Sensei MacDonald's 
Karate Journey (so far)

Sensei Morganne MacDonald began her martial arts career in 1991, studying under Sensei Daniel Schroeder in Hales Corners, WI. She had recently graduated from Law School, and was working approximately 60 hrs. a week, with an hour and fifteen-minute commute each way—a route that took her right past Sensei Schroeder’s Karate school.

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Sensei MacDonald needed a productive way to manage the stress. Her husband Vince—now a 4th Dan under Sensei Schroeder and a teacher at Midwest Shorin Ryu Health & Wellness Center—said, “Joining a gym isn’t going to do it for you. You need something to engage your mind and your body.” Vince had taken martial arts in college and suggested she find a karate school.

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Sensei MacDonald saw the red "KARATE" sign on HWY 100 in Hales Corners and, after her first official week as a lawyer, walked through the front door. Sensei still says it was one of the best decisions she ever made. It changed her life for the better. After coming home and showing Vince her first kata (series of offensive and defensive movements), Niahanchi Shodan, Vince knew what she was learning was, as he put it, "the real deal", and far more complex than anything he’d been taught in two years of training in Korean martial arts.

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Vince joined Sensei Daniel Shroeder’s dojo about four months later. Vince teaches both karate and kobudo at Midwest Shorin Ryu in Franklin, WI.

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MORE ON SENSEI MORGANNE MACDONALD’S JOURNEY

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In 1991, most martial arts dojos were male-student dominated. There were four adult female students, including Sensei MacDonald, when she started, and a few more than forty adult male students. Students came and went, but O’Sensei Schroeder’s dojo grew steadily during the early ‘90s. And more women joined our ranks. Most of them stayed.

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O’Sensei Schroeder used to say that if you’d been a student for five or six years, you’d come in for a glass of water. I think that was his way of saying that karate isn’t something you do for a year or two; if you want to master it, it takes a lifetime. There’s something to that. He certainly spent his lifetime learning—his journey started when he was still in his teens.

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Sensei MacDonald believes that no one is too old to start Shorin Ryu karate—our system of karate can and should be something that adds value to your life as long as you draw breath. The depth of knowledge gained from practicing karate grows as you do. The practitioner breathes life, beauty, and power into it and, in return, receives far more than the ability to defend oneself physically.

Strength. Agility. Health. Longevity.

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All of these are possible through karate and kobudo (weapons) training.

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What Sensei MacDonald loves about that hour during class is the fact that whatever problems you had walking through the dojo door disappear for the hour you’re focusing on your power, your body, your movement. Your mind empties of everything else as you focus on your movement. After you bow out of class, you still have the same number of problems, but they don’t seem quite as dire, difficult, or unmanageable as they were before class.

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Karate helps manage stress.

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Sensei MacDonald earned her Shodan—1st degree blackbelt on February 8th, 1996. When she started in 1991, dojos were full, and it was common for students to train 4-6 years continuously before attaining Shodan. This time frame has shortened over the decades, but most Okinawan karate students spend years achieving rank before testing for their blackbelts.

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In 1995, about a year before her Shodan test, O’Sensei Schroeder began training Sensei MacDonald, who is 5’ 3” if she stretches in the morning—in what he called: SMALL PERSON TECHNIQUE.

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O’Sensei Schroeder learned these techniques from his Senseis over the years he trained with them: Sensei Ken Kasianowicz, Sensei James Ninios, Master Tadashi Yamashita, Chuck Kavanaugh, among others. O’Sensei Schroeder did not widely share this with his other students but continued to train Sensei MacDonald in these techniques until his death in February 2025. Sensei MacDonald taught these techniques to higher-ranking black belts until O’Sensei’s death, while O’Sensei watched her classes. Some students choose to incorporate some of it. Others believe that brute force is just as effective at getting them where they want to be.

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SMALL PERSON TECHNIQUE requires finesse. Proper technique takes practice, patience, and the discipline to be precise in your movements. Power is the result not of brute force but of the precision of movement. It’s the difference between using a butcher knife and a scalpel. It’s not for everybody. But it should be. When a big person applies small person technique, they become much more powerful. These advanced techniques will be shared with advanced rank at Midwest Shorin Ryu Health & Wellness.

 

Sensei Morganne MacDonald has been training Small Person Technique for the past 30 years. She trained with O’Sensei Schroeder for 34 years before he passed in 2025. She and her husband, Vince Milewski, opened Midwest Shorin Ryu in June of 2025 along with blackbelts, Mike Gutierrez, Luke Numrych, Katie Numrych to continue the teachings of O’Sensei Shroeder and to grow them for the benefit of our Art and the next generation of Shorin Ryu and Okinawan Kobudo students.