Kyoshi Peter Ciećwierz Polander
7th Degree Black Belt
Polander Academy owner
Kyoshi Peter Ciećwierz began his education in martial arts in Warsaw, Poland, where he was raised. During his youth, he studied at different schools. He was a member of the AZS-AWF Warsaw Judo Club from 1974 to 1980. At the same time he was also practicing Shotokan Karate, Kyokushinkai and boxing. While in College at the Physical Education University in Warsaw, he began teaching others the basics of Karate as a self-employed instructor and continued the study of martial arts on his own. He also traveled extensively winning numerous international competitions.
In 1984, he moved to the United States where he continued his martial arts training under various professional martial artists, such as James Takemori (9th Degree Black Belt) the U.S. Judo Olympic Coach at that time; Joe Lewis, Bill Wallace, and Jeff Smith, all three are World Karate Champions; Professor Wally Jay, a Ju-Jitsu Master; and Frank Dux, the Kumite champion whose story was portrayed by Jean Claude Van Damme in the movie “Blood Sport”.
He also taught martial arts to others people during his period of training. From 1984 to 1985, he was an Instructor of the Martial Arts Team at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., winning the Maryland State Olympics in Judo. From 1986 to 1988, he was the Martial Arts Instructor at the National Institute of Health in Maryland. He was also given the honor of being awarded the title of 3rd Degree Black Belt by Yukimitsu Kano, the President of the Kodokan Judo Institute in Tokyo, Japan.
In 1989 he met and began his training of the true classical life protection arts under Grand Master Taika Seiyu Oyata.
He also continued teaching. From 1988 to 1989 he was the Head Coach of the Judo Team at Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. In 1990 and 1991, he went back to the National Institute of Health to continue as the Martial Arts Instructor. In 1993, he began teaching the system of RyuTe® Kempo Karate to both employees and students at the National Naval Medical Center in Maryland. From 1993 to 1994 he was an advisor in hand-to-hand combat survival skills for the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation employees.
In 1995, he was awarded by Grand Master Oyata the title of 5th Dan and a member of the Oyata Shin Shu Ho family art. In 2005 he tested and received the rank of 7th Degree Black Belt and the title of Kyoshi. He has accompanied Taika on several trips to Japan and Okinawa.
Since 1990 he has been teaching RyuTe® Kempo Karate in his own dojo – “Polander Academy of Martial Arts” in Bethesda, MD.
He never forgot his roots and in 2001 established the Polish RyuTe® Federation, which is growing systematically with a staff of over 20 black belts, ranked 1st to 4th Dan (Degree Black Belts). In 2011 in response to growing interest the Polish RyuTe® Federation changes to European RyuTe® Kempo Federation and is working to expand into other European countries.
