Amherstburg Karate Club celebrates new location - three instructors back from Okinawa

The Amherstburg Karate Club officially opened its St. Arnaud St. dojo last Sunday. Instructors include (from left): Trevor Ziegler, Stefan Miller, Chad Waldron, Matthew Gholampoor and Sam Denommee.

The Amherstburg Karate Club is in its new location and with it comes instructors that recently travelled to Okinawa.

The grand opening of the new St. Arnaud St. dojo was this past Sunday with four classes ranging from children to adults and it also featured demonstrations. Sempai Stefan Miller, club co-owner and operations manager, pointed out the club started five years ago in backyards and garages with 13 students.

The Amherstburg Karate Club would grow to where they used Encounter Church, the Amherstburg Community Services (ACS) community room and now the venue at 200 St. Arnaud St. facility. They are located in unit five of the St. Arnaud St. building.

Miller said the new dojo is approximately 2,000 square feet with about 1,000 square feet of it being a training and fitness area. The school now has roughly 80 students.

Karate classes are run regularly Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays with Sensei Trevor Ziegler now offering jujitsu Thursday evenings. 

“We’re going to extend our free training offered to the army cadet corps,” said Miller. “There will be three free sessions per year. We’ll be part of their fitness program.”

The Amherstburg Karate Club offers self-defence courses and training. The curriculum will continue to be based on the needs and wants of the community, he added.

The new location used to be a storage location, but Miller added they were eager to move in once it became available.

“It was a great opportunity. We jumped on it,” he said.

The local dojo is affiliated with the International Meibukan Goju-Ryu Karate (IMGKA), and is only one of 60 affiliated dojos in Canada. Miller said the nearest such dojo is in the Toronto area. He said they can go to any International  Meibukan Goju-Ryu Karate and train there.

“The students come from all over,” he said. 

Sensei Chad Waldron conducts a class during last Sunday’s grand opening.

Students don’t just come from Amherstburg, but Harrow, Kingsville, McGregor and LaSalle as well.

Children ages 5-7 can train for a flat rate of $65 per month, which gives them eight classes. Older youth and adults can train for $85 plus tax, good for 12 classes per month.

Sensei Chad Waldron, Sensei Matthew Gholampoor and Sensei Sam Denommee were among the instructors also in attendance, with those three having been in Okinawa for 12 days in late October. While there, they participated in World Karate Day and trained with Meibukan Gojyu-Ryu Karate-Do founding family and IMGKA senior leadership.

Gholampoor also noted the Amherstburg Karate School’s affiliation with the IMGKA.

“We trained for six hours per day,” said Gholampoor.

Gholampoor added there were roughly 3,300 people from all over the world training there. He said it was his second trip to Okinawa, with it being the first time for Denommee and Waldron. Part of their training was photographed by a newspaper in Okinawa, with the photo now framed and put up in the new dojo.

One of the training sessions took up so much space, that Gholampoor used local streets to estimate it took up the same space as going from the Amherstburg Land Holdings (General Chemical) site to Pickering Dr. 

For more information on the club, visit www.amherstburgkarateclub.com, search for them on Facebook or call 226-739-5546.

AAmherstburg Karate Club celebrates new location - three instructors back from Okinawa

By Ron Giofu