Cat Gurinsky lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband Billy and their two children, Billy and Nova. She has been practicing martial arts since 2000 when she was in high school. As a grade school student, Cat was very skinny and short, and was often teased. Through martial arts she gained confidence, a control over her exercise-induced asthma, and an appreciation for perseverance and hard work through the many tournaments in which she used to compete.
Cat holds the rank of 3rd Degree Black belt, and her school is Immortal Martial Arts Academy. She has trained since 2011 directly under Master Professor Bill Grossman who is based in South San Francisco, California where Cat used to live before moving to Austin, Texas, and who is of the Ralph Castro/Rick Alemany lineage. One unplanned positive from the COVID-19 pandemic has been that she was able to resume actively training with Master Professor Grossman via Zoom for both black belt group classes and regular one-on-one private lessons. Prior to Kenpo, Cat trained and received 1st Degree Black belts in Karate under Renshi Chris Lohasser of World Karate Academy in Center Moriches, New York, and also in Tae Kwon Do under Grandmaster Deborah Grimaldi of Tiger Martial Arts in Chesterton, Indiana. Additionally, she has actively studied Iaido, or Japanese sword, in all her previous locations over the past 20+ years and continues to train in Austin under the Austin Komei Jyuku School.
Cat holds a full-time job as a Senior Network Engineer for Apple Inc, but martial arts has always been her passion. She runs her dojo Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and Saturday mornings. Cat began subletting to teach in Austin back in 2017, but it wasn’t until the pandemic that she finally started looking for a place to lease and opened her first storefront at the beginning of 2021. She was the first person to bring the Castro branch of Shaolin Kenpo Karate to Texas. Since then she has been humbled by the growth of the school, as well as the passion and dedication of her students. She loves giving back to the community and serving as a role model for all her students.