Humble Goodland Dojo Brings Home the Gold

If you were to wake up and find yourself in the middle of a training session at Island Dojo on Goodland, you might look around and think you were on the island of Okinawa instead of Marco Island. The setting and the instruction in Okinawan Karate is that authentic.

A dojo is a hall or place for immersive learning or meditation, traditionally in the field of martial arts. Lemke’s Island Dojo is part of his residence.

"It’s interesting,” said sensei Nick Lemke, a Yondan (Fourth Degree Black Belt), who is the owner/operator of Island Dojo. "Okinawa is a big island, and here we are on an island. It’s the same climate as here. So it’s fitting. I think this is the best place for it,” Lemke said, looking over the long screened in patio that comprises Island Dojo. There is a fan in the middle of the porch, but no air conditioning. “Traditionally in Okinawa, the dojos are at the house where the sensei lives,” Lemke said. "Their houses are built very similar to this, all concrete, and the dojo is on the first floor, underneath the living quarters. We do everything in Japanese. All the techniques we say in Japanese. They’re getting everything in Japanese. So they can go anywhere in the world and feel at home. From dojo to dojo, everything’s the same, modeled after Okinawa."

A sensei in martial arts is a teacher. A teacher in just about any discipline could probably learn a thing or two about teaching from Lemke, whose classes are like poetry in motion. Lemke’s current crop of students have made their sensei proud. In the June 28th to July 1st karate national championships and the July 2nd to July 6th karate world championships in Ft. Lauderdale, Lemke’s students brought home 13 medals. Dominic Esquivel, 11, was the grand champion of the national tournament with six medals - three gold, two silver and one bronze. He medaled twice in the world championships, including a gold medal in weapons.

"That’s a cool thing,” Lemke said, "out of this little dojo of 10 to 15 people, we pull a world champion and several national champions."

Island Dojo is a small dojo by any standard. It doesn’t take long to see how national and world champions are molded there. Lemke has an incredible eye for detail. During an intensive two-hour training, Lemke moves in and out of his symmetrically arranged students, coaching the fine points.

 “It surprised me at first, too,” Lemke said of his students’ success. "We train traditional Okinawan Karate. Our classes are two hours long, five days a week, where most commercial schools are two days a week, 50 minutes, maybe. We do train hard. We have two different schools of martial arts here. We compete in both weapons and karate. Those are two different styles. We have two charter schools here. We specialize in both. One art is karate and the other is Kobudo, which today means traditional weapons. Maybe it’s our training. That’s the only thing I can say. It’s got to be the roots of our training. I used to put it on our t-shirts, 'The key to success in karate is in the effort.'  All the students here put in the effort.”

Juan Munera is one of Lemke’s adult students. He won a gold and bronze medal at the national championships.

 "Juan trains four days a week at 5:30 AM,” Lemke said. "On Saturday he comes and trains at 10:00 AM. All the kids do two hours, five days a week.”

Munera is amazed at the success of Island Dojo.

"The interesting thing about us getting all of these medals,” Munera said, "is that we’re not a competitive dojo. Even though we don’t train for competition, we do well in competition because we do the basics. That’s what karate is all about. It’s about building your body. That’s the origin of the martial arts.”

“I love Juan,” Lemke said. "Being around him makes me a better person. Karate works both ways. He teaches me all the time. His kids teach me. All the kids that train here teach me as much as I teach them. We all try to learn from one another.”

Another student, Candelario Estala, nine, earned a bronze medal in Kumite at the world championships. He won two silver medals in the national tournament. He is perhaps the most home grown of Lemke’s students.

"We actually have someone from Goodland,” Lemke said, "of all places, get a bronze medal in the world tournament. Candelario Estala also did very well at the national tournament. So we’re really proud of him.”

But Lemke is most amazed at Esquivel’s performance. 

"When we walked into the world tournament,” Lemke said, "I was worried that we wouldn’t win anything. The competition level was very high. The whole honor is Dominic standing on that number one podium, like in the Olympics, with the flag wrapped around his shoulders and they’re playing the national anthem for him. To me that was the coolest thing. This is like the Olympics of karate. It’s special to be there. It takes commitment from the family just as much as it does the student. Next year’s world tournament is in Scotland. You have to prepare for these things. You can’t just show up. The level of competition is very high.”

Lemke trained his students intensely for the national and world championships.

"I had these karate camps,” Lemke said. "We went to South Beach every morning. We did agility training on the beach and we ran all our katas on the beach. Then we’d get in the water and do the katas in the water. We’d spend an hour and a half to two hours, every day. We did karate one day, we brought our weapons the next day. We did this for three camps leading up to the tournament. Then after lunch we’d come back here. We’d eat lunch in the park somewhere then we’d come back here and work from 1:30 till 4 or 5 o’clock. So they were getting in six hours of training a day. You can imagine some of the ones who didn’t win anything. They trained so hard for that. It was tough.”

There is a strong bond between a student and his or her sensei. Especially when they start together when the student is very young.

"It’s rare when you have somebody from age four to 12,” Lemke reflects. "That’s a long time. But when they leave, whew, sometimes it hurts, from a teacher’s standpoint. Especially when you make them number one in the world and they leave. They go somewhere else. That hurts. That part of it’s tough. It’s tough to get somebody to pass something to. The loyalty and dedication. We’ll see with the crop that I have now. With kids, if they start around four, 12 to 13 is when they start to either love it and keep going, or that’s the age they start not wanting to do anything. I don’t think they burn out, but I think they change.”

Lemke studied in Okinawa. He can trace his teaching lineage back 1,000 years.

"We have a strong lineage that goes through my teacher in Atlanta straight to Okinawa. Our Kobudo lineage goes straight to the Matayoshi Family in Okinawa. The Matayoshi Family has been teaching weapons for about 1,000 years now. They were the security guards for the emperor. Ten generations of the family have been teaching Kobudo until now. To my knowledge it’s the only Okinawan weapons system that’s been battle tested. They authorize me to teach.”

Lemke wasn’t sure what to expect on his first trip to Okinawa. Now he goes back every chance he gets.

"I didn’t know when I first went to Okinawa if I’d like it at all,” Lemke said, “but I love it there. Whenever I get extra resources, I’ll usually take my vacations there. It’s an island, just like this one, it’s just bigger. In four visits, I’ve stayed there approaching a year-and-a-half. I stay at a youth hostel. When you go to Okinawa, the classes are every day. From 8:00 AM till whenever at night. It’s all day. They open the doors an hour early if you want to come and practice. Then the class is two hours long. And a lot of times they stay an hour after. So you can get four hours of karate training in a single class if you want to. Kobudo classes over there are four hours long.” 

Lemke is humbled by his students' latest success. 

"The interesting thing about the whole honor here,” Lemke said, "is that we brought back a world champion. We’ve kind of gotten used to doing well at the national championships. But the world venue is something we haven’t experienced before."