August 26, 2008

Grading success!

Success for Kevin, Lyndsay and Stew!

Three Toronto Branch kenshi passed their kyu examinations on the evening of August 25, 2008.

The candidates who moved up a rank were:

Kevin - 2nd kyu
Stew - 3rd kyu
Lyndsay - 8th kyu

We wish to thank Oka-sensei, Louie-sensei and Fontaine-sensei for administering the tests.

Gassho

August 03, 2008

Hombu Summer Camp A


Summer camp A: July 29 to August 1, 2008

Shorinji Kempo Hombu, Tadotsu, Japan

July 28th

John Dadosky

Arrived at the Kotobuki Lodge safely. I’m sharing the lodge with about 20 kenshi from Spain, two separate branches. Most of them are nidan or above. There are also two members from the Finland federation, Timo and Kelsie - father and daughter.

Kelsie & Timo from Finland

There are about 40 Japanese university students. This number is sharply down given that the camp coincides with many of their final exams.

Spanish kenshi

Day 1 was a long one.

Arrived at Hombu at 8 am and met Hombu staff. Assembled for Samu. Fewer kenshi means that there is much more cleaning to be carried out. We also do Samu at the end of the day and it is particularly challenging after a day of practice.

We had four sessions of technique practice throughout the day…About six hours total. We could not access the lectures in Japanese so they gave us extra technique practice.

The Japanese students are very friendly and some remember me from last time. The largest group is from the medical school at Okayama.

Okayama Medical School kenshi

The language barrier does not prevent one from absorbing tips from senior instructors. We spent two hours in the morning practicing Gyaku Gote. My wrist was pretty sore. A senior instructor did a seiho technique on my wrist and then the pain subsided. Pretty convincing!

Day 2

A hot day. We are getting tired and trying to avoid injury. Both members of the Finnish branch received minor injuries today. I purchased a sