True Meaning of Ohana

The word “ohana” is part of of Hawaiian culture and means “family in an extended sense of the term including blood-related, adoptive or intentional. It emphasizes that family are bound together and members must cooperate and remember one another.”

At our school, Ohana has real meaning and we take it seriously.

When you join our family, we intend to take care of you – inside and outside the dojo. We intend to support and assist you in becoming a better human – in all areas of life, not just martial arts. It creates a richness and fullness of life. Most of the people we meet and train with we would have never have met without our shared Kaju AZ experience. Very few of us are blood related and yet we will go to all ends of the earth to help and love you. We are truly blessed to have this association.

It’s always inspirational to see a demonstration of the true meaning of ohana. Saturday, a group of Lim Kenpo Karate students were testing at their third (and final) testing event for the upcoming Black Belt event this weekend. As in our own Kaju AZ testing, the goal is always to push testers to their limits…not in a cruel way, although to outsiders it may seem that way...but to see what comes out of them when they are at their mental and physical limits.

It wasn’t just the testers that were “tested” on Saturday. There was a test of “Ohana strength” as well.



One of the testers was petite in stature and it was difficult for her to manage the 25 pound backpack that was required to be worn during the testing. Imagine the stress of remembering the material, preparing physically and emotionally and then having to add the extra weight! She was struggling. It was uplifting to see a member of her Ohana quietly and without reservation, holding the weight up behind her. Later, when she struggled to stand with the pack, several other Ohana members assisted her. There were other examples that day…a young student who forgot her material (who among us has never done that?) was assisted by a black belt who got out on the test floor and did the material with her. The testers represented a small number of the attendees – there were four times as many supporters observing, cheering and helping in any way possible.



True Ohana was there this weekend at the BJJ Tournament too. The cheering, the hugs, the encouragement, seeing your Ohana and instructors on your Team makes a difference in any one’s performance.

It’s easy to say we are part of an Ohana and tout the inherent benefits. Visitors to our school sense it the minute they walk in and many want to be a part of it immediately.

True Ohana members are often unsung heroes that support and sustain our endeavors to succeed. Being a true Ohana member is often not convenient, as each of us have busy lives. Being a true Ohana member involves sacrifice and pushing aside our own desires at times. It can involve giving up our precious free time (or birthday evening) to come and support a tester or our valuable resources to prepare a meal for the potluck.

I am big believer in that the more I give, the more I get. It’s simple to me and I want to give more than I take. I have been supported by more Ohana than I can begin to name throughout my life and martial arts experience. Sometimes it was cheering for me at a test. Or spending extra training time with me. Or having a great uki who helped me when I had nothing to give. Or an injured student coming to lend a hand where possible or support during a test. Or a short email commenting on a class I taught. Or a great job pat on the back. Or someone taking out the trash or asking what can be done around the dojo. The instances are numerous….and in all cases, I am always honored.

There is something so special, so unique, so wonderful about witnessing true Ohana in action. It inspires me to do more and be better. Kaju AZ has infinite possibilities of true Ohana each and every day…each and every class…each and every student. I challenge each of you to reach outside your comfort zone, look around and see what you can do to exemplify true Ohana.

Sifu Jennifer Corder

Happy New Year!

Kajukenbo Arizona is growing! We will be adding another location in Queen Creek/Gilbert in Spring of 2010. We will be offering Kajukenbo for ages 5 and older. If interested in getting on the mailing list for our Ohana and this location, please email sifu@kajuaz.com.

We will be starting a new Hula session for Halau o Kaju AZ soon! Our team will be performing soon so watch for details! Classes are taught by Sifu Dolly Abad. Please contact us if interested!

We are enrolling for all ages RIGHT now! Time to get in the best shape of your life! Contact us and take advantage of our "Try it for FREE" program!

Train Strong to Remain Strong!

Looking Back While Moving Forward

2009 has been wonderful for Kaju AZ! We have seen many new students join our Ohana. We experienced the love and martial arts expertise of many masters. We grew and expanded our knowledge and took many steps forward in our journeys.

We experienced some losses too. Sijo Emperado, our founder, passed away at the age of 82 in April. Our last visit with him happened a few months before his death and we appreciate the gifts he provided to us. Kajukenbo is a passion for us and we will honor his memory by making Kaju AZ the very best it can be.

