Noah Legel (left) with his late Sensei, Richard Poage (right), and Chief International Coach of the World Combat Association, Iain Abernethy (center)
I was born in central Illinois in 1988, and while I grew up fascinated with weapons and warrior cultures, I did not get into martial arts until I was an adult. I began training in karate (Shuri-Ryu) in the Summer of 2006 under Kevin Skoein (Nidan, Shuri-Ryu). Subsequently, I added training in Judo, kobudo, and iaijutsu within the next 6 months, continuing my training under Joey Johnston (Godan, Chief Instructor, Shuri-Ryu) and Joseph Walker (Kudan, Chief Instructor, Shuri-Ryu) after Kevin Skoien relocated. During my training there, I earned the rank of Sankyu (3rd Degree Brown Belt) in Shuri-Ryu, Gokyu (Green Belt) in Judo, passed a proficiency test in the use of the bo, and passed proficiency tests for the four tachigata of Shinkage-Ryu iaijutsu. Sadly, Joseph Walker passed away in 2023, after a battle with cancer.
Nidan (2nd Degree Black Belt) Certificate for Noah Legel from the Shorinkan Honbu Dojo in Naha, Okinawa, Japan
I moved to Arizona in the Summer of 2008, and continued training and researching karate at home, as my schedule and location prevented me from training at a karate dojo. I continued regular training in judo at a local club until 2010, when I was able to start training in Shorin-Ryu with Richard Poage (Godan, Shorin-Ryu, Shorinkan). I had been training with him ever since, and earned the rank of Shodan (1st Degree Black Belt) in Shorin-Ryu under him in the Summer of 2014, and Nidan in July of 2016. Sadly, Richard Poage passed away suddenly of brain cancer on December 27th, 2017. I continued training under Jeff Allred (Rokudan, Shihan, Shorin-Ryu, Shorinkan), and had my Sandan exam scheduled for September of 2019. Unfortunately, Jeff Allred ended up passing away, also following a battle with cancer, that summer, and my Sandan exam was canceled three weeks prior to the date that it was set for political reasons–a high ranking member of the organization found out that I didn’t intend to run my personal dojo as a Shorinkan dojo (although I did intend to stay in the organization, myself), and because of that, they decided that it was appropriate to cancel my exam, and refused to refund the $300 I had been required to pay in order to receive my certification from the honbu dojo on Okinawa. Had I been promoted, as Jeff Allred assured me I would (he told me, personally, that he already saw me as a Sandan when he scheduled the test, and the test was merely a formality), I would have subsequently been eligible for promotion to Yondan in September of 2023.
I began studying KishimotoDi under Sensei Ulf Karlsson (Shihan, KishimotoDi, Bugeikan) in 2014, after several months of personal study of his online materials, and continue to practice it in conjunction with my Shorin-Ryu. Ulf Karlsson travels to Okinawa for several months almost every year in order to train at the Bugeikan, directly with Higa Kiyohiko, the head of the organization. He is also the only person outside of Okinawa to be granted a Shihan license in the art of KishimotoDi. There are no ranks in the art, so progress is measured by how many of the four kata of the system a student has learned, and how many they have been authorized to teach. As of 2020, I had learned all four kata, and as of 2024, I am authorized to teach three of them.
In 2021, after encouragement from fellow karateka, I reached out to World Combat Association Chief International Coach, Iain Abernethy, with regard to testing for Sandan, and he worked with me to develop a grading syllabus for that purpose. Unfortunately, do to health issues, and Iain’s busy schedule, we never had the opportunity to schedule the test, itself. In 2023, I began corresponding with Nathan Ogden (Rokudan, Shihan, Tengoku-Ryu) with regard to the creation of a style-agnostic karate and kobudo organization whose goal was to help promote the development of effective, pragmatic, neoclassical practices across the Okinawan martial arts world. As part of this, we brought in several like-minded karateka to help bring the organization to life, and as of 2024, the International Neoclassical Karate Kobudo Society (INKKS) was officially recognized as a non-profit organization, and its first training event was scheduled for February 17th, 2024, featuring sessions taught by each member of the founding Board of Directors. In the process of developing the organization, and after hearing what had occurred regarding my rank following the passing of my instructors, Nathan Ogden offered to evaluate me for my overdue Sandan. I provided him with the syllabus that Iain Abernethy and I developed, as well as with the video footage necessary to perform the evaluation. Once he had completed that process, Nathan Ogden surprised me by backdating my Sandan certificate to align with when I should have originally tested, and promoted me to Yondan in recognition of my continued development and efforts in teaching and promoting karate. He also surprised me with a Renshi certification, which is a Shogo (Title) meaning “polished expert,” and which is the same title that my late Sensei held. I will continue doing everything I can to spread the sort of karate he would love to have seen people learning.
My focus in karate is kata bunkai (form analysis)–I am always studying my kata so that I can break them down into practical self defense techniques, and drill them with partners to develop them. This is something I am very passionate about, as I believe karate has strayed too far from its roots as an effective self defense system as it has become popularized over the course of the past century. In pursuit of developing my karate to be as practical as possible, I have competed in karate, Judo, and submission grappling, and often cross-train and spar with people from other martial arts, in order to become familiar with them and pressure test myself and my techniques. I also participated in an MMA (mixed martial arts) fight in the Autumn of 2013, to push myself under as much pressure as possible. I started Arizona Practical Karate at the end of 2019, in conjunction with my separation from Peaceful Warrior Martial Arts & Healing Center, and continued to teach until I relocated to Illinois in April of 2023. I have since established Illinois Practical Karate, and have began accepting students at my new location in Southern Illinois.
Previous Dojo:
- Peaceful Warrior Martial Arts & Healing Center, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
- HEART Judo, Mesa, AZ, USA
- Academy of Okinawan Karate, Morton/Peoria, IL, USA
Current Organization Memberships:
International Neoclassical Karate Kobudo Society, Co-Founding Member of the Board of Directors
World Combat Association, Member Instructor