By Bill Bly

Eimi Kurita Interview

Q: I believe you recently turned 18 years old. Already you have had quite an international career especially with your bronze medal at the World Championship in Finland. What are your goals – school, karate, other?

Goals

A: My goals for school are to probably go to a community college here in Hawaii and get all my core classes out of the way. Then I would like to go to a massage school. I want to be a masseuse!!! I originally wanted to be a physical therapist but unfortunately Hawaii does not have any courses for physical therapy, and I didn't want to leave the island because of training reasons. But my back up plan was to be a masseuse.

As far as my goals in karate, I have many but the goal that I want to achieve the most is to be a World Champion, not only in kata but also in kumite. It may sound crazy and many say its probably impossible, and it might be, but this is my ultimate goal in karate and I will do anything to achieve them... haha!!!

My other goals would probably be to just compete all over and get the most out of the experience, and maybe even open my own dojo under my sensei one day!

Training and schedule

Q: Are you preparing for the upcoming World Championship in Japan?

A: I had a knee injury, it was not so extreme, I didn’t have to get any surgery, but I had to do physical therapy for a while. I was told by my therapist not to train any kumite just to be safe. So for a month and half I had been taking it easy on the kumite training, still doing kata, running, and a little bit of strength training for the knee.

As for the training for Worlds, Elisa has helped me make a training regimen geared for the World Championships, and I will start that in January. But I'm mentally preparing for now!!! Haha

Q: What is your training regimen like, you are lucky to have such great instructors and so many good partners? Tell us about your training and whom you work with.

A: I am so lucky to have great partners like sensei George, Shannon Nishi, Sensei Maile, and Elisa. Well, actually Elisa left us. Ha Ha. But when she was here, it was great. During competition time I like to combine karate and physical training, I think for me the combination works the best.

As for the physical training I do cardio for endurance, sprints, calisthenics, and some ply metrics. And for the karate training, I usually train kata on my own time three times a week, and at the dojo six times a week. I believe that combining both is very important to be successful at the competitions.

This year, Shannon was able to help me out a lot before Jr. Pan Ams. She would help me with my kumite 2 to 3 times a week before class for about an hour and a half. I love training with Shannon because she doesn't only help me with the physical aspects of karate but also the mental aspects, so I was ready for anything that would of been thrown at me!

I love having Sensei Maile here back in Hawaii because she taught me many explosive workouts, which I really need! She has so much knowledge with workouts and such!!

Sensei George and Sensei Chuzo Kotaka also helped me a lot this year. Sensei George helped me more with kumite, with different kumite drills.

Sensei Chuzo Kotaka helped me with my kata twice a week for two hours!!! So its great to have a great combination of all of them, I like to take a little of everything from everyone!

Q: What is your competition schedule for 2008?

A: I will definitely be competing at the US Open, Sr. Pan American Championships, AAU Nationals, NKF Nationals, and hopefully the Sr. World Championships :)!!!

Q: You worked with Elisa Au on her DVD set what was that project like for you?

A: It was a great experience for me. While I was watching her shoot and everything she had to do and say, I thought to myself "I could NEVER EVER DO THIS!" haha. But I also thought maybe one day if I am ever able to be as successful as Elisa is I will make my own DVD. Then I started to take down mental notes and tips!!! Haha.

It was also fun because I have never been to L.A before and that’s where we went to shoot it, and it wasn't like we were going there for a tournament, it was a great feeling knowing you didn’t have to stress about competition. It was almost like a vacation for us!!!

School

Q: What are you plans for school in the future and how are you enjoying it now.

A: Well, I am not enrolled in school right now. I had some complications with my school and graduation. I wasn't able to graduate at the same time as my classmates because Sr. Pan American Championships was on same weekend as my graduation! I chose going to Mexico for Sr. Pan Ams instead of my graduation.

My school has a strict attendance policy, 11 or more absences per semester and you fail the course. So my principal pretty much failed me for having too many absences from competitions and for not attending my graduation!!! But I made up my credits during the summer time through Internet classes and received my diploma!

Like I said, my plans for school are to go to a massage school. I love giving massages and I also like getting them too!!! And I think it would be good to know about all the muscles in the body and it would be helpful with karate! And as for not going to school right now, it’s AWESOME!!!

About Eimi

Q: What are your hobbies tell us a bit about Eimi outside of karate. What do you like to do with free time?

A: Hmmmm... During my free time, I LOVE LOVE to EAT! So my friends and I have this thing called "FAT NIGHT" and we just buy bunch of ice cream (chocolate chip cookie dough is the best), cookies, chips, and everything else with a thousand calories and just eat all night! Everyone should try it, total stress reliever!!!

I also love going out to eat dinner with my friends, shopping, going to the beach, listening to music, and dressing up!!! I just pretty much love being with my friends!!! And I love hanging out with my family also. My sisters are awesome, I have two older sisters, the oldest one is 29, named Chikako, and the other is 27, named Tomomi!!!

