BUDO KARATE HOUSE
3-Year Residential Program

We ARE now accepting applications!!!
But it's imperative that applicants read enough of the information provided here
to understand the nature of the progrm they're applying to.

Be sure also to watch the documentary movie about the residential program, "Stick it Out," on our new "Video Page."

BKH Residential Student Paul Kaminski Earns Shodan
May 2008

Paul Kaminski (above right) of Connecticut earned his shodan (black belt, 1st grade) this past week at Kyokushin-kan's International Seminar and dan promotion test in Cape Town, South Africa, overseen by Kyokushin-kan Chairman, Kancho Hatsuo Royama (above left). Kaminski has been living in the Budo Karate House dormitory for 650 of the 1000 days required for graduation, making him only the 4th (of nearly 80) BKH residential students to make it in the program this far. His instructor has challenged him to train even harder and to strive to become the first Ligo Dojo student and the first BKH resident to earn nidan (black belt, 2nd grade) by the time of his graduation. (Be sure to see the other links at right associated with this camp in South Africa.)

To date no BKH residential student has ever graduated from this 1000 day program in which students must give themselves over to the service of the organization (Budo Karate House and Ligo Dojo) for just under three years in exchange for the expense-paid training experience of a lifetime. In the past 4 months, Kaminski has had two roomates enter the BKH dormitory as his juniors, and neither one of them lasted for longer than 11 days. It may be surprising to some, but in both cases, these two guys coming here swearing that they would only leave shy of graduation only "over their dead bodies" (figuratively speaking of course) were both broken by idle time in the dormitory. They were both athletically talented and both of them could have handled the rigors of the training. Sadly, however, despite the fact that they were warned upon arrival that it would take some time for their lives here to fill up to where they figured out what the lifestyle was about, both of them lacked the PATIENCE to wait and see. Paul Kaminski is currently working as a lifeguard 3 days per week to help support the program. This, in addition to his trips to Japan and Europe for tournaments, and South Africa for seminars, and his THREE karate and power-stamina trainings PER DAY, tends to make him so busy that he LOOKS FORWARD to his idle time in the dormitory reading, writing letters, watching TV, etc. It is very difficult, however, to fill up new residents' lives like this right from the beginning. Their bodies are not ready for three trainings per day, it takes time to get them employed in the part-time work they are required to have as part of the program, and of course we will not take them overseas until they've been here long enough to prove their desire to see their commitment through. Hence let this be a warning to new applicants:

If you lack the PATIENCE to spend several weeks or even months of your lives in the dormitory while your lives here fill up, you will waste your time by coming here and only wind up dissapointed. 1000 days is 1000 days. There's no cheering section here for residents, no fan-club to immediately boost your ego to where you feel, overnight, like champions or super stars. 1000 days in the BKH program is 1000 days of hard hard work, and hard hard training, but please do not underestimate or fail to consider other challenges that you must face associated with three-years here ASIDE FROM the rigors of the physical training. You have to be patient. You have to be mature. You must be able to manage yourself in "idle time" type situations, and you should expect to have to do so until your lives here fill up with training. We will not hold your hand to comfort you during this transitional period upon your arrival. If you can't read a book, or write a letter, or watch TV (for God's sake!) for some hours of your day for some weeks until you're so busy here that you wish you had more time to do so, don't come here expecting something different! You have to be able to sacrifice many of the freedoms and comforts that most young men your age in America take for granted. Watch the documentary film "Stick it Out" on our "video clips" page. There you'll see the dormitory and get to meet your instructor (and two guys who failed to graduate from the program).

Only the future will tell, but it seems at this point like Paul Kaminski is doing something that no other BKH resident to date has achieved. He is learning with an open heart. That means that rather than bracing himself against the rigors of the program as if they're some kind of punishment, he is giving all that he has to give to the dojo and the program and his instructor with an open heart. As a result, it is likely that his last year here will be as happy as it can be, and that he will be successful in the future.

In the history of the BKH program only three or four other residential students lasted in the program for as long as Kaminski (longer than 600 days), but in retrospect it is clear to see that they lacked the patience, the forbearance, and the character to endure without coming to RESENT the rigors of the program, or their instructor for enforcing the program's rules and standards. Residential students enter the dormitory and sacrifice many freedoms and comforts that other young people in America take for granted in order to concentrate 1000 days of their lives to training, study, meditation, and the constant challenge of self-empowering karate training. However, some of these young guys who apply lack the character to maintain that perspective for three years. They hunger for the macho "coolness" of doing something like this, without understanding or valuing making the necessary sacrifice to really live the lifestyle from which they might reap the greatest benefits.

Success in a program like this can be seen as a "golden ticket for success" in their lives, in that if they can succeed here, at the very least it will give them a sense that they can succeed in anything they put their minds to in life. If they come here and hate every minute of it, however, because they can't have the pizzas and the beers and the days off that they want when they want them, they wind up just wasting their time. Being here and hating it is the same as failing. Kaminski, and we could be wrong if he has a better poker face than we give him credit for, is succeeding because he understands the challenge that he faces AND HE ENJOYS IT. If that's truly the case, good for him! He will be the first BKH residential student to graduate.

Below are photographs of the kihon, ido, and kata portions of Kaminski's test and of the 20 full-contact fights that he had to do. There were 24 people testing this year. Kaminski fought 20 of them. Kancho Royama singled him out after the grading and congratulated him for hard training. He could tell, he said, that Kaminski had been training very hard because he survived his 20 fights with greater ease than most of the other present. Kaminski probably could have done a few more.