Mattson Sensei joined our Training session

During our last session in November with students preparing for their black belts, we had the honor of welcoming a sharp and experienced eye to observe our work—Mattson Sensei visited us.

Our Sensei, Lionel Reynaud, had held a lengthy meeting earlier in the day with George Mattson and the board of his senior instructors. Following this meeting, he invited the Grandmaster to join us and meet the students in our practice community.

As one of our students said: “It was a real surprise to see him join our class, especially since Lionel hadn’t told us anything. It certainly adds a lot of pressure to demonstrate your work in front of a martial arts legend.”

We had a wonderful moment of exchange and sharing with Sensei Mattson, who was later joined by Justin Testa (Hanshi and instructor at the Mattson Academy alongside Lionel).

Justin has just published a book on the practice of Uechi-Ryu as taught by Kanei Uechi and Ryuko Tomoyose (what George Mattson refers to as The Old Way).

We plan to feature Justin’s book soon so … stay tuned.