I am proud to announce to the Uechi World that Ian Quitilen, student of Sensei John Felipe from the East Bay Karate dojo, was appointed the new Vice President of the IUKF. We will be hearing a lot from Ian this day forwards as Ian is an intelligent and hardworking leader of this era. 

Ian partners with Sensei John Felipe teaching and maintain the operation of their dojo. He has proven to me his dedication, loyalty, and respect for all Uechi-Ryu people regardless of affiliations. His progressive ideas have always shown promise and remarkable results. 

Many of you will get to know Ian as he is also appointed as our new Black Belt Test Administrator. Our promotion process has shown enormous improvements since Ian assumed the office. Testing is as simple as going onto our IUKF website and filling simple information required. There is no more confusing back and forth with the candidates and their senseis, trying to figure out information and payment before a certificate is created and sent.

Thanks to Ian, you’ll find our Black Belt promotion process a lot less complicated.

Welcome Ian, and thank you for your commitment to the IUKF.

Darin Yee
President – IUKF

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Over the last weekend in May of 2019, Sensei Darin Yee visited our dojo, Tiger Martial Arts in Langley, Wa, to train with us and run a special seminar.  It was one of the most amazing things I’ve done in my time as a Uechi Ryu student.

Sensei Yee, not only, led some of the classes that weekend, but also gave me some private instruction that greatly helped me to improve my roundhouse and side thrust kicks.  His seminar was the most informative training session I’ve ever taken , showing me how to effectively apply the different moves that we study in our Katas.

I absolutely loved working with Sensei Yee and I cannot wait to attend more of his seminars and study with him again.   Hopefully I’ll see you the upcoming Winterfest.

Thank You Sensei Yee !!

Olivia Livingstone, Tiger Martial Arts

I’ve just come home from visiting Uechi-Ryu dojos in Arizona and California.

I find people in our Uechi-Ryu family both friendly and receptive.
These visitations were dedicated to the introduction of the new directions of the IUKF and of course the exchange of individual Uechi-Ryu ideas and techniques.

The most noticeable dojo in the San Francisco area was East Bay Karate-Do whose Sensei is John Felipe. He is a dynamic young teacher with plenty of energy and progressive ideas.
The setup of the spacious dojo is methodically designed with maximum usage in mind.

Upon entering the dojo, I witnessed the students diligently training. I can see the joy they resonate as they skillfully demonstrate their katas, weapons and prearranged sets. This is training as it should be. The more we indulge, the higher our spirit and our skills progress.

Sensei John Felipe has certainly demonstrated to me his ability to build, grow, and teach in a Uechi-Ryu Dojo.
The IUKF is very proud to claim Sensei John Felipe as one of our up and coming young leaders in the Uechi world.

Darin Yee

One of the benefits of being an IUKF member is the ability to travel to other areas of the world and find other friendly IUKF family members to greet you and to open their dojo to you.  Senior student John Joseph is certainly taking advantage of this perk as he’s a frequent traveler and has visited several national and international dojos.

Sensei Paul Kronschnabl of Germany was the gracious host who entertain John while visiting their country.  I’m sure John Joseph will have a lot to talk about when he gets back.  It’s great to find a friendly face while you are away from home in the states or abroad.

Thank you Paul for your friendship and your part in the IUKF family.

Darin Yee

Hi Darin,

today I picked up John and we drove to the dojo for a workout.

John take part of the training and I think he enjoyed it.

He can tell you about it, when he is back in US.

Everything was ok. At the end of the training I asked him to give some ideas about his way for training kata.

It is always interesting for me to see what other Uechika are doing.

Best wishes,

Paul