"A BODY IN MOTION STAY'S IN MOTION, A BODY AT REST STAY'S AT REST"
"A BODY IN MOTION STAY'S IN MOTION, A BODY AT REST STAY'S AT REST"
James "Jimmy" Coffman - was born in the United States on January 31st, 1943. He began his "Real" Karate Training while in Okinawa under Master Fusei Kise in 1960. In 1961 he became the first American to achieve Sho-Dan under Master Kise and was also accepted as the first American student of the late Grand Master Hohan Soken. Sensei Coffman continued training with both Masters, Sensei Kise on a daily basis, and would study privately (with Kise present) bi-weekly to bi-monthly with Soken, at the Grand Master's home dojo. Mr. Coffman, with the help of others, established the first American run Karate Dojo on Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa in 1960-1961. After leaving Okinawa as a Yon-Dan (4th Degree Black Belt) with a teacher's certificate in hand, he organized his first Karate Class at Fort Bragg (1965). In 1977, Sensei Coffman was promoted to the rank of Shichi-Dan (Nana-Dan - 7th Degree Black Belt), by the same two masters he had begun his training with in the 1960's. Today he is the highest ranked non-Okinawan Black Belt in their system of Matsumura Seito Karate. Sensei Coffman has never left his original roots, training, kata or fighting techniques and continues to teach and train today.