By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
After decades of honing his skills in Uechi-Ryu karate, longtime Sitkan Duane Swanson earned his third degree black belt in Florida late last month.
At 71, Swanson told the Sentinel karate keeps him active.
“I think it keeps the mind sharp for one thing, because a lot of memory and the muscle memory from doing repetition after repetition, you just respond in a situation,” he said over the phone. “You don’t think about it, it just happens.”
He has no plans to stop training in karate and intends to continue working toward another promotion.
Duane Swanson performs a kata before a crowd of Winterfest attendees before receiving his Sandan cer-tificate, March 25 in Florida. To his immediate left stands George Mattson, who brought Uechi-Ryu ka-rate to the United States in the 1950s.
(Photo by Bruce Hirabayashi/Photo provided by Duane Swanson)
“Next would be a fourth degree black belt. So that would probably be in a couple of years. I just plan to keep doing it until I can’t do it anymore. I’ll be 72 in a couple of months. But that feels like my body’s getting stronger as I do more and more,” he said.
He earned his third degree black belt on March 25 from his sensei, Darin Yee, who is also president of the International Uechi-Ryu Karate Federation.
Uechi-Ryu, originated in Okinawa around the turn of the century and spread to America following World War II.
“When the (U.S.) military was in Okinawa (as an occupation force), they opened up a way for the military people and then a fellow by the name of Georgia Mattson was the first American to receive a black belt back in the ’50s. He brought it to America and is basically the father of Uechi-Ryu, and that’s whose camp I went to in Florida,” Swanson said. Mattson was present at the March training camp as well.
Swanson has trained in karate since the 1970s and moved to Sitka to teach in 1979. He was an industrial arts teacher at Blatchley Middle School.
While he is a lifelong student of karate, Swanson said, he most enjoys the opportunity to instruct others.
“What I really love about it is the chance to share what I’m learning with others… I’m actually keeping it very small and just taking on a few students at a time,” he said. His is the sole Uechi-Ryu dojo in Alaska.
In addition to his current skill set, Swanson said he’s learning Kung Fu, also from Darrin Yee.
In future years, he hopes someone will take the reins of his Sitka dojo and continue his work as an instructor. His nephew Aaron Swanson, he said, is a likely candidate.
“Back when I was teaching in the ’80s I had maybe 30 or 40 students. Now I’m just enjoying doing it online or having a few students come over to my dojo in the house and training them,” Swanson said. “I love to train. I’d love to train someone in Sitka that could eventually take over and expand the Uechi-Ryu program in Sitka.”
