In 2000 I won the Northeast Full Contact Karate Championships. After the event I was introduced to Arne Soldwedel. I will never forget this intro due to the fact that I had watched this guy smash people on TV and video, respected him tremendously, and was seriously humbled that he searched me out. The funny part of our initial contact was this idiot from Tiger Schulman’s that stepped in front of Arne to talk with me. This jackass totally cut off a legit warrior to spout off about how great TSK is and how I should check them out. I laughed, pushed the jackass away, and gave Arne the respect he deserved.
Arne Soldwedel is a founding member of Andy Hug’s fight team, World Sabaki Challenge Champion, top 8 finisher at the Seidokaikan All Japan, finalist in the Shidokan, K-1 vet, and more…. Simpy, Arne Soldwedel is a bad dude. This is a guy who was living and training in upstate NY that decided to get on a plane and learn from the source in Japan. Arne took his lumps and worked his way up in the Seidokaikan Karate organization and K-1.
Seidokaikan Karate is not what you know Karate to be in America. Seidokaikan is bare knuckle full contact fighting and kickboxing. Founder Kazuo Ishii, took the already hard style of Kyokushin Karate, put his own spin on it and created Seidokaikan. In a Kyokushin dominated Japan, Seidokaikan had to make its mark. Ishii trained a hit squad of fighters then unleashed them on all comers. Ishii knew his fighters would never win a decision so he put together a system that set up Knockouts in an efficient way. Seidokaikan fighters went on a path of destruction that solidified their system and set the groundwork for the K-1 organization.
Arne Soldwedel is one of the Seidokaikan raiders created by Ishii. I was fortunate enough to train a few years with Arne who taught me how to fight as an outsider. He showed me how to take people out, in many cases these lessons were me getting taken out over and over again. The years I trained with Arne and Seidokaikan were the hardest I have ever personally trained but they were the smartest as well.
The amazing thing about Seidokaikan was how hard they trained everyday with a system that protected you. Super intense but safe training was and is their secret. While others break themselves down we were building ourselves up. To this day I can never repay the lessons on training smart I learned from Arne and the training opportunities he afforded me abroad. Seidokaikan took me to Japan and Europe to compete and train with some really amazing people.
So due to my time getting my ass kicked around the globe Real Elite trains hard, trains efficient, and most importantly trains safe!
Brian Wright
Real Elite
805 4th Ave
Asbury Park, NJ, 07712
(732) 481-9117