Christopher Caile,
Founder of FightingArts.com
Christopher Caile has an MA in International Relations, with an area focus
on Asia, where he has have lived, worked, traveled and studied. In his professional
life, he founded several companies in such varied fields as telecommunications,
electronics, and boat manufacturing. He was also a journalist for a group of regional
newspapers located in the Buffalo, NY area.
Caile was introduced to the martial arts in 1959 while at Bradley University
in Peoria, Illinois. He first studied judo, then, soon after, karate. His first
teacher was Sensei Phillip Koeppel, current Director of US Karate-Do Kai.
Caile took a hiatus from college in 1960. He traveled throughout Europe, winding
up in Finland where he introduced karate to that country and placed fourth in
the Finish National Judo tournament. Caile then traveled across Asia and Southeast
Asia to Japan, where he lived with Donn Draeger, the well-known martial arts practitioner
and historian. In Tokyo, he studied karate under Kancho Mas Oyama, the founder
of Kyokyushinkai in the original Ikebukuro dojo, where he befriended then-Senpai
Tadashi Nakamura. He also studied with Kurusaki Sensei (the teacher at Oyama's
second dojo) and assisted with the production of Oyama's book, This is Karate.
In 1962, Caile returned to the United States and acted as special representative
of Mas Oyama in the United States. Later he was a Kyokyushin Branch Chief, first
in Peoria, Illinois while he finished college, and later in Sutland, Maryland,
while he attended graduate school at American University. He taught karate with
Sensei Ernie Estradae, the well-respected karate practitioner and historian and
after moving to Buffalo, New York in 1969, continued teaching Kyokyushin in the
Buffalo area. At this time, Tadashi Nakamura had moved to New York City and was
Chairman for Kyokyushin in North America.
In 1978, Nakamura founded the World Seido Karate Organization (Seido means
the "sincere way"). Caile followed him to Seido and soon afterward started
the Seido Karate program at the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY
Buffalo). During this time, Caile was a frequent lecturer in classes on Japanese
culture, and taught practical self-defense seminars to SUNY Buffalo students,
as well as to federal, state and county employees in conjunction with the Buffalo
police department. Currently Caile is a Shihan (6th dan) in Seido karate's New
York Honbu headquarters.
Caile has also been a long-term disciple of Dr. Zaiwan Shen, a Qi gong Master
with an education in both Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine who now heads
the International Qi Medicine Association. In Buffalo, Caile founded the Qi gong
Healing Institute and the Qi gong Energy Medicine Association at SUNY Buffalo.
He has frequently written on this topic for the Holistic Health Journal and recently
contributed an introductory chapter on Qi gong to the book The Alternative Medicine
Resource Guide. He has also been filmed for a prospective PBS presentation on
alternative medicine.
Also a student of aikido, Caile is a member of Sueneka Ha Tetsugako Ho Aikido,
an organization founded by Sensei Roy Sueneka (8th dan), who was a long time student
of O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba (founder of aikido) as well as Shihan to Koichi Tohei
Sensei. Sueneka Sensei also extensively studied karate under Hohan Soken in Okinawa
and still teaches the Hakutsure (White Crane) style of karate. Caile also studies
Hakuho Kai Daito Ryu Daito Ryu Aikijujitsu and has studied several Chinese fighting
arts including Praying Mantis Kung Fu and Shuai Chiao.
As part of his martial arts training Caile has also studied Zen, and for a
number of years helped coordinate summer programs with the Doshinji Monastery
located in the Catskills region of New York.
Caile is currently living in New York City and practicing at Seido Juku Honbu.
He has founded FightingArts.com as a new medium through which to teach karate
and the martial arts.
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