Founder&Grandmaster | TSG-International

The title Soke means Grandmaster or head of the family.
The founder of the Tsu Shin Gen International Budo Association (TSG) was Soke David C. Cook 10th Dan.

He had over 50 years of experience of teaching Kyokushin Karate, TSG - Ashihara International Karate and more recently his own TSG KARATE, TSG Combat Karate and TSG Japanese Mix Fight systems.

During this time, he has studied in Japan and other countries under various Karate and more recently Grappling Masters. He also spent some time studying the Wing Chun style of Kung Fu at the Chinese Legation in London in the early nineteen seventies.

From the very beginning he was very interested in improving his knowledge of Martial Arts and he did not allow himself to be confined by a style.

In his opinion Martial Arts can be much more than just fighting arts. It can be a way of life. During the long arduous hours of Martial Arts training one goes through many physical and mental tests. These tests develop a strong character, because one is often forced to go beyond one’s own imagined limits.

As a student reaches a new grade or level, and has mastered one set of techniques, the next level is always waiting and requires more hard work and hardships.

Just as in everyday life, when one has learned to cope with one set of problems a new and often more difficult set crops up. The never-ending effort to improve one’s techniques is what develops a strong “fighting spirit”. The fighting spirit attained by those who have trained Martial Arts for many years, often helps them to overcome problems in life that would break the spirit of another person.

Soke Cook spent fourteen years with Sosai Mas. Oyama's 10th Dan Kyokushin Organisation.

At one time he was the Chairman of the Swedish Karate Kyokushinkai and a Kyokushin Branch Chief.

In 1977 he was one of the first two Europeans to complete the 50 Man Kumite. Fifty rounds of full contact Kyokushin Knockdown Fighting, two minutes each round, without any rest periods.

He is the author of the excellent instruction book based on the Kyokushin Style - Power Karate that was released in 1980 and more recently an updated version.

Soke Cook 10th Dan

and

Sosai Mas Oyama 10th Dan

In 1987 he visited Kancho Ashihara in Japan because he had heard that Kancho Ashihara had started to break with the traditional way of teaching Karate in Japan, and this seemed like it might be an interesting development. On his return from Japan, he started promoting the Ashihara Style in Europe. Within a few years he developed the couple of European Dojos that had been established under Kancho Ashihara, into a larder organisation with branches in more than ten countries.

In 1990 at the Ashihara European Summer Camp, he was unanimously elected to be the Chairman of the European Organisation, which was formed at a meeting of all the European Country Representatives and Black Belts attending the camp.

Although he thought that Ashihara Karate was a step in the right direction, he felt that there was still room for a lot of improvement, so he continued to develop the system adding fighting combinations for every grade and developing the Kata so that they could always be practised with a partner (Uke). This new version of the system was re-named Ashihara International Karate.

Soke Cook 10th Dan

and

Kancho Ashihara 10th Dan

In February 1991 he was invited to be the guest of honour at a Tournament held in Irkutsk, Siberia. He was also asked to teach and demonstrate the techniques of Ashihara International in the former Soviet Union. This was the beginning of the Ashihara International in what was the Soviet Union. Since then he has made more than 50 visits to Russia and Ukraine.

The progress of Ashihara International and the standard of the students in that part of the world are of the highest calibre. A number of International Tournaments have been held in Russia. A number of these Tournaments were shown on Russian national television. He also developed new tournament rules which proved to be a success both for the fighters and the spectators.

Soke Cook has also trained Shito Ryu Karate and Kobudo under Soke J. Ruiz 10th Dan, in the USA. Soke Ruiz is one of the world’s most knowledgeable Martial Arts Grand Masters and he has had a lasting influence on

Soke Cook.

Soke Cook’s path from a traditional Karate style, Kyokushin Karate, to a less traditional style, Ashihara Karate, to a more modern version, Ashihara International Karate and his own systems have one thing in common - Bunkai (application).

When he first came into contact with Soke Ruiz, 10th Dan, in the USA in 1982 one of the things that impressed him most was Soke Ruiz’s knowledge of Kata Bunkai, application of the Kata techniques.

Having trained Kyokushin Karate where Bunkai of Kata was not a well-developed concept, he was impressed by the ability of Soke Ruiz to go back to the roots of the Kyokushin Kata and demonstrate the original Bunkai of the Kata.

Therefore when he developed Ashihara International Karate from the Japanese Ashihara Karate, he was determined that all the techniques of every Kata could be performed with a training partner (Uke). This made the Bunkai automatic because the students learnt the Kata in the Bunkai form and this is thanks to the influence of Soke Ruiz.

Soke Cook 10th Dan

and

Soke J. Ruiz 10th Dan

In 1995 Soke Cook decided to develop a mixed fighting system together with the TSG KARATE and TSG - Combat Karate system he was developing.These were based on his own personal knowledge, experience and way of teaching.

The first version of this system was presented at the 1996 Summer Camp in Holland.

The name of the system is now TSG Japanese Mix Fight

In 2002 Soke Cook revised the TSG Japanese Mix Fight system and it was introduced at the Swedish Summer Camp.
Also in August 2002, Soke Cook was inducted into the “World Head of Family Sokeship Council”. (Soke is the title used for a person who is the founder of a style. He is the Grandmaster of the style.)

In 2004 Soke Cook completely revised the TSG Japanese Mix Fight system once again to keep up with some of the developments in this type of fighting.

The first Tournaments were held using the TSG’s new Competition rules.

In 2005 Soke Cook turned his attention to the education of the TSG Instructors and the production of the Instructors Guidelines.

Soke Cook 10th Dan and Hanshi Ivan Titenkov 8th Dan

The Tsu Shin Gen web site was opened and the international interest for TSG started to grow, especially in the Russian Federation among other countries.

In 2006 Soke Cook revised the TSG KARATE system. This progressive Karate fighting system is now built around 10 newly developed Kata containing realistic and effective fighting combinations.

These combinations are suitable for various forms of Self-defence and fighting.

In 2008 Soke Cook was promoted to 9th Dan in recognition of the contribution that he had made to Martial Arts during the previous 40 years.

In 2010 Soke Cook developed and added 4 Fighting Combinations to each of the grades from 10th Kyu to 3rd Dan for the

TSG-Kyokushin Karate Syllabus, a total of 52 fighting combinations, in order to improve the fighting knowledge of the students.

In 2012 Soke Cook released DVDs covering the systems he teaches.

In 2012 a completely revised version of his famous book "Power Karate" was published.

In December 2014 Soke Cook was awarded 10th Dan.

In 2017 Soke Cook publishes 4 new books on the systems he teaches: TSG KARATE, TSG Japanese Mix Fight, TSG-Ashihara International Karate and TSG-Kyokushin Karate.

In 2020 he published a book and DVD on the latest version of his system TSG KARATE

Up to the year 2021 Soke Cook has taught Karate and Japanese Mix-Fight in a total of 23 countries.