News & Announcements

Thank you to all of the people who supported our Breakathon and our scholarship fund. A special thanks goes out to those people who from each individual dojo, who exceeded expectations by bringing in the most contributions.

Contest Winners

Dalia Schroeder
Ethan White
Donavan Gates
Megan Peganoski

We would like to congratulate Sensei Shultheis on his promotion to shodan. Sensei began karate when he was 7. Since then he has been a consistent and hardworking martial artist. We welcome him to the Yudansha Kai.

Sensei Richard Personius passed away this last year and those of us who were fortunate enough to have known him remember him with both respect and affection.

Beginning classes in 1985 he and his two sons were the first to walk through the door when we opened our school in bath. He was 40 years old. Eight years later his sons had dropped out. However, he had continued with his training and received his first black belt.

From that point on he was instrumental in keeping the Bath dojo running smoothly; always there to open the school and help run classes. Many of our black belts owe their knowledge to his teaching.

Sense Personius was a quite , humble man as well as a formadable fighter of consistant control. A true martial artist he always showed the upmost respect, dignity, loyalty and honor.

Over the last few years he was unable to continue martial arts due to the same serious medical problems that took his life at such a young age.

We will remember him with honor.
-Hanshi

Early this July Sensei Pfuntner led a Black Belt Clinic where he retaught the traditional Kata Hama Higa No Kama. Sensei demonstrated the kata and reviewed basic Kama techniques with the black belts, who tirelessly practiced the kata for 3 full hours. Finally, after fulfilling all of the requirements for his next rank, Sensei was promoted to Sandan.

Unlike other Martial Arts styles where instructors may simply memorize additional techniques or Kata for their next rank, we require our students to make additional services to the dojo. These services could include leading clinics or demonstrating knowledge of specific facets of martial arts.

Researching and teaching Kama is just one of the contributions that Sensei Pfuntner has made to our style. As of August, 2013 sensei has been successfully running the Dansville dojo. “Running a dojo is more work than you would expect”, says Sensei “but it is all worth it when I watch students advance. The greatest reward is watching how much students grow between ranks”.

Sensei Pfuntner grew up in Dansville and earned the rank of Shodan on February 24th in 2008. When he isn’t working or practicing Karate he enjoys hunting and fishing. In the winter months, he is also a snowboard instructor at the Swain Ski Resort.

Sensei plans to continue to run the Dansville Dojo and help others to become involved in Hayabusa. Thank you for all of your hard work Sensei! Congratulations!