08/05/2026
Training in Traverse City!!
This past weekend was such a big weekend for us! We had a seminar with an incredible Sensei. We had 2 incredible practitioners fly into join us, one of whom is a Sensei that has taught us before, and we saw so many of our students coming in that have had a hard time attending due to life happening (including myself). I have so many Thanks to share.
Thank you so much to Jim O’Connell Sensei. You helped us see new aspects to our art while amplifying the principles we learn. Everyone walked away with something new to work on.
Thank you so much to Stuart Carpey Sensei. You bring so much to the mats. You are happy to help everyone around you, and the questions you ask model for us that we can keep learning and growing even after becoming a teacher.
Thank you to Ben Rayack for making your way over to our beautiful small town. You are such a wonderful presence on the mats. I am grateful for your time and effort to be here and help us be better.
A special thanks to Matt Carlson Sensei. Your model of bring incredible teachers here frequently amplifies the leasons you teach in both Nami Ryu, but also how to be a teacher and a student. You work so hard to make these happen, and we are so grateful for all you put in.
All of this, and I haven’t even yet mentioned how proud I am that so many kenshi in our dojo were promoted during this weekend. You have all worked so hard and earned those promotions. We even had our first kenshi from our Juniors program advance!
One more thing to share before I conclude this novel. In Nami Ryu, we teach some pretty large movements in the beginning to show you how to move. As you start to understand those larger movements, we start to teach you how to refine then and make them smaller. Watching Jim O’Connell Sensei move was really fascinating to me. I cannot see most of the movement we teach in his movements, but his every action is effective. This tells me he has refined his movment to a point I cannot completely see. This is one of the things so exciting about what we do… I need to learn more to even see what is happening?? That is so incredible!
Sanrin Mountain Dojo
