Ron Fagan is the instructor and leader of the adult and youth karate clubs here at WCCSD. Ron is a native of Jacksonville who began his martial arts journey at the Jacksonville Karate Association in 1971. Under the guidance and teaching of Sensei Al Riturban, Ron joined the ranks of the yudansha earning his shodan in Shotokan Karate Do in 1975. While Shotokan was the primary focus of the Jacksonville Karate Association, Sensei Riturban also instructed Ron in the art and concepts of Shito-ryu Karate.

Through the 1980s and 1990s while continuing his training in karate do, Ron also began to explore the Korean martial arts earning a nidan in Shotokan and Taekwondo under the teaching of Senseis Matt McKendry and Steve Schreiber. Ron sharpened his teaching skills at the McKendry dojo as well as his role as an educator and administrator for the Duval County Public Schools.

In 1999 Ron met Sensei TJ Cooper of the Shuseikan dojo where he began to focus once again on martial arts from Japan, specifically Shotokan karate. Since Ron was away from Shotokan as a primary art for a number of years he decided to retest the entire system and moved through the kyu ranks to nidan in three years.

In 2001 when the Shuseikan dojo joined with the West Side Center for Community and Self Development (WCCSD), Ron decided to join the new organization. In 2002 Ron approached the WCCSD board about starting a youth program at the Center. His youth program became a cornerstone of the WCCSD, which eventually led to Sensei Cooper asking Ron to the lead the entire karate program for the Center.

Being a true student of martial arts, Ron has taken full advantage of the WCCSDs offerings and has added training in tai chi chuan, aikido and iaido to his repertoire. He has added cross training in these arts to his youth karate program as a way of insuring we have well rounded martial artists to lead into the future.

The focus of training at Shuseikan Dojo or WCCSD consists of the pursuit of perfection in oneself and karate-do techniques and training. Both are developed in concert with one another. The execution of any technique has two points of origin; the exact technique as taught by the instructor and the personal technique as utilized by the student for application. Both are correct.

Understanding and application of a technique is a discover process obtained via training and exploration. All techniques are introduced through basics or kihons which can be challenging and repetitive at times, but are the foundation for all which is karate-do. Kihons lead to kata, kata leads to self defense, self defense leads to kumite, and kumite leads to bunkai-kata, which leads back to kihons, all in concert with each other. Perfection of technique through training leads to perfecting oneself.

Kata is a universe into itself consisting of memorization, timing, breathing, choreographic, body mechanics, bunkai, and perceived strategy versus underlying strategy.

In the pursuit of perfecting karate techniques through continual training opens the door to cross training, blending and functional application based on potential risk encounters. Shotokan karate-do and students of Shotokan have evolved over the centuries based on changes in their environmental challenges. Shuseikan Dojo or WCCSD embrace this concept.

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