Sensei Chuck Sweigart

Sensei Sweigart has lived a life full of excitement, accomplishment, and history.

The son of a military policeman, the “martial”, or military way, has been a part of his life as long as he can remember. His mother being from Japan and Grandmother being “bushi” or Samurai has affected his life greatly. Sensei remembers stories told by his mother about her childhood. She would talk about members of her family and young men always travelling in pairs and having incredible jumping abilities, describing Ninja like skills, and how they would develop incredibly strong fingers for striking.

Sensei spent his youth focusing on athletic activities, becoming very proficient in football, basketball and baseball. He was one of the first athletes to earn 8 varsity letters at his alma-mater, Lakes High School, and he made the all state baseball team as a pitcher his senior year. After the conclusion of his college athletic career he decided to pursue Karate, studying Shotokan for 5 years. It was during a seminar with the great Shotokan master Asai Sensei, where he witnessed a demonstration of ippon kumite. He had never seen such precise and deadly movement. When asking who this was he learned that is was Matsura Sensei and that he was teaching at the Washington Karate Association. Sensei immediately joined the WKA and the rest is history. Finally, under the tutelage of Hanshi Julius Thiry, Sensei Sweigart felt that he had found what he was seeking, real and pure karate.

He became passionate about competing and trained hard enough to win the National Championship in 1995, 96, and 97.

Parallel to his competition career, he was selected to become the Sensei at the WKA Lakewood Dojo in 1995 and began to concentrate on developing the school, judging, and refereeing. In 1997 he received his National Kumite Referee license from the USANKF and served on the USANKF board of directors as the Shito-ryu representative from 1994-2007. After attending his first Pan-American championships in the Dominican Republic in 1998, he earned the level of Pan-American Referee. It was only the second time in the history of the Pan-American Karate Federation that anyone jumped to the top level on the first try. In 2001 Sensei was placed on the USANKF Referee Committee. This was a tremendous responsibility as this committee is in charge of the testing, educating, and guiding all referees and judges in the USA for both kata and kumite. It also is accountable for insuring that the rules are enforced based on traditional karate concepts.

In 2004 Sensei Sweigart received the highest kumite referee license from the World Karate Federation. Shortly after, he passed for Kata Judge A and became one of only seven Americans to hold the WKF Karate Referee license. One of the highlights along this journey was being selected to referee in a gold medal match, in front of 12,000 spectators, at the World Championships in Mexico.

Sensei Sweigart also attended the World Championships in Tokyo, Japan at the famous Budokan in 2008. While there, he was able to spend time with his relatives.

It was then he learned about his Grandmother being “Bushi” or Samurai.

Karate has been such a vital part of his life so learning that he had a direct lineage with a Samurai clan made so much sense as to why he had this strong passion and enthusiasm for it. He has always been fascinated with the way of the Samurai and now, with this connection, feels that it is his destiny to continue to educate students to be disciplined, respectful, and to be contributing citizens to society, always striving for excellence in every part of their life. “This pursuit of excellence is a quality that champions of all walks of life embrace” says Sensei Sweigart.

He is known worldwide for his excellent instruction and knowledge of karate-do and is highly sought out to do seminars across the world. He has developed many national and international champions, including current US national team members. The Lakewood Dojo competition team has a reputation as being one of the strongest in the USA.

Sensei Sweigart currently holds the rank of Godan, or 5th degree black belt in the International Hayashi-ha Shito ryu Federation.

He was also inducted into the Martial Arts Hall of Fame as a Living Legend in 2010. He is studying Gracie Jiu-Jitsu holds the rank of blue belt. He is also one of the senior referee’s in the World Karate Federation and can be seen at the World Championships every year refereeing in many medal matches.

He currently chairs the referee commission for the International Hayashi-ha Shito-ryu Federation, and also serves on the referee committee for USA Karate, the governing body for karate under the US Olympic Committee.

Sensei Sweigart can also be found every day in the Lakewood Dojo doing what he loves the most- teaching karate-do.

Watch Sensei Sweigart in Action

As one of the most senior referees in the World Karate Federation, Sensei Sweigart has been selected to referee and judge in many medal bouts at the World Championships and Pan-Am Games. Here are a few. Enjoy!