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The head instructor of
Heijoshin Karate-do is Sensei Jim Pounds. Mr. Pounds is ranked 6th degree
black belt (Rokudan), Goju-Ryu Karate-do Seiwa Kai and 5th degree
black belt (Godan) Japan Karate Federation Goju Kai. He also
holds Yudansha ranking in both Okinawan Goju Ryu - Jundokan
International and
Shito-Ryu-Motobu-ha, and has over 35 years of martial arts experience.
Mr. Pounds began karate
training in the Japanese Soryu style in 1973 under Sensei Joe Alvarado of
Austin, Texas. For more than nine years he studied Shito-Ryu under Shihan
Don Coslet. Even as a Shito-Ryu practitioner, he also had the good fortune
to train under Shorin-Ryu Hanshi Jim Hawkes,
head of the United States Karate Alliance. While a Shito-Ryu instructor,
Mr. Pounds began concurrent study in Okinawan Goju-Ryu in 1991 under Sensei
Teruo Chinen, and became an accredited instructor in the Jundokan International
Organization. In 2004 he moved Heijoshin Dojo into the Japan Karate
Federation (JKF) Goju Kai, becoming the representative for the Texas Goju Ryu Seiwa Kai
Organization in 2006. He is the Head Instructor of the St. Edward's
University Karate Club, and an adjunct Kinesiology instructor.
Sensei Theresa
Herrera-Pounds is assistant instructor and women's coach.
She holds a 4th degree black belt ranking (Yondan) in Goju-Ryu Karate-do
Seiwa Kai and also Yundansha ranking in Okinawan Goju Ryu - Jundokan
International. She began her training in 1989 at the Hills Shito-Ryu in
Austin, Texas.
Both Senseis are also
certified Kundalini Yoga Instructors and have incorporated many of the benefits
of stretching and breath control of yoga into martial arts warm-ups and training,
believing that yoga and karate-do compliment one another and can lead to a synergistic,
injury-free practice beneficial to the health and longevity of our
practitioners.
Assistant Instructors are Seraina Eldada,
Nidan, Goju-Ryu Seiwa Kai (also Nidan Shorin-Ryu) and Alfred Molina, Shodan,
Goju-Ryu Seiwa Kai.
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