Sensei Ralph Rhoads

Sensei Rhoads started training in Karate in 1969. Several years later, during the early 1970s, Kancho Joko Ninomiya came to America for special training in preparation for the All Japan Tournament. A chance set of circumstances gave Sensei Rhoads (then a green belt) the opportunity to meet and become friends with this man, soon to become a legend in Karate. Sensei Rhoads was able to open his home to Kancho and provide a living arrangement that supported Kancho's grueling training schedule. The two have remained friends over the years and Sensei Rhoads has followed Kancho Ninomiya's teaching from the first time they met to this very day, over 35 years later.

Sensei Rhoads became one of the first instructors to be invited to be part of Enshin Karate, when it first came into existence. At the time, Sensei Rhoads held black belts and was an instructor in two other Japanese styles of Karate. When asked by Kancho if he was interested in following the new style, the answer was; "First, thank you for the honor and secondly, yes! As I can see of no other way to follow true Karate."

Sensei Rhoads has now been teaching Karate for over 30 years, with the last 20 devoted to Enshin. He had taught at the Marin (California) YMCA for 14 years, the Embarcadero YMCA, the College of Marin and more recently, with the Tucson Y for over 6 years.

He has lived in Tucson for over 13 years, but because of professional commitments he was not able to stay in Arizona long enough to start a dojo here. Now, with the establishment of an Enshin Dojo at the Lohse Family YMCA, located in downtown Tucson, he is here to stay.

"People have many different reasons for starting in Karate training. My reasons for continuing to train, after all these years, are so far different from those that I had when I first started.

Some students start to become stronger, or to have the ability to be undefeated in any sort of confrontation, or to become fighters that aspire to collect trophies. These aspirations have some merit because of the drive that is needed to attain those goals, but training in Karate is not about amassing outward signs and glory. The reward in karate training is in the training itself; the strength, poise, confidence and courtesy that develops from within the individual student benefits the student and all aspects of that student's sphere of existence. This means that, no matter what the student's goal is, there is something that karate can give. This is also why I am so pleased to be part of Enshin, because it is open to all people no matter what their ability level is.

The reward to me, as a sensei, is to be part of that path. I learn as much from my students as they learn from me... and I am grateful for that opportunity."

Quoted from Sensei Ralph Rhoads