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Nestor T. Folta Biography2011
Nestor Tadeusz Folta is the head instructor and owner of the Academy of World Champion Nestor Folta traditional karate schools located in Northern Virginia. He is a registered 7th Degree Black Belt and Master Instructor in the Uechi-Ryu Karate-Do Association. All of his rank promotion tests and certifications have been at the World Headquarters for the Uechi-Ryu Karate-Do Association in Futenma, Okinawa, Japan (aka Soke Shubukan).
Mr. Folta was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on June 22, 1953, the only son of Tadeusz and Anna Folta. He has two sisters: Marika, ten years his senior, and Lydia, three years his senior. Mr. Folta graduated from the University of Massachusetts as a Civil Engineer and took employment with the Federal Government in the metropolitan Washington, DC. In 1983, his job as a Civil Engineer working for the Department of Defense brought him to Okinawa, Japan. Mr. Folta was initiated and then immersed into Okinawan culture. From 1983 to 1988, the dojo (karate training gym) members at the World Headquarters in Futenma became his extended family while he studied under the direct tutelage of 10th Degree Black Belt, Grandmaster Kanei Uechi, son of the founder of the Uechi-Ryu style of karate. In 1984, Mr. Folta was the All-Okinawa Uechi-Ryu Kyu (under black belt) Champion. In 1986, he married Okinawa native Mayumi Kishimoto of Naha City. There were blessed with the birth of their fraternal twins, son Nestor Koichi and daughter Naomi Marika, in 1995. Mr. Folta speaks some Japanese, plays an Okinawan instruments called Sanshin (banjo-Like), performs Eisa drum dance, visits Okinawa regularly, teaches Uechi-Ryu, and does karate seminars and motivational speeches.
Mr. Folta is most noted for his World Championships in Kata (forms) at Open Tournaments and his numerous state, regional, and national Kata championships. He is also a Uechi-Ryu Karate National Champion in Kumite (fighting) and World Uechi-Ryu Karate Champion in Yakusoku Dan Kumite (prearranged black belt fighting). He is a 1996 inductee to the World Martial Arts Hall of Fame, and the only Senior in history ever to win the Men’s Form Grand Championship in a North American Sport Karate Association’s (NASKA’s) top rated event.
Mr. Folta started competing in karate at the national and international levels in 1993. His success resulted in many first placed finishes and grand championships. A few of his more noted honors and awards are:
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