Role Models

Q: Who are your influences and how would you like to influence other young competitors and aspiring athletes.

A: I have and had many influences in my life. When I first started karate it was my brother Masa, I followed his footsteps and started training karate. Ever since then I always wanted to be better than him. But no matter what, he would always be better than me! I guess he had the special touch that I didn’t have which made me so mad and made me push myself even harder!

When I started to go to advance classes I was able to train with Elisa, Shannon, and Maile! They have influence in such a big way; their work ethic is crazy.

Elisa was always trying her best no matter what, even if we were doing kihon kata ichi a thousand times, every time she would be giving it her 100 percent!

Shannon, oh gosh, even with a busted knee she would still gives it all she got. Shannon always knows how to put a smile on my face and brings such a positive vibe to class.

Maile has the strongest mind; no matter how tired she was she pushed herself to the limit! Maile is also a great instructor; she inspires me to become a good instructor like her. Having them by my side, its crazy, I mean how could you not get influenced and pulled in by their energy!!!

I want the younger competitors and athletes to look at me and say, "If she could do it than I can do it!" I believe that if you have the motivation and the heart for karate, you can beat some one who has just mere talent! I am definitely not a girl who is athletic at all. At school or in karate, I was always the slowest during running or I couldn’t jump over the rope, I had no coordination what so ever! I hope that I can influence them to just stay motivated no matter what!

Hard work pays off in the end and I have learned that. I hope I can inspire more athletes to love kata like I do because I have learned that many people think Kata is not karate, only kumite is! I want to break that stereotype! I want to translate my passion through my kata like how Wakai Atsuko and other great kata competitors have done for me!

Q: Members of IKF are known for being well rounded in competition, for kumite, kata and kobudo. In addition to a steady stream of top athletes we see successful students. Can you speak a bit about the discipline or focus developed that carries over from karate training to your personal lives?

A: Well, in IKF Sensei Chuzo Kotaka is very strict about our Gis and our appearance even during practice. We always have to wear kata gis with our patches on it. Sensei is also very strict about standing straight with good posture, he doesn't stand for talking during classes and I have learned that through personal experiences. When I was younger I loved to talk, (I still do, but I try to limit myself during class now) so one day during class, I was whispering with one of my classmates, I ended up having to do push-ups for the whole two hours of class! That definitely taught me a lesson!

Karate definitely helped me to be more discipline in life as a whole. Especially when I was younger, it helped me stay out of trouble like with drugs or alcohol. Karate gave me an identity for a very strong mindset and myself. I never gave in to peer pressure, I was always able to say "No" and stand up for myself, which are some of the problem teens have these days. I remember learning about drugs and alcohol in elementary and middle school and how they would tell us it would make us perform really bad in sports and in school, and I told myself "I am never going to do drugs or alcohol" because I didn't want to do bad in karate!

Q: There is a new generation of upcoming athletes competing for the United States. Do you get to make a lot of friends as you travel and train with the US teams?

A: YES! It’s awesome, especially last year at Jr. Pan American Championships in Ecuador. Everyone got along so well and the team was so united. I also made so many close friends like Brian Ramrup, Ashley Hill, Marisabel Molina, William Vassar and etc. Its great to know that there are people out there who share the same crazy passion that I do.

In Hawaii, even if I do have Shannon and Maile, its different because Shannon is so good in so many other sports such as basket ball. So she has to concentrate about basketball also. But for me, Karate is all I have. I don’t do any other sports nor can I do them with my un-athletic abilities!

Sensei Maile, she's a little older than I am and is focusing on work and other aspects of her life. Although I do work now, its only part time and I don't have as much responsibility like she does.

We help each other a lot, we teach each other about what kind of workouts we do or share our knowledge about training regimens. Having them as friends helps me to know that I am not crazy for having such a strong passion for a sport like karate! So it’s great to have them to talk to, we keep in touch through face book and by phone. I am very close to all of them and they have helped me develop more love for karate more than ever!

Q: Is there anything you would like to say to your friends or speak about in general?

A: I want to thank everyone from my dojo who has supported me financially and for believing in me! I am so grateful for the teammates that I have who train so hard which helps me push myself. Thank you Sensei George and Sensei Chuzo Kotaka for spending your time for my training!

I would definitely like to say thank you to my family, especially my parents. They have supported from the beginning and pushed me so much. I'm so thankful for them because they have allowed me to enter every tournament that I have always wanted to at whatever price it was! And I always remember my mom telling me " When you go through something tough, something good will always come out of it!" I always keep that in mind when I feel like giving up! I'm glad that they pushed me as much as they did, even if at that time I just wanted to quit, it has taught me to stick to one thing and strive for what I want!

I want to give a shout out to all my teammates, Ashley, Marisa, Sakura, Tyler, Shannon, Elisa, Maile, Rumi, Brian, Vassar, Gabe, George, Rodrigo, Jose, JoseB, Brandis, Kevin, Shoji, Takeshi, and Milan!!! HAIIITTTT!!!