Ehsan Malaki
Ehsan Malaki is currently official representative of Shotokan Karate-Do International Federation (SKIF) in British Columbia and chief instructor of Shotokan Karate Academy.
He started Shotokan karate in 1978 and received his first degree black belt (Shodan) in 1983.
In 1988 he joined Shotokan Karate International Federation (SKIF) and was training and teaching at Iran's SKIF head quarter between 1988 and 1991.
In 1989 he started Electrical Engineering program at IUST (Iran University of Science and Technology). He was the head coach of IUST from 1989 to 1993. During this time, he became 4 times champion of all Iran university championships. He graduated from university as top student in 1993. His thesis was "Digital Makiwara" that was able to measure power and speed of karate techniques by using computer analysis.
In 1991 he opened his own Dojo and continued teaching Shotokan karate until he moved to Canada in 1998.
He was coaching team BC (British Colombia) in 2003-2004. He received his 5th degree black belt (Go Dan) from kancho Hirokazu Kanazawa in 2006 and his 6th degree black belt (Roku Dan) from Iran Karate-do Federation. He is also a member of Karate BC.
Because of his engineering background he made lots of research in mathematics and dynamic of karate techniques and movements. He has very vast knowledge of Kihon, Kata, Bunkai (Kata application) and different types of Kumite.
Ehsan is an entrepreneur and investor in technology, healthcare sector. He is also involve in some development projects as an investor.
Ehsan’s favorite karate books:
Text: "Karate-Do My Way of Life" by Gichin Funakoshi
Kata: "Shotokan Karate International Kata" (Vol 1, 2) by Hirokazu Kanazawa
Kumite: "Shotokan Karate International Kumite Kyohan" by Hirokazu Kanazawa
Kumite: "Karate Fighting Techniques-The complete Kumite" by Hirokazu Kanazawa
Technical: "Dynamic karate" by Masatoshi Nakayama
Ricardo Vieira
A native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Ricardo started practicing Shotokan karate in 1984 with Shihan Ugo Arrigoni Neto. Under supervision of Arrigoni Sensei, Ricardo started teaching in 1989, receiving his black belt in 1990 from Shihan Yasutaka Tanaka.
He has competed at the collegiate and national levels and participated in many technical courses, learning from such masters as Hirokazu Kanazawa and Hidetaka Nishiyama.
Ricardo did his undergraduate studies in Brazil, majoring in Electronics Engineering, and in 2002 obtained a Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of British Columbia, after which, he built a career locally in the Financial and Technology sectors.
Ricardo has been training at Shotokan Karate Academy with Sensei Ehsan Malaki since 2021.
Behdad Naziri
Behdad started Karate at young ages in 1987 and awarded first degree Black Belt in Aug 2004 by Iran National Karate Federation. Behdad has extended his martial arts experience by practicing some full contact, boxing, participated some provincial competitions (Kumite) while continued practicing Karate and awarded his 2nd Dan in Shito-Ryu style in September 2006.
Despite multiple international relocations he has continued his karate journey with some short-term pauses and started Shotokan Karate in Dubai in 2019 and got awarded to 2nd Dan Shotokan from WKF on June 2020. In Canada, he has been training Shotokan SKIF in Shotokan Karate Academy with Sensei Ehsan Malaki since early 2021.
Behdad is holding Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Hult International business school and is a certified Life Coach from Rhodes Wellness College. He is an experienced Human Resources professional and built career from working internationally in various business sectors and multinational organizations.
Min Thant
Min started karate in 2012 at the age of 10 and received his black belt from Myanmar Shotokan Karate-Do Federation in 2015 and received 2nd degree black belt from Shihan Manabu Murakami in 2017.
Min is currently an international student from Myanmar (Burma) studying Bachelor of Graphic Design in LaSalle College Vancouver.
Min has been practicing at Shotokan Karate Academy under supervision of Sensei Ehsan Malaki since November of 2019.
