The Kaizen Culture Pod

Have your say to what we discuss on the show! We would love to hear your thoughts! Send us your ideas/feedback to our email or DM us on socials! kaizenculture.info@gmail.com Better yet... Sign up to our email list to be fully part of the community! https://kaizenculture.org/

What an incredible tournament the 2025 Series A in Malaysia was for our nation! We saw 31 Aussie athletes step out onto the Karate1 stage and in this episode, we are joined by Daniel Tielen who achieved a bronze medal from a division of 68! Join us in discussing Daniel’s journey through the rounds, highlighting some other great performances and talking about how important this event was for the fu...

Mindset. Motivation. Mastery. World Karate Cast sits down with Kamran Madani, former USA male kumite 84kg athlete and now National Team Coach, to talk about the athlete’s mentality and the coach’s perspective. Discover how his journey from competitor to mentor shapes his philosophy, and why the new Qualification Tournament is shaking things up on the road to the Karate World Championships in Cairo...

Kaizen Culture Pod on the road in Victoria! We are with Max Noble at his house after a massive week in Melbourne for the Super Seminar and Training Camp preparing for the Series A in Malaysia! Sitting down with Max to talk about his thoughts on training camps with friends, and the importance of recognising which stage you are at to compete overseas, including the ladder to becoming world champion...

We sit down with Scotland’s own Niamh Junner 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 in the female kumite +68kg category, who’s been living and breathing karate since she was nine years old. From starting competitions at 12 to now preparing for the Karate World Championships in Cairo 2025, Niamh shares her journey, her passion, and her perspective on the sport she loves.  Plus, we break down the brand new Qualification Tourname...

Trevor Kan is our special guest today tuning in live from Portugal at the tail-end of the IPP international tour! After kicking off with solid performances at the Series A Salzburg and Budapest Open, Trevor and the team make their way to Lisbon for another training camp before one last competition. Trevor is also an Accredited Sports Nutritionist, and has started his own nutritional coaching platf...

Episode 1 of World Karate Cast brings you an exclusive conversation with two of karate’s biggest stars. Hosts Nathan Blockley and Mitchell Durham sit down with Elena Quirici 🇨🇭 (#1 WKF World Ranking, 4x and current Grand Winner, Olympian) and Eray Şamdan 🇹🇷 (2x and current Grand Winner, Olympian). They share their stories from The World Games, their karate journeys, and what it takes to compete at...

Mitchell & Nathan, together with current Victorian State team kata coach, former National Team member and Senior World Championship representative, Meezaan Dickinson. In this episode, they discuss the immense and often under-appreciated value karate has given them over their careers and the unlimited opportunities they have had the privilege of experiencing. And their involvement in karate has...

More national coaches join the Kaizen Culture Pod this week! Sensei Matt Johnson from Shingokan Karate, Adelaide, and Sensei Robyn Choi from Seiha Shitoryu Karate, Brisbane. With the head national coach of the Cadet, Junior & U21 program in Sensei Matt, paired with senior national coach, Sensei Robyn, an opportunity was presented for the next generation of Australian superstars to gain immense...

For the first time in the new Karate 1 Youth League system, an Australian has taken home GOLD! Dardan Jahiu takes out the Cadet Male Kumite +70kg with a win in Monterrey, Mexico!! Hannah joins us after just coming back from the World Games and we discuss how insane that event was! We also chat about the Asian Youth Camp & Competition that is on right now with a big Aussie team of youngsters ov...

Just because Nationals are over, doesn’t mean the season is done! National coaches for the International Pathways Program (IPP), Darren Olsen and Lliam Worthington join us on today's episode talking about the program itself and a very exciting tour that is planned! Darren is a longtime server of the karate community as both an athlete and coach, now Samurai Karate Australia Head of Style (Shi...

What a National Championships that was! Adelaide, congratulations for putting on a great show! We talk about some of the big time results and moments that happened over the weekend, and share the love for the best community. A very important question has come in asking about the integrity of athletes and crowd actions during competition, tune in to hear what this is all about and how much this mat...

