(Responsible for Europe)
“An accurate master”
FRANK PELNY was born on September 14, 1960 in Nordhausen / Germany. Nordhausen is a town on the southern edge of the Harz low mountain range and is located in the state of Thuringia. Before 1989 this area belonged to the GDR.
At the age of 14 he started with Judō and in 1981, as part of his military training, with Shōtōkan karate and military close combat. In total, he served for 10 years as an officer in various special military units of the NVA (National People’s Army) of the GDR (German Democratic Republic).
In 1994 Pelny Sensei also began Kobudō training (Gendai Goshin Kobu-Jutsu). In 2001 he switched to the Ryukyu Kobudō Tesshinkan and has been a personal student of Tamayose Hidemi Sensei ever since.
From 2004 he took on the role of technical director at the Ryūkyū Kobudō Tesshinkan – Europe and has since been in charge of the Tesshinkan dōjō in Europe, parts of Asia and Latin America. In 2018, he was officially authorized as Shibu-Chō (branch manager) for the Dōjō in Europe.
The first foreign seminars followed in 2007, at which he taught Tesshinkan in the Russian Federation, and later also in Canada, Belarus, Sri Lanka and Brazil.
Pelny Sensei has already been to Okinawa for training more than ten times in recent years and has also competed in six world tournaments. He achieved his best placings with the vice world championship titles at the “2015 Okinawa Traditional Kobudō World Tournament” in the Bô senior category and at the “2024 Okinawa Traditional Kobudō World Tournament” in the Sai senior category.
In 2020, Pelny Sensei passed the 6th Dan in the Ryūkyū Kobudō Tesshinkan with Tamayose Hidemi Sensei on Okinawa and in 2019 the 7th Dan in the Karate-Dō Shōtōkan-Ryū in the German Karate Association.
In particular, his specialist book publications and the YouTube channel on the subject of Ryūkyū Kobudō Tesshinkan brought him worldwide recognition. It is currently the most comprehensive documentation of a Ryūkyū Kobudō system.
In 2018, Tamayose Hidemi Sensei recognized Frank Pelny’s commitment by awarding him the Shihan-Menkyo (teacher diploma).
In addition, Pelny was awarded a certificate of honor by the “Okinawa Ken Kobudô Renmei” in 2015 and also by the “Ryûkyû Kobudô Tesshinkan Kyō Kai” in 2019.