My name is Kengo Kishimoto and I am 18 years old. I am currently studying at University of California, Irvine. I have just passed my second dan for black belt and really proud of all of my hard work. I have been doing karate since I was 5 years old and received my first dan when I was 15 years old. I have been teaching the Huntington Beach karate class for younger belts since I started high school, and continue to teach now. Even though I am teaching the young karate kids, I have been practicing to improve on my skills for the second dan test for the past 3 years, and I finally passed it.
After I have received my first dan, I have been going to the younger class to teach at Huntington Beach almost every week on Monday, Thursday, and Friday. I want to help the young children to improve on their skills because then they will be able to use their skills in the future to be able to use for self defense, and participate in any tournaments. I like to see all these kids grow up and improve on my skills, making me feel that I should also work hard so that they won’t become better than me that quickly. I teach the beginner, intermediate, and advanced class at Huntington Beach on their katas, kumites, and combination techniques. I take my time in teaching them how to do the proper or right way and making sure that they do not build a bad habit once they practice.
I am also in charge of leading or teaching our weapons class on Friday and I teach them how to use bo, sai, nunchaku, and tonfa with the help of some of our black belts and black with stripes students. I am always thankful for the Biorn Tangeland for helping us in teaching the class on Monday, Thursday, and Friday with his son, Nicolas Tangeland. I also have other students from advanced class that can also teach a little bit, so they can help us out when we have too many students to teach. It makes me proud to see the students grow and become better at karate by passing their tests, getting awards, and winning tournaments because their progress shows that I have teaching them correctly.
I would hope that all the students that are practicing now would continue on to get better and achieve black belt and still continue on after that. I would like to see all the students be able to reach their black belt and be able to teach also so they can also have students of their own to teach.
