Welcome!

My name is Jesse Enkamp. I’m “The Karate Nerd”, #1 Amazon.com best-selling author, entrepreneur, traveler, athlete, educator, carrot cake connoisseur and founder of Seishin International.

My story starts in the dojo.

Growing up, me and my little brother Oliver would spend our days kicking each other’s butt in our parent’s martial arts centre, in Stockholm, Sweden. Although my mom and dad were Karate teachers, they regularly invited other martial arts instructors to help pay the bills.

This early exposure provided me with curiosity and respect for all martial arts.

As we got older, my brother and I went separate ways. He became a professional MMA fighter, I decided to carry on my family’s Karate legacy. After graduating high school, I moved to Okinawa (the birthplace of Karate) to study at university and explore the roots of the art.

Living in Japan – without family, friends or knowing the language – forced me to grow up fast. This period of my life was a crash-course in self-reliance, grit and social skills.

During this time, I started a blog called “KARATE by Jesse” to document my observations in Okinawa. Although the original purpose was to share my own journey, the writings resonated with so many readers that it became a platform for likeminded Karate practitioners around the world.

Today, it’s the #1 Karate blog in the world.

I left Okinawa in 2009, but I’ve returned over a dozen times since.

After I came home to Sweden, I was finally selected for the national team (after failing 4 times earlier). This was the starting point for me as an athlete, representing my country at international tournaments including the Premier League, Nordic, European and World Championship (WKF).

By the age of 25, I had visited over 25 countries. Although I won trophies and medals for my country, what I value most are the memories, friendships and experiences.

I continued my travels to learn from Karate experts around the world. 

By sharing my discoveries in articles, books, videos and seminars, I built a community of fans who embraced the full spectrum of Karate – regardless of stylistic preference, political agenda or dojo dogma.

These people are what I call Karate Nerds.

People who, like me, think that you should study the complete scope of Karate, and not limited yourself to one singular aspect.

The purpose of tradition is not to blindly follow the footsteps of the masters, but rather, to seek what they sought.

Empowered by passionate Karate Nerds around the world, I launched global projects (like KNX) and companies (like Seishin International) to supercharge the Karate community.

Today, this has become my life’s mission.

Every day, I strive to find new ways to hammer home the message of adopting the Karate Nerd mindset in order to make the world a better place.

Ultimately, this is what gives my life a sense of purpose.

You only live once. But if you do it right, once is enough. 🙂

Welcome to my life!

 

PS. Everything on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Contact me here if you wish to reproduce my work.