Bio - Sensei Keith Moore,
Florida Chief Instructor
Sensei Keith Moore's martial arts training began in October 1980 at the Cortland Family YMCA. Cortland is a rural community thirty miles south of Syracuse, New York. He trained in a Japanese system of karate known as Koei-Kan, and received his Sho-Dan (1st degree black belt) in December 1987. During this time, his instructor also introduced him to Judo and Ju-Jitsu that he taught beside karate.
In November 1989, Moore Sensei opened his first karate dojo (school) in LaFayette, a suburb twenty minutes south of Syracuse. During the next two years, Moore Sensei split his time teaching between Cortland and LaFayette locations, along with traveling to Rochester for his own training.
In April 1992, Sensei Keith Moore decided to leave Koei-Kan due to stagnation in his own training, and after much research, he joined Japan Karate-Do Genbu-Kai International based in Santa Ana, California. Led by Shihan (master) Fumio Demura, 9th degree black belt in Shito-Ryu karate. Demura Shihan is the person credited with first introducing Shito-Ryu to the world, outside mainland Japan. He is an old world Sensei whose beliefs, traditions and values are directly as he learned in Japan many years ago. Demura Shihan is world known and respected for both his knowledge and techniques in karate, along with his kobudo (Okinawan weapons) knowledge and expertise.
Since then, Moore Sensei have expanded his martial arts knowledge, and have trained in kobudo, batto-do (Japanese sword), and Aikido. Currently, he hold the following ranks: San-Dan (3rd degree black belt) Genbu-Kai Shito-Ryu Karate; San-Dan (3rd degree black belt) International Toyama-Ryu Batto-Do Federation; I-Kyu (1st degree brown belt) Okinawan Kobudo Rengo-Kai; and San-Kyu (3rd degree brown belt) Fugakukai International Aikido Association.
In May 2001, Sensei Keith Moore expanded and opened a second location in Fayetteville, an eastern suburb of Syracuse, concurrently operating two martial art schools in the Central New York area.
In September 2003, Moore Sensei and his wife were presented with job opportunities in the Ft. Lauderdale area that they could not pass up, and in October, with their daughter moved to Florida.
Moore Sensei teaches karate close to the way the master's originally taught. In society today, both domestic and social, discipline is lacking and very closely watched. However, martial art training is hard, everyone sweats, starts at the bottom, and students earn knowledge and rank. When sparring or practicing self-defense moves, students will first learn them slowly, and do them gently. However, when a student has learned either well, we take the intensity to a level that would equal a real street encounter. Above all this, Moore Sensei stresses that having a positive attitude, good manners, and trying your best, is just as important as learning martial arts, if not more!
Traditional martial arts can be very beneficial to anyone interested in learning. It teaches discipline, perseverance, patience and most of all a sense of well-being. Also, it can be a great way to either get in, or stay in shape. To some people, martial arts can be very overwhelming, while others seem to learn and excel faster. This is only human nature, but everyone who learns martial arts will benefit somehow.
