Support Tai's Last Shot at Karate World Title

My name is Taichiro (Tai) Kaijima and I am fundraising for my trip to Cambrils, Spain in October this year to participate in the World Traditional Karate Championship.

I have been training Karate for 35 years and up until 2016 I was actively competing locally, nationally and internationally, and have won Individual Kata US national title 9 times.

This year I decided to compete at the national championship once again as I turned 50 years old. This motivated me to train harder, in between teaching classes 6-8 hours a week and working a full-time job. I was able to win the national title for the 10th time, and now I'm eligible to compete in the World Championship in October.

Karate is not all about competitions. It's actually about your self development, to train hard and to be better than you were yesterday. But the tournament gives me a short-term goal, to push myself harder than how I normally train. I actually became a US citizen just so that I can compete representing the US 14 years ago. So far I have competed in the world championships 3 times, and the highest position I achieved in Individual Kata was the 5th place.

I feel that this will be my last shot at winning the world championship title. Physically I'm not at my prime but mentally I'm more mature and focused. With your support, I can travel to Cambrils, Spain for a week and compete in the World Championship. I may also be able to serve as a coach for my students who are competing there.

I'm not going to promise you that I will win. However I will promise you that I will train hard for the next 5 months and will perform the best as I can at the world's stage. Thank you for reading this and thank you for your support.

(The cover photo was created by one of my students when I competed in the Worlds in 2016)