While walking along the path that carries you through the years of training in Martial Arts, you meet people that leave you an unforgettable mark.
A few years ago and while I was attending one of Shintani's Black Belt Clinics in Welland with several of my students, I happen to walk into a class run by Rick Leveille sensei. This was my first time that I can recall, running into Rick Leveille sensei. The similarities with the ways that Shintani sensei always taught his students were unbelievable. At the end of the class, I introduced myself and thanked him for a wonderful clinic. Even in his way of dealing with the students at the end of the class was as kind as his method of teaching.
I always hoped to meet Rick Leveille sensei during another work out, so that I could continue learning his way of the Wado but I only found videotapes of him teaching in some clinics around Ontario.
These videotapes were showing what I already appreciated in my first encounter with him and that was his good knowledge and quality of Shintani sensei's Karate.
Two years ago, Sensei Rick Leveille and I bumped into each other again as members of the Joseki Board at a Black Belt Grading in Welland. It was my luck that I ended up sharing with him the ranking reviews of some of the karatekas. With pleasure I realized that his views on karate training and quality of students were based on the same foundation of that for years I passed to my students.
Not only Rick Leveille sensei is an example to the benefits of that Shintani sensei's Wado-Kai has brought to a lot of his students but he is also the leading example of it.
Rick Leveille sensei resides in Wawa and as most of you know, it is not in short distance to Oshawa but in desperation, I offered sensei an invitation to come to our Club in Oshawa. To my surprise, in October this year (2000) I received an E-mail from sensei informing me of his intentions of coming to Lindsay to visit some of his old students and also he was taking me on my offer to visit Oshawa.
The final decision was to gather his students from Lindsay and mine in Oshawa where he could run a collective clinic.
On Sunday November 12th, sensei came to the YWCA in Oshawa where he gave another wonderful clinic to some of the students from Lindsay and from Oshawa. I don't know if I will ever have the chance to see him in Oshawa again but it is almost guaranteed that we will see each other somewhere again because I will be doing my best to cross paths with somebody who has so much to offer.
THANK YOU RICK LEVEILLE SENSEI!!!
