Gasshuku Training Diary

Tuesday July 24th, 2007

Yesterday we had the first full day of this year's IOGKF European Gasshuku for all grades. It is the 3rd day of the event for black belts students, but Tuesday was the first opportunity for students of lower grades to train with Higaonna Sensei (also known as "Shihan Sensei") at this Gasshuku. Indeed, some people may have never trained with Sensei before this class. Tuesday also marked the first time that the day's classes were broken up into different groups of students, grouped according to grade. This is when Chief Instructors and senior instructors from around the world have their first chance to teach different sections of students for an hour or so. So Tuesday was a special day in the schedule of this event for a lot of reasons.

I took part in the classes on this day as part of the Sandan (3rd degree black belt) group. But first of all Higaonna Sensei instructed the whole group in a general training session for about 90 minutes. This began with junbi undo (warm-up exercises) and then we were taken through our paces by Sensei, he instructed everyone and we did several thousand punches, blocks and kicks. Shihan Sensei has a famous quote that he uses all of the time - "Mo Ichi Do". This translates as "One more time" - and he says this each time that we finish a technique. Sensei is known for saying Mo Ichi Do more than a hundred times in one class, maybe more than 500 times perhaps! And every time you think you have done your last punch (for example) suddenly Higaonna Sensei will say "Mo Ichi Do!" and everybody keeps going and going.

After general training with Shihan Sensei at 9am til 10:30am, everybody was split into their different groups. Our group was instructed by Sensei Bernard Cousin (IOGKF 7th dan) who is the chief instructor of France. I had never trained with Sensei Bernard before this class and I had been hoping to be part of one of his training sessions at some point during the Gasshuku. His class focussed on kakie - close-quarters "push hands" training. This involved practicing lots of different techniques at close range with a partner. Sensei Bernard had an interpretor with him during our session with him; the interpretor also doubled as his demonstration assistant. He got thrown about all over the dojo floor while telling us what Sensei Bernard was saying! Sensei had us practice several throwing, pushing and trapping techniques using kakie. Although he did not speak much English, Sensei Bernard was very easy to understand because he seemed quite able to let his karate do the talking for him.

Wednesday July 25th, 2007

Training for me today began at 8am and lasted until 1pm, although we did have a couple of water breaks in between.

Early morning training - 8am
Training for Sandan (3rd degree black belt) and above with Higaonna Sensei. This session we did Sanchin kata, Tensho kata and Kururunfa kata. Kururunfa was performed several times and also in sections while Shihan Sensei explained how each movement of the kata should be performed and how they relate to similar movements in other Goju-Ryu kata.

General Training - 9:30am
After seiza (kneeling) and mokuso (mediation) Shihan Sensei informed us that during yesterday's (Tuesday) class he had been unhappy with the general standard of footwork displayed in one of his group classes. Therefore this morning's general session focused on suri ashi waza - foot sliding techniques. The class began with everyone standing in heiko dachi (parallel stance) and we moved forward by pulling our bodyweight with just our toes! We did this for about 2 minutes and by the end it was clear that your toes use lots of muscles in your legs. We then moved onto other footwork drills, including sliding backwards and forwards, to the side, stepping in stances (neko ashi dachi and shiko dachi) and tai sabake waza (body evasion techniques). The footwork session lasted for well over an hour and the 300-strong class was full of people with very sore feet by the first class break.

Group Session #1 - Sandan Class
The first group session for 3rd dans today was with Sensei Henrik Larsen (IOGKF 7th dan) of Denmark. Sensei Henrik focused on kakie (Okinawan push hands) for his class with us, it was a really interesting session. He had everybody partner up and during the class we changed partners several times so we could practice kakie with lots of different people. We were shown 6 or 7 kakie techniques to practice, these techniques could be strung together into one flowing set of moves. We also practiced kakie techniques while "blindfolded" - that is to say, with our eyes closed (as there were no blindfolds at hand). This was to show that it is possible to "feel" your opponent in situations where there is limited light.

Group Session #2 - Sandan Class
The 2nd session for 3rd dans was with Sensei Luis Nunes (IOGKF 7th dan) of Spain. Sensei Luis's class was all about yakusoku kumite (pre-arranged sparring). Again we partnered up and practiced several techniques including take-downs and combinations of blocks and punches. Example kumite situation: Person#1 attacks with a jodan (head height) punch, person#2 (his opponent) block the attack and counter attacks immediately. This counter attack is the blocked and then person#1 performs a take-down technique on person#2. Most of the drills in this class involved an attack being countered and then the initial attacker gaining the upper-hand and finishing the confrontation with a take down and counter attack. The idea of this (I think) is to be able to be attack someone and then suddenly have to quickly repel a counter attack. This class ended with 10 minutes of stretching, which I found really useful after the last 4 days of hard training.

Tomorrow the early morning class with Higaonna Sensei is for 4th dans and higher grades, so I won't be training in that session (as I am only 3rd dan). I can't go along to watch either as the early morning classes are "closed sessions", which means just that, nobody can sit in to watch what happens. Most of the other classes at the Gasshuku have spectators watching from a balcony area above the main training area though. Anyway, as I cannot train or go to watch the training, I will have an extra hour of sleep perhaps or maybe even go for a walk along the way to the beach before the general session begins at 9am.

Tonight we are having a "curry night" at our hotel, organised by my instructor Sensei Roy Flatt. So you can expect some more "karate socialising photos" to appear on this page shortly!