What is the Okinawan Karate Club of Dallas?

The OKCD is a traditional martial arts school, located in Farmers Branch (North Dallas), that practices Okinawan Shorin Ryu karatedo as taught by Eizo Shimabukuro, Grandmaster. The vast majority of yudansha (black belts) in the school have been promoted by Shimabukuro O'Sensei himself.

We also practice Shudokan karate-do as taught by the late Walter Todd, United States Shibucho for the late Kanken Toyama..

Recently, we have also added the study of Toei Jujutsu and Arnis to our curriculum.

Our History

The Okinawan Karate Club of Dallas, Inc.began in 1984 by Ilene J. Smoger Sensei with the assistance of Sean Deuby Sensei. The two karateka, then new shodans, met each other in 1982 at an apartment complex in North Dallas when Smoger Sensei saw Deuby Sensei's  "Original Okinawa Karate" t-shirt while passing each other at the laundry room. Since Okinawan karateka are always a minority and often find themselves without a dojo or training partner when relocating to a new town, they immediately struck up a conversation. (As in most martial arts, the conversation sounded like a discussion between a pair of geneologists : "Who was your teacher? Sensei X, who studied with Q and R. Q studied with A for 40 years until his death." "Hey, my teacher's teacher also studied with A for many years. How do you do Passai Sho?")

It turns out they both had just come down from college in Michigan, where they'd studied very similar Okinawan Shorin Ryu styles in dojos 60 miles apart. Smoger Sensei was from Shimabukuro O'Sensei's school, and Deuby Sensei studied with Iha Seikichi Sensei of  Miyahira Katsuya's Shidokan school. For the next two years they practiced at The Hockaday School in Dallas, where Smoger Sensei was the Chairperson of Health and Physical Education. In 1984, Smoger Sensei taught a self-defense class at Brookhaven Community College in Dallas and invited the class to continue their training in the old gymnasium at Hockaday in the evening. Those were the first classes of the OKCD, of which Sharon Knox Deuby is the sole remaining karateka.

In the intervening years, the OKCD has held classes in two dance studios and an aerobics studio. After sixteen years as a tenant  in other people's spaces, we finally have a nice space of our own in Farmers Branch, Texas where we have been since 1999.