Club History
The Abbotsford Karate Club – Sekukan, began in Abbotsford in 1972. Chief Instructors have included Robert Sidoli, Joe Worley, and the current Chief Instructor, Paul Sexton (6th Degree Black Belt) assisted by Ted Gosling (5th Degree Black Belt). Our club has been fortunate to be influenced by many well-known instructors who have visited and taught at our club like Sensei Hidetada Narumi, Sensei Hidetaka Nishiyama, Sensei Hirakazu Kanazawa, Sensei Toru Yamaguchi, Sensei Ikuo Higuchi, Sensei Mitsunori Kobayashi, Sensei Tak Sameshima.
In July 2019, Karate Canada recognized our application for association recognition under the name of Sekukan, which means Earth Forever dojo.
We are member of the Gima Ha International Karate Federation (GIKF) and associated with GIKF Canada. We are also members of Karate B.C. and Karate Canada. We are a traditional Japanese Style of karate (Shotokan) with good hard training and strong discipline, yet we incorporate modern training techniques. We also practice weapons, grappling, and throwing techniques.
We are a branch dojo of Tesshinkan (Okinawan Ryukyu Kobudo).
We have had a number of our students go on to become members of the Abbotsford Municipal Police Force, the R.C.M.P. and Corrections. Our current membership, ranging from eight to 80 years old, has a number of families who train together. We also have a large number of strong competitors who do well at local competitions. A number of our members have made it on to the Karate B.C. Team.
Instructors
Chief Instructor – Paul Sexton
Chief Instructor, Paul Sexton, trained as a boxer for five years, spent a year in Aikido, trained for three years in Jiu Jitsu, and has trained in karate and traditional Okinawan weapons since 1980. He is a sixth degree black belt with the Gima Ha International Karate Federation. He is also a third degree black belt with the Tesshinkan Ryukyu Kobudo Association, and holds a branch dojo instructor teaching license with this group.
Sensei Paul is a GIKF and Karate Canada certified black belt grading examiner, He is also a Canadian National “A” level referee. He retired after 35 years as a high school teacher where he taught English and Leadership.
Sensei Paul is also an instructor in Jikiden (Traditional) Japanese Reiki (an energy based hand healing system) and is a certified firearm safety instructor ( restricted + non- restricted) through the RCMP firearms safety program.
Instructor – Ted Gosling
Sensei Ted Gosling is a 5th degree black belt and member of the Gima-Ha Grading Panel. He started training in the early seventies at the original Abbotsford dojo with Sidoli Sensei. After running his own dojo in Chilliwack for 13 years, he returned to Abbotsford to help run this dojo. He has trained with masters such as Nakayama sensei, Nishiyama sensei, Narumi sensei, Kobayashi sensei, Richard Kim, and Wally Jay. He has also trained in Jujitsu and Kobudo. He retired from the real estate profession after 36 years during which he spent six years on the Fraser Valley Real Estate board as a director.