Harry Benfield dies. . .

Dear George

Apologies for being the bearer of bad news but Harry died, last month, after a long term illness stretching over 5 years known as Pick's disease (a severe form of alzheimers).

Before that he spent the last 15 years teaching with a small group of loyal students with which he continued to train in a very traditional style but also innovated many techniques within a conditioning routine that we nicknamed 'Benny ryu'.

Unfortunately, he stopped teaching about 7 years ago after the dojo was demolished but the signs of the illness were there and he had no motivation to look for another dojo.

If you wish to send a card to his wife then she can be contacted at:

Barbara Benfield
14 Rothbury Road
Liverpool
L14 4AL
England

I'm sure she would appreciate it. If I cna be of any further help please don't hesitate to ask.

Harry Benfield's students

George
Apologies for the time it has taken to come up with a photo of Harry. On the photo of Harry are to Harry's right, Russ Booth and to his left Alan Sansbury (taken about 1993). Alan was Harry's top student after Rob Kendrick had emigrated to California and be became quite an Urban Myth in certain circles, such was his prowess. Alas, Alan appears to have stopped training seriously around the time Harry went into hospital.
When Harry visited Okinawa in about 1981 both Rob and Alan accompanied him.
I've included a photo of me (the pale one) with Rob Kendrick taken about 1990 at Ahti Kaend's dojo. It appears Rob stopped training 5 or 6 years ago after his latest black belt grading in Okinawa. He was originally one of Harry's students who emigrated in 1983 and would be a great loss to Uechi as he was an exceptional talent. Rob returned to visit his dying father about two years ago and spotted Harry in the same Nursing Home, but was even more shocked to find that communication with Harry was impossible such was the deterioration.

I would love to try and get myself in shape and come out and train with yourself, Harry thought a great deal about you, and often mentioned Bobby Campbell. Yours were names attached to stories that were told to inspire us on many a cold night.
I'll have a word with Alan when I next visit Liverpool and see if he might be up for such a visit and if we could track down Rob then we could make it a proper reunion.
I'll keep in touch, if that's ok?
John Murphy

Nijurokku!

From: Paul Brennan
Subject: Nijurokku

hi, sensei.

i realize you probably receive 1000s of emails a day, but if you have time, can you please clarify a personal curiosity of mine? it's in 3 parts.

first, what year did you create nijurokku and add it to the system?

second, i understand you created nijurokku for a test. we practice it frequently in our dojo, however, i'm curious as to why you created it. was it part of your personal development for a test you were taking, or was it something you felt important for your students to learn for their tests?

third, there is some debate as to what you feel is the primary purpose of the exercise. is it primarily a punching exercise, movement exercise, etc. or is there no primary purpose for it and it is "just an exercise"?

i would really appreciate any feedback you can give me regarding nijurokku, as i feel it will help me understand the exercise and style of uechi-ryu better.

thank you for your time,
kind regards,
Paul Brennan

Hi Paul:

I believe Nijurokku was created around 1963.
I created it primarily for new students as a level of performance relating to basic and generic material, prior to the formal curriculum found in Uechi-ryu.

Thanks for your kind e-mail and interesting questions.

Best,
George Mattson