Two days after Sijo, we lost Grandmaster Allen Abad, our dear, sweet mentor and friend. Grandmaster taught us many lessons – some about martial arts, some about life and we miss his smiles and stories. We were honored to have him at our Luau in March. We will continue training hard and strong just as he wanted.

We celebrated our third anniversary in August. We look back to our smaller dojo, our first five students and are grateful for how much we have grown as individuals and as an Ohana.

We would not be where we are today if it weren’t for our ancestors. We honor not only those that have passed, but those we actively train under. Grandmaster and Professor Lim are always so willing to share their knowledge in all areas. Their guidance is priceless. They are our family in all sense of the word. Kumu John Hackleman keeps us on our toes and helps us appreciate the small and sweet aspects of life. We are better because of our associations.

We learned from some of the greatest martial artists in the world this year: Grandmaster Vince Black, Grandmaster Dechi Emperado, Grandmaster Harry Herrera, Sigung Kailani Koa, Sigung Aiau Koa, Dai Shihan Ted Tabura, Papa 'Õlohe Solomon Kaihewalu … to only name a few. We are truly blessed to learn from the best of the best.

We are grateful to our Black Belts and Instructors!

• Sigung Kelly took advantage of every training opportunity offered to him this year and passed that knowledge on to each student. Nothing makes him happier than sharing his true passion with his students!
• Sifu Jen loves to see the positive changes each student makes in their life, their family and their community. She loves to see the satisfaction of a new student who thought martial arts was not a possibility for him/her.
• Sifu Dolly has helped us honor our Hawaiian heritage through Hula while allowing us to feel her father’s spirit and talent in her own martial art skills. She gives more than she takes.
• Sibak Nic, after 13 years of training, reached his goal of adult Black Belt and realizes it is just the beginning. His ability to teach all age levels makes him a unique member of our team.
• Sihing Armando pushes us past our mental and physical limits. His desire to make each student better than himself demonstrates true Kaju spirit. There is not one black belt at Kaju AZ that he has not personally helped achieve their goals.
• Simo Linda shares her passion of Kajukenbo and no-quit attitude in every class she teaches. Her black belt test performance was inspiring and set the tone for future black belt candidates. Her generosity is admirable.
• Ms. Candace adds her hard-hitting style to our MMA program, and makes it look easy. Her generous spirit shows in her teaching style and she expects personal best from each student and helps them obtain it.
• Coach Jonathan got our sparring team ready for our tournaments and we represented in true Kaju style. His willingness to compete shows us how important it is to push ourselves while having fun.
• Coach Paul has helped us realize our dream to have a strong BJJ program. His own Kaju training shows his willingness to continue to learn and embrace new styles. He is a great teacher with an easy-to-love attitude.
• Coach Kyle has turned his passion for fitness into our world-class CrossPIT program. His enthusiasm is contagious in and out of the dojo. No one else can make medicine balls fun.

Walt Disney said “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” We plan to do that in 2010.

We will continue to learn and grow and provide opportunities for each and every student to learn from the best to be their best. We want every student to keep their Kaju passion alive and develop new material, fine tune existing skills and willingly share their knowledge. We want each and every person who wants to be a martial artist but doesn’t think they can to KNOW they can do it. We want to make our community safer and more aware. We want to give to those in our community who make it possible for us to enjoy the freedom to practice martial arts and to those experiencing hardship. We want to become leaders in all areas of our lives.

We will be opening another school in 2010 in the Queen Creek area. We are excited to expand our horizons and provide the Kaju AZ experience to more eager students! This will provide many new opportunities for our instructors and existing students as well.

Thank you to each of you for all you have provided us. We appreciate the never-ending support and aloha you bring to every class. Here’s to a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010 for each and every one!

As always, Train Strong to Remain Strong!

Gratitude to our Veterans

Veteran’s Day Tribute

When America had an urgent need,
These brave ones raised a hand;
No hesitation held them back;
They were proud to take a stand.

They left their friends and family;
They gave up normal life;
To serve their country and their God,
They plowed into the strife.

They fought for freedom and for peace
On strange and foreign shores;
Some lost new friends; some lost their lives
In long and brutal wars.

