The Senior Students

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The Senior Students

The Kokorogake Dojo
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The Senior Students

The KOKOROGAKE SENIOR STUDENTS 2008! In order to be a senior student in our dojo each student must have been a member for at least one year and be at least a sankyu (brown belt I). Our dojo's senior students are; Tyler Lange (ikkyu), Ashley White (nikyu), and Mark Chavez (sankyu). The senior students main function is to set an example while in class. We expect them to be on time, wear a smart looking gi, and to mentor the lesser qualified students. We also expect them to carry the load as ukes in randori and belt test exams.
Tyler Lange-Ikkyu. Tyler Lange is a Federal Airport Security Officer for TSA. In the dojo he is one of our harder workers. He excells in grappling and his randori skills are excellent. He favors aikinages and applies them whenever the opportunity comes along. Tyler is also a brown belt in TKD and trains under Sensei Gary Roark at Odessa College. He hopes to earn black belts in Watanabe-ryu and TKD in 2008.
Tyler applies sankajo on McBride Sense in free style randori. Tyler really enjoys free style randori and excells as a tori and uke. His ukemi is excellent and he can apply just about any technique he has learned in randori. He has excellnt form. Tyler is our dojo's best randori uke (Caesar is a very close second!). He has great balance and it takes a good technique to throw him and he is quick to give the tori feedback on why a throw worked or did not work! This information is always helpful to all levels of students.
	Ashley White-Nikyu. Ashley White is a college student at Odessa College and works full time. Her aiki is excellent and she excells in free style randori. In this first picture she has capture the kick of her attacking uke and is about to drop him to the mat with an inside leg sweep.
Ashley, as an orange belt, applying her signature throw, shoteinage! Ashley is a smooth thrower. Not much "yangster" in her technique. She favors aikinages and just about any throw that uses a turning movement to set it up. In randori she applies a large variety of throws and is always surprising her teachers when she applies a throw that she just learned in that class.
	Mark Chavez High School Junior. Marck Chavez is a junior at Wink High School, Wink, Texas. He is actively involved in all the major sports, especially football, and he is also an excellent academic student! Mark began his aiki training many years ago when he was one of our dojo's first members in the children's class. He graduated up through the rank and file and has been a member of the adult class for over three years and has achieved the belt rank of nikyu. Mark's randori skills have improved to the point that he can take on any size attacker with ease and also is gaining skills in multi-uke randori. He prefers utilizing aikinages but he can use just about any throw he has been taught. Mark has a great attitude, really good sense of humor, and a big smile that he shares with us all. He is currently 15 years old and we anticipate that he will earn his shodan as soon as he is old enough.

THE SENIOR STUDENTS OF THE KOKOROGAKE DOJO!