From left to right: Chief Instructor Sensei Willy Ortiz, Rebekka Ortiz, Lassi Saarenmaa, Anssi Kaltevo.
The Finnish Shotokan Karate-Do Federation
Our federation’s main ideal has always been the development of Finnish karateka and the understanding of Karate-Do. In order to accomplish this task the need of a strong and effective organization was necessary and thus our federation was born with these ideals in mind and as a purely NON-PROFIT organization.
Among the aims was to make this an organization interested in developing all its practitioners, not concentrating all its resources in developing a few good competitors. The federation respects and follows very closely the principles and ideals of Karate-Do and tries to spread them among its members according to their capacity.
Our Finnish Shotokan Karate-Do Federation is composed of clubs from around Finland. Also our international affiliations accredit this federation as a member and official representative of the world wide organization Japan Karate Association/World Federation (JKA/WF) and J.K.A. Shotokan Karate-Do International. Nationally we are official members of the Finnish Karate Federation (SKL). Officially, we are sanctioned by the Ministries of Justice and Education.
Our federation is the oldest and largest style organization in Finland, with about 20 club members and over 3000 holders of our karate passport. Of this group about 65% are under 20 years of age and of these about 50% have began practicing when they were around 10 years old. Lately, we have been involved more deeply with spreading Shotokan Karate-do among the children with organization of special groups in every club.
In our clubs, practitioners are of every social group available. We have students, plain workers, company executives, house wives and retired persons. Also, since the number of foreign residents in Finland is increasing year after year, our clubs have had a tremendous success in being chosen as their favorite training place.
Our higher ranking belts, from green belt and higher, receive their lessons in Finnish and English language, but among our instructors we have some that can speak, German, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.
A very strong and important part of our program is geared to impart good education to teenagers and from our older and higher ranked practitioners we constantly are training them to serve as guides and instructors.
Our training activities are very intensive. In one year we impart lessons for more than 10 000 hours. The average size of our groups is of about 22 persons, which means about 250 000 attendance’s to all our clubs every year.
All of our activities are based in voluntary work and all our trainings are guided by carefully designed programs that are changed according to our reviews.
Our federations success in competitions, national and international, has been quite good. Also, we have been able to arrange in Finland ESKA’s European Championships in 1991 and 1995.
Technical
Committee
Our federation's technical committee is in charge of spreading and
controlling the knowledge of our Shotokan karate based on the standards
given by the Japan Karate Association/World Federation.
The members are guided by our Chief Instructor Sensei Willy J. Ortiz 7th DAN, Sensei Lassi Saarenmaa 4th DAN, is the vice-president of our federation, Sensei Anssi Kaltevo 4th DAN, in charge of the refereeing committee and also the assistant Chief Instructor, Sensei Rebekka Ortiz 4th DAN, is our general secretary and medical supervisor. Pentti Ilvonen is the President of our federation.
From left to right: Chief Instructor Sensei Willy Ortiz, Rebekka Ortiz,
Lassi Saarenmaa, Anssi Kaltevo.
Yearly activities
Competitions
Our
federation also arranges separate the
Shotokan Tiger Cup Championships
for Juniors in May and Seniors in March, male and female, of
individual as well as team competitions of kata and kumite. In these
championships is possible to enjoy demonstrations of self-defense,
basic techniques, kata and the best appreciated board breaking
techniques that attract the regular non-practitioners.
At the beginning of Spring we organize the "Tiger Open Cup" for seniors and for
over15 years and on May we organize the "Juniors Shoto Cup" for youngsters under
15 years.
Training camps
- In the spring time we have a kumite camp, open to all practitioners, directed by Olli Ortiz under the supervision of our Chief Instructor Sensei Willy J. Ortiz, and it is concentrated only in free style sparring techniques, application of the rules of competition and the viewing of videos of past competitions.- During the month of June we have our summer camp in the city of Tampere, which is well attended by our federation's practitioners and also from other federations in Finland.The summer camp is under the direction of our Chief Instructor Sensei Willy J. Ortiz a 7th Dan J.K.A.Instructor, who has had as guest instructors Sensei Masataka Mori an 8th Dan Official J.K.A.Instructor and Chief Instructor of the "JKA Shotokan Karate-Do International" and it was also attended by the late Sensei Keinosuke Enoeda also an 8th Dan Official J.K.A. Instructor and Chief Instructor of the "European Shotokan Karate-Do Association" (JKA Europe). Our camp has also received the visits of some other instructors like Sensei Akio Tamashiro, world silver medallist in kata. T. Ohta, Chief Instructor of JKA England and World Champion Sensei Elwyn Hall. This camp is the only possibility every year for our members to obtain the prestigious official J.K.A. diploma and also to take their respective color belt tests.- In the fall season we hold our kata camp. The emphasis is placed in the study and application of advanced kata and the viewing of some kata competitions and explanation of details. At the end of this camp is also possible to take a color belt test.
"Christmas Party"
- Finally in the weekend of our country's independence day (6th of December 1917), we hold our winter camp when we celebrate our "Christmas Party" after a hot sauna and once again is possible to take a color belt test.White belt tests are arranged at every club during the course of the year.Besides the above mentioned activities we hold instructors courses, referees courses, a mid-summer lunch and Christmas dinner for all our higher ranked members and their families. As you can appreciate not everything is kicks and punches, we have many opportunities for having fun and develop friendship among ourselves.If you would like more information or would like to inquire about the possibility of joining us, please write to the address given below. We sincerely wish to welcome other clubs to join us and enjoy the possibility of obtaining a high level of instruction.
Also, we would like to take this opportunity to point out to you, that in order to be a member of our organization, we do not demand from you or your club, to terminate your membership with your present parent organization.
Remember our organization has been created for the developing and understanding or Traditional Shotokan Karate as its main and only aim.
We are a NON-PROFIT organization.
J.K.A. Finnish Shotokan Karate-Do ry.
Tohlopinkatu 15 A 3
33310 Tampere
Tel: _ _+358 045 8967664
Internet:
http://www.jkafinland.eu/
Email:
shotokan@jkafinland.eu