----------------------------------------------------------Fairfield-Dojo
|
| ----
----------------------------------------------------------Fairfield-Dojo |
|
|
|
|
The Shotokan Tiger
- I have been asked by a good number of people about the symbolism of the Shotokan Tiger.
The tiger symbol stands for the strength and power of Karate-Do and the circle represents the self discipline which controls that power. The philosophy of Karate-Do demands that the more powerful and effective our karate turns out to be, the more important the mental control over that power becomes. This philosophy must be reflected in the teaching of our karate. The most obvious example of that teaching philosophy can be seen in the teaching of KUMITE within Zanshin Shotokan where we have a powerful execution of Karate-waza followed by the breathing technique which simultaneously includes a mental control exercise. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---- Frank Nowak |
|
Born on October 6th, 1947 in Germany, Sensei Frank's first contact with Karate-Do was in early
1963. He practiced five to six times per week and after four years, at the age of twenty, he
scored a double success by winning the German National Kata Championship a day after being
graded a 1st Dan black belt.
Sensei Frank represented Germany a number of times at international competitions, held in Brussels in 1968 when the German team gained third place in team kumite. During that time he he was a German team champion, and kata champion as well. |
Internationally, Sensei Frank is a world class referee participating at six (6) world championships
and at a number of other international events. He has also been Chief Judge at following tournaments:
Asia Pacific Championships, Jakarta, 1978; World Championships, Madrid, 1980; World Championships, Taiwan, 1982; S.K.I World Championship Tokyo 1983; It should be nated that to date Sensei Frank is the only person ever to be given the unique "Best Referee Award" by WUKO at the World Championships in Tiawan in 1982. |
|
At the age of twenty-two he moved to Tokyo, Japan for two years of rigorous training at the
Instructors' Class at the Headquarters of the Japan Karate Association. In April 1971 he was
awarded his 3rd Dan by the late Mr. Nakayama, the 9th Dan Chief Instructor of that organisation.
Sensei Frank moved to Australia on November 14th 1971 and according to his own words he has looked back since. |  |
During the years 1978 through to 1981 he served as one of six members on the Referees Council
of the World Union of Karate-Do Organsiation (WUKO).
As a teacher of Karate-Do he is very proud of his pupils prowess which reached a peak when, in their first ever international participation as a shotokan team, they gained third place in team kumite, and were among the top eight in a number of individual eventa at the 1st Shotokan Karate International (SKI) World Championship in 1983 |
|
He was the first fully qualified Shotokan Instructor ever to arrive in this country and he
commenced teaching immediately at Miranda and at South Sydney.
One of the first highlights in Sensei Frank's career as a teacher was when he peruaded his pupils in New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland to form the Shotokan Karate Association of Australia (S.K.A.A now Shotokan Karate International S.K.I.A.) His love of Karate-Do has taken Sensei Frank to Japan more than twenty times in order to continue his own progress in the art. Now a 6th Dan karate, he was given recognition of his progress in 1984 by being awarded the teachers rank of "Kyoshi" which freely translated means 'senior teacher'. He was highly active in the All Styles Karate environment and has provided leadership to all Australian Karate-Do by accepting the responsibility of Chief Judge of the Annual National Championship of the Federation of Australian Karate-Do Organisations no less that ten times over a fifteen (15) year period. The initiator of the establishment of the National Referees councils in 1983 (including the establishment of referees councils in various states) he had served as the Inaugural Chairman of both the National and NSW Referees Council. |
in Tokyo. Earlier on 1980, John Brailey, 2nd Dan senior pupil of Sensei Frank, gained a 6th
place in Kats at the WUKO World Championship in Madrid. And at the WUKO8 World Championships
held in Sydney in 1986, four of his students reached the final eight in both individual and
team kata.
As a Karate-Ka Mr Nowak is proud of the fact that his karate linage can be traced through his teacher Mr. H. Kanazawa, 9th Dan and the late Mr. Nakayama, 9th Dan, directly to Gishin Funakoshi Sensei, who is the aknowledged pioneer of modern Karate-Do. In 1986 Mr Nowak formed the Zanshin Shotokan Karate-Do organisation with the aim of building and improving on Mr Kanazawa's methods and teaching more realistic fighting techniques while maintaining a strong traditional matial arts base. Now an independent teacher of karate Sensei Frank was committed to the promotion of the superior technique and philosophy of traditional Karate-Do. He was one of the founding members of the Kokusai Karate-Do Shihan Kai--a society of traditional style masters of martial arts with philosophy of maintaining traditional karate principles and teaching realistic and effective karate techniques. He travelled extensively both in Australia and overseas to fulfil his teaching obligations. |
| Home | About Founder | About Zanshin | Students | News | Links | Gallery |