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Sensei Frank Duffin

Sensi Frank Duffin was born in Missoula, Montana on July 22, 1963. After an incredibly busy grade school and high school career with a lot of extracurricular activity in music, sports, and literature, Sensei went to the University of Montana for one year and then went on a National Student Exchange program to a location as far away from Missoula as possible—the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA, (UMASS) where he started studying Goju Ryu.

Sensei didn’t just pick any style to train. He went around to visit a number of martial arts schools before he decided to train Goju Ryu. His decision was primarily because the style looked interesting, students were diligently training five days a week in a Lacrosse field, and the students were authentic.

After training at UMASS, Sensei began traveling to various Goju Ryu dojos throughout the country— Guatemala, Arkansas, Tennessee, Hawaii, and Alaska. Sensei eventually landed in Alaska where he had remarkable careers as an electrician, a carpenter, a commercial fisherman, and a university teacher.

After teaching at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, Sensei returned to New England to work as a secondary English teacher in the Providence School District. Sensei is currently an Instructional Reform Facilitator for the Providence School District coaching teachers at Feinstein High School. He has been training Goju Ryu for 20 years and is always learning more about the style, about his students, and about himself.

Sensei’s newfound passion is sailing. When not in the Dojo, Sensei can be found aboard “Quidditas”, sailing the open ocean.

In a recent article by Sensei titled Miscellaneous Thoughts About Movement, "I keep emphasizing the concept of movement as I teach Goju Ryu, but what do I actually mean by understanding it? When I see it, I know what it looks like. When I feel it, I know how it feels like. But trying to teach it is another issue. So, what does it mean to understand movement?..." more

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