Craig Hocker
Instructor - Houston San Shin Kai

Dr. Hocker founded Houston San Shin Kai in 2002 as the first school in Texas for learning Muso Shinden Ryu (Iaido) under Roger Wehrhahn Shihan, Chief Instructor for North America San Shin Kai. While living in Virginia in the 1990's, he studied intensely for six years under Brian Kelley Sensei (Kelley Sensei began studying Muso Shinden Ryu in 1980 with Mitsunari Kanai Sensei in Boston at the New England Aikikai at a time when Soshu Mitsuzuka Sensei was regularly visiting and teaching in Massachusetts).

After moving to Houston, Dr. Hocker continued his training under Wehrhahn Shihan. In 2003 he went to Japan to train with Soshu Mitsuzuka Sensei and his senior Hachidan students at San Shin Kai headquarters Saitama Prefecture.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Hocker also has extensive training experience in aikido beginning at Blue Ridge Ki Society (BRKS) in January 1993 under Jonathan Doner Sensei and George Simcox Shihan. He began teaching in September 1995, and continued teaching classes weekly and training intensely many times a week until his departure to Houston in 1999.

From 1997 to 1999, he taught over a hundred beginning students in the University of Virginia aikido intramural course. He served as a board member of the Virginia Ki Society and as secretary and vice-president consectively at BRKS. Through the years he has cross-trained in various martial arts (judo, karate, taichi, Systema) and many other styles of aikido. He currently teaches on Thursday evenings at Houston Ki Society's Sugar Land location which he founded in 2000.



 

Hocker Sensei