Rigby's Karate Academy

10/27/2025

01/26/2025

09/18/2021

Friday evening at the Delaware Bushido Academy in Smyrna was very special for Mrs. Rigby and I. We got to spend time with many of our old friends and students. Many of them are still training; or if they aren't, I hope that the seminar I gave will inspire them to start training again!
Even though I am very happy and content with retirement, I thoroughly enjoyed myself in getting to teach Isshinryu Karate again.
It was very satisfying to see that Isshinryu Karate is alive and well at Delaware Bushido Academy at the direction of my student, Sensei Howard Steele.I hope that everyone enjoyed the evening as much as Mrs. Rigby and I did.
A big Domo Arigato to Sensei Steele and everyone else that was involved in the seminars.
Looking forward to doing others in the future. --- Sensei Reese Rigby

06/23/2020

Today is June 23rd....exactly 6 months since our last class at Rigby’s Karate Academy. Hard to believe!!! Although we are really enjoying our retirement, we miss our students very much. We try to keep up with many thru Facebook and are pleased many elected to keep training at Delaware Bushido Academy. They are doing a great job keeping students training in these difficult times. Hope to see everyone in the not to distant future!

05/01/2020

Well we just finished our workout. Who else was training with us?

05/01/2020

MESSAGE FROM SENSEI RIGBY
Mrs. Rigby and plan on finding a place to practice our martial arts today, Friday, May 1st at 2:00 for 1/2 hour (that may turn into an hour!) our training area might be our garage, driveway, backyard, basement or a community park down the street from our home.

We think it would be cool if some of you joined us by training at the same time at your most convenient place!

Our planned workout may consist of:
5 minute warmup
50 pushups (of course)
Basics in a square 2X on each side
Lower body kicks 2X
Modified kicking drill with front, side & round kicks 2X
Regular kicking drill 1 maybe 2X
All empty hand katas 2X
Maybe some weapons if we have time

You can change the workout to whatever you need to work on, the above is just an example.

Hopefully this will get you ready and encourage you to do Sensei Steele’s live zoom classes, if you haven’t already!
Go online and checkout his new class schedule starting in May. They will be awesome!

Remember, if this was easy, anyone could do it. It takes a special person to find different ways to train during these tough times.

Looking forward to getting some feedback from students who worked out at the same time today at 2:00. Share with us what you worked on!

-Sensei Rigby

05/01/2020

Sensei Rigby has been really busy transforming our basement into a mini dojo & workout room. Check out the pics...all from the walls if our dojo!!!

03/25/2020

MESSAGE FROM SENSEI
It makes me very happy to see the positive video message that Sensei Steele and the instructors at his dojo posted on the Delaware Bushido Academy page.

We are all going through some hard times & don’t know how long it is going to last. We will all be challenged in different ways. This is not the time to sit back, feel sorry for ourselves & do nothing but pout, sit around & eat comfort food, or overdose on video games. That would be taking the easy way out.

Followers of Isshinryu will have to be strong through these trying times. Leaders and future leaders of Isshinryu will figure a way to keep their training going. The hardest part is to get up and get started. Start off by saying I am going to train for 10 minutes. I almost guarantee 20 minutes later you will still be training. Put yourself on a regular schedule and train as if someone is watching.

Even though Mrs. Rigby and I are in Florida we go outside and train at least five times a week for an hour or more.Ask yourself, if one of your instructors called you and asked how much training you did this week, what would your answer be?
When this is all over and everyone gets back to the dojo, there is going to be a lot of wonderful training again you’re going to be glad for the extra effort. How much self-discipline do you have?

Mrs Rigby and I are looking forward to coming home and stopping by the dojo. Maybe Sensei Steele will let us run one of the classes.

Good luck to everyone and keep training the best you can. Be creative (example, visualization training).

Yours in Isshinryu,
Sensei Rigby

12/27/2019

Shout out to all Rigby’s Karate Black Belts.....if you have a key to the Dojo, Sensei needs them returned ASAP. Thanks!

12/27/2019

We’ve been real busy cleaning at the dojo. Thank you Mr. Cunningham, Sensei Steele and Mr Horsey for your help!!
BIG SALE TOMORROW,
Saturday 12/28
from 8am to 1pm. AT THE DOJO. Everything must GO!!!

12/24/2019

The students of Rigby’s Karate academy made it a very special night for Sensei and Mrs. Rigby. Proximately 60 students on the floor, some that haven’t trained for a while and kept the old Isshinryu spirit by working hard and in some cases, not passing out!! We sure gave the old Dojo a great good-bye. It will be a night remembered for a long time! Thank you all for making it a very special night. We have enjoyed the whole journey!

12/19/2019

Look what we came across! Can you guess who these people are? This is a real dated picture from “back in the day”.
Mrs Rigby, Sensei Rigby, Jaime Lewkowitz, Power Ranger aka Sensei Howard Steele, Paul Marquez.