Other veterans answered a call
To support the ones who fought;
Their country had requirements for
The essential skills they brought.

We salute each and every one of them,
The noble and the brave,
The ones still with us here today,
And those who rest in a grave.

So here’s to our country’s heroes;
They’re a cut above the rest;
Let’s give the honor that is due
To our country’s very best.

By Joanna Fuchs

The Wisdom of Hot Chocolate

The following story has been circulating through the internet; I am certain you have probably seen it or had it forwarded to you. It struck a particular point in my mind given Sigung's recent promotion and my title change. It's a responsibility and honor that we do not take lightly.

We are fortunate to have Grandmaster Lim in our lives and we appreciate the unique and awesome opportunity he has given us. His wisdom and knowledge and example shows us "to serve our students, serve our Ohana, serve our instructors and worry about ourselves last." That is often a tough one - real life creeps in and can be overwhelming. This post is a reminder to us to remember our priorities.

We had an exciting weekend with the Tournament and Luau. It's easy to focus on all the work that went into preparing for the tournament. It's easy to focus on the results and who won or did not win. It's easy to focus on the logistics of all the little required details. The "cup" was beautiful for sure! But, the priority is to remember and enjoy the time we spent together, the stories, the fun...all things that made the hot chocolate so sweet.

As martial artists, the cup is never the same but that adds to the variety of our experiences. One thing is for sure - the hot chocolate is always sweet and enjoyable - whether you realize it or not! For that we will be forever grateful.

Sifu Jennifer Corder

"A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: "Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began sizing up each others cups.

Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate."
(Original source unknown)

Appreciating the Value of Hard Work on Labor Day

Mike Rowe, host of the television series "Dirty Jobs" is an Eagle Scout. The rank of Eagle Scout is one of the highest achievements in Boy Scouting and often compared to the rank of Black Belt in martial arts. Recently a Scout's father asked Mike to write his son a letter explaining why he should complete his Eagle scout requirements. It's easy to see the parallels of this award to our Black Belt in his reply. We hope you find this letter inspirational and see the value of working hard and reaching your goals, both inside the dojo and out!

Sifu Kelly and Simou Jennifer Corder

"Kelby,

Your Dad asked me to drop you a line and say something inspirational that might persuade you to dig down deep and find the determination to make the rank of Eagle Scout. It's a reasonable request, from a father who obviously wants to see his son succeed. But here’s the thing. The Eagle Award is not really meant for people who need to be dragged across the finish line. It’s meant for a select few, and I have no idea if you have the guts to see it through.

Statistically, I suspect you do not. Only one out of a hundred Scouts make Eagle, so if you fail, there will be lots of other people with whom you can share excuses. Quitting now might disappoint your Dad, but I doubt that he or anyone else will be overly surprised. Anytime 99 out of 100 people do the same thing, it’s not exactly a shock.

I’m not trying to be cute with a bunch of reverse psychology. When I was 15, there was nothing that anyone could have said to me that would have inspired me to do something I didn't want to do, especially a stranger with a TV show. So I’m not going to assume you’re any different, or pretend that I have some influence or insight that you haven’t already heard from a dozen other people who actually know and care about you. I’ll just tell you straight up that doing something extraordinary can be very lonely, and most people simply aren’t cut out for it. Being an Eagle Scout requires you to be different than most everyone around you, and being different is really, really hard. That’s why the award is called “an accomplishment.”

Personally, and for whatever it’s worth, the best decisions I've made in my own life are those decisions that put me on the outside of being cool.

Singing in the Opera, working in home shopping, staring in the school play when the entire football team laughed at me, and especially earning my Eagle, were all choices that required sacrifice, hard work, and delayed gratification. I have no idea if you possess those qualities, or even envy them. But I can tell you for certain, that not getting your Eagle, will be one of the easiest things you’ve ever done.

Whatever you decide to do, Kelby, it's important to remember that the decision is yours. Not your Dad's, not your friends, and not your Scoutmaster's. And you'll own that decision for the rest of your life.

Good Luck,
Mike Rowe"

For more information about Mike Rowe please click HERE.
To learn more about Boy Scouting please click HERE or talk to our resident Eagle Scout, Sibak Nicolas Corder.