The Team Training Experience

    Differing from other area schools, we offer a single “Team Training” class for adults and teens, ages 12 and up. (See our Kids page for kids 7-11!) We are a nonprofit organization whose mandate is to achieve excellence in a martial arts skillset delivered through an ongoing interaction with our instructors in Japan. We choose the term “Team Training” to emphasize the importance of individual students’ relevance to a team momentum in learning AS A GROUP in which an individual’s regular attendance, determination, and progress drives the group average upwards. Your classes will be smaller at Ligo Dojo, you’ll work with the same students in every class, and you’ll have the regular attention of your teacher. For these reasons alone, you’ll benefit in terms of depth of learning.

     Classes are suitable for all motivated adults and kids (10+)  who want to achieve excellence in a martial art, but should not be considered a solution for making the lacking student focused or motivated. Class sizes are smaller, and the curriculum is ever-evolving, and content delivery is brisk. It means the student learns in a much more concentrated fashion, but they are also required to keep up. We are the dojo in the area that is the most opposite of the after-school program designed to make a profit and provide child care to MANY students. Unlike programs that have kids’ programs, and then also teach adults (often like kids!) we are an adult program that teaches kids (10+) to prepare them, as they grow up, to learn at an adult level.

     Read on below to understand more about the Martial Arts we teach, or visit our Curriculum page, but regarding program framework and logistics, please use the button below to read about our Class Schedule, and the Rates and Rules link in the top menu. 

Jiyu Kumite vs. Bunkai Kumite 

     Jiyu Kumite means “free practice fighting” and can range from light, controlled impact to full-contact. Sensei Ligo can be seen in the video clip in a heavy contact setting, working with a student in Jiyu Kumite. Note here that Sensei Ligo’s intent, here, is  NOT to defeat the student, since the student is attempting 10 consecutive rounds as a toughening exercise. This particular student, was training for full-contact tournaments, and chose this intensity which today is NOT our norm. Sensei Ligo can be seen in the next video, COOPERATING with a student to demonstrate BUNKAI Kumite, which is more central to our current program. 

     Bunkai means “application” and this art is “the practice of analyzing and applying the motions of Kata.” All karate students must have some exposure to Jiyu Kumite (sparring), because this is what prevents the students from developing a fantasy notion of what they can do with their karate. However, at Ligo Dojo, our emphasis is on Bunkai Kumite which develops a higher degree of ART, but a lesser degree of day-in and day-out impact. We recognize that the majority of our students will not become full-contact competitors. The 3rd video shows Ligo Dojo students, practicing Bunkai Kumite.

    Kata, shown in the 4th video, are the formal exercises passed down to us from our teachers (and from THEIR teachers before them!) which CONTAIN the lethal fighting techniques of Bunkai. Note there is no opponent in practicing Kata, and the entire group works in one synchronized effort to PERFECT the motions. Consider that Bunkai kumite, in which the motions of the Kata are applied, unites the practices of Kumite (fighting) and Kata (formal exercise). Without Bunkai, the student risks understanding Kata to be some kind of stylized dance exercise learned merely to pass promotion tests. Bunkai, however, links the two, and the student learns how the motions of Kata are RELEVANT to fighting. If the student learns Bunkai, Kata practice informs Kumite, AND Kumite practice informs Kata. 

Kyokushin Karate and Iaido?

    At Ligo Dojo we approach real-world self-defense through a pursuit of mastery of ART in which practice fighting is important, but not through unnecessary roughness. Humility is key to learning, and working together as a team. We are the opposite of the dojo in which physical toughness blurs the lines with tough-guy attitude, pride, and ego. Kyokushin Karate is a style of Japanese Karate internationally renowned for its full-contact tournament fighting, and Sensei Ligo, a personal student of Kyokushin’s founder, has practiced for 40 years. Our teachers in Japan, however, are moving us towards a return to authentic Budo Karate which existed in the earliest days of Kyokushin’s history which means developing an appreciation of self-defense in a real-world situation in which our lives may one day be on the line.

     Since the sports RULES of tournament fighting have rendered even devastatingly powerful full-contact fighting eminently SAFE, we supplement our karate training with Iaido (use of Japanese sword), and Kobudo (use of sai, tonfa, bo and jo) to deepen our appreciation of the life-and-death reality of martial arts. Making tough-guy fighters in Kyokushin Karate is a relatively rapid course for making young people tough so that they can fight with other tough guys, and that type of training IS very efficient. The pursuit of mastery of self-defense, however, is a longer pursuit in which depth of knowledge, and precision of technique, takes closer attention to detail over a longer period of time. This leads, in turn, to a more rounded appreciation, creating a martial ARTIST for life, rather than a sports fighter for youth. At Ligo Dojo, students experience kumite (“real” fighting in a protected-by-the-rules setting), but tournament fighting is not our emphasis. Instead we emphasize the pursuit of mastery of our ART(s) in which kumite is also vital. Iaido, the art of drawing and cutting with the Japanese sword, hones precision of technique like no other martial art. We use it also to “up our game” and increase precision in our empty-handed karate, moving us towards a deeper appreciation of self-defense.