Kris Reynolds - Godan (5th Dan)

Sensei Kris Reynolds started karate in Lindsay, Ontario in 1996 under Sensei Darren Marshall (a student of Hanshi Rick Levielle).  He was graded to Shodan in 2001, and received his Godan in 2017. Sensei Reynolds also holds a Godan in Shindo, and a Yodan from the World Traditional Karate Association. 

As a blue belt, he met his wife Sarah, with whom he has raised 2 sons in Lindsay, Ontario (Thomas & Ryker), the eldest of which shares Kris’s interest Karate. Sarah has supported him pursuing his passion for karate for over 25 years.

In 2004 Sensei Reynolds competed alongside Sensei Sanford Dewitt at the World Koshiki Championships (a bare knuckle full contact karate competition), which was part of the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he won a bronze medal for team Canada in the heavyweight category.  

From 2006 to 2012 he was the manager, and in 2012 became the Heavyweight fighter

for the Shintani National Karate Team. 

In 2005, Sensei Reynolds took over as chief instructor of the Lindsay Wado Kai dojo where he had started karate 10 years earlier.   In 2014, he started Karate Kawartha Lakes, a non-profit association which in 2018 included 6 dojos between the Kawartha's and Ottawa. 

Kris has assisted on many national committees including as chair of the Bunkai committee and chair of the Shindo committee for the Shintani Wado Kai Karate Federation.  In 2015 Sensei Reynolds created Gensho Shodan no Shindo, a Shindo kata which has been adopted by the S.W.K.K.F. as the official 5th dan Shindo grading kata.

Sensei Reynolds is enormously grateful for the significant positive impact that the SWKKF and many of the original senate members had on his life and hopes he can pay that impact forward to the young karate-ka he meets.