We have a special guest to help us preview the National Championships in Adelaide! Amy Connell is joining us to chat all things Guardian Girls and give us some insight to what it's like being a Scottish karate icon! Stick around to hear us chat about packages, photo gallery, T-Shirt sales and need to know information on the Super Seminar! Send us your thoughts to our email and have your say t...

We have been offline for a little bit as the Oceania championships took over the Australian karate world! This was one of the most insane events, some serious challenges were faced in New Caledonia for the Oceania Championships. New champions were crowned and the Senior World Championship athletes have been locked away. Have your say to what we discuss on the show! We would love to hear your thoug...

We are nearing the Oceania Championships in Noumea, New Caledonia! Sit back and hear us go through the team and chat about what this means for the Senior athletes! Also Nathan and Mitch play some fun karate games, so play along! Have your say to what we discuss on the show! We would love to hear your thoughts! Send us your ideas/feedback to our email or DM us on socials! kaizenculture.info@gmail.c...

For the first time ever, Karate will be showcased at the 2025 World Masters Games in Taipei in a few weeks time! We had to do an emergency pod to get the full run down on this massive moment. What makes it even more special, we chat to our very own Aussie vets who are going; Scott McDowell, Yvette Stolk, Adam Smith, and Karen Hall! Getting the inside scoop of the Games, how they are feeling about...

Today we have another special guest to talk about kata! Dylan Fisher is a national team member competing out of Shobukan Martial Arts in Perth and the Western Australian state team! He has represented Australia at the Junior World Championships and even the U21 World Combat Games held in Saudi Arabia in 2023? Tune in to hear his thoughts on the current state of kata across all levels, his recent b...

More international success for our young Aussies! Hudson Maggio, Lucy Maggio and Matthew Riley have all come home with medals from the US Open in Las Vegas, one of the biggest Open tournaments in karate! Celebrate their success with us and lets dive into their trip a little bit. We also go through some of the things that happened at the Premier League in Cairo and Mitch opens up and shares his hon...

There is a lot to cover in today's episode! Breaking news… Ali Sofuolgu has received a 2 year ban on top of every accolade stripped from him over the last 2 years, including his European & World Championship Gold Medal! Drug bans and anti-doping violations are rarely talked about, it’s something that is kept very quiet in the community, however, Mitch, Nathan & Jon discuss it all toda...

We always talk about athletes and how mistakes can lead to losses at competitions, but we never discuss what a mistake will cost a WKF referee? Are they too harsh on the world's best referees? Suspensions can be up to 12 months, and we need all the quality refereeing we can get. Mitch, Nathan and Jon discuss next week’s Australian Open and more details around the new Oceania qualification eve...

Aussies are once again back on the world stage with Hannah, Iris and Mitch competing at the Premier League in Hangzhou, China! Hannah is looking for some momentum after kicking things off in Paris earlier this year, while Iris and Mitch are going in for their first one this year! We also have some big news to share… Nathan & Kaizen Culture are official media for this event! Send us your though...

JAMES GIULIANO is the special guest for today’s episode! There needs to be a full Get To Know episode just for this Australian Kata legend, but for now we have brought him in to discuss an exciting new opportunity with Kaizen Culture, and the landscape of kata on the international stage compared to when he was at his peak throughout the 2010s Have your say to what we discuss on the show! We would...

Join in the conversation as we discuss the first National Team Training Camp of the Year and the CONTROVERSIAL new selection criteria for athlete’s selection at the 2025 Oceania Championships! We also touch on the Aussies competing this weekend at the Series A in Larnaca, as well as a BIG update to our Kaizen Culture website. Have your say to what we discuss on the show! We would love to hear your...

We have so much planned for you to take advantage of in 2025!! Watch Parties, Podcasts, Our September Seminar and more. Tune in to hear all about it as we talk about the year ahead. Plus, despite it being only the first month of the year, Aussies are already overseas competing and the first National Team Training Camp begins tomorrow! Have your say to what we discuss on the show! We would love to...

After 21 episodes, this is it for 2024! Thank you so much for jumping on board and contributing so much to this amazing karate community! The inaugural Karate World Cup is next week and we refresh everyone on what the competition will look like, how it works and going through the Australian team that will be fighting over there! We even give our picks on which teams will make it through the groups...