Kyoshi Luis | 5th Dan

Kyoshi Luis Rivera has been training in Seido karate since September of 1990. Influenced by the action movies of the ‘80s, he was 17 when his mom enrolled him at (then) Shihan William Oliver’s Uptown Manhattan branch of Seido. After learning that Honbu was located on 23rd Street, which was close to his home, he transferred and has been training under Kaicho ever since.

Kyoshi Luis took a couple of years off while he was in college and again in late 1998 when he got married, started a new job, and had his first child, Brianna. In 2004, he brought Brianna to Honbu to enroll her but had no intention of continuing his own training. As soon as the elevator door opened, however, he was filled with energy and emotion and also re-enrolled himself. That fall, he took his black belt promotion. 

He started assisting Sunday white belt classes in 2005, and a few years later was asked to assist the Sunday children’s class. He later became an instructor of the class and has been teaching kids on Sundays ever since. 

As a kyu belt, Kyoshi Luis regularly competed in Seido’s inter-dojo and Anniversary & Benefit Tournaments, placing in both kata and kumite several times. He has also regularly participated in team kumite as a black belt. His favorite kata is Yansu.

Through his teaching, he has learned that we all have strengths and weaknesses: Not everyone is strong, athletic, or flexible. With consistent training, however, progress happens naturally — especially as it relates to focus and confidence. 

He hopes his students will realize that these improvements occur even if they aren’t aware of it; if they sit back and analyze their lives from the time they started training, they’ll see the changes in their day-to-day as well as in their personalities. So DON’T give up. OSU!