principles.

By sharing knowledge, and showing students that they can learn anything, even a complex black belt kata, we aim to impart a passion for Karate and a desire to become a lifelong learner. The beauty of Karate is that it offers an infinite depth, where one can learn and study Karate for a lifetime and still enjoy learning something new everyday.

This kata was also special for students as we held it in a very special location in Kendall Square right beside Galaxy Park. In Kendall Square, there is a section of the city that is known as the most Innovative square mile on the planet, being right next to MIT and with companies including Google, Facebook, Biogen, Pfizer, Moderna, and others with offices there. Innovation is one of the values of our Karate group. We try to design and adapt and come up with new ways to spread Karate to students in colleges around the world. This is why we started zoom training during the pandemic to continue training and supporting students and adapting to a new mode of teaching. This is why we have been using video recordings to provide feedback in ways to enhance training beyond simply in-person training. We use email, WhatsApp, many forms of communication to deliver individualized training feedback and try to provide students with the ability to learn Karate anywhere in the world.

Given the visibility of this location, there were many people stopping and asking about what we were doing. Many people even joined in and we gained new Karate students to train with us for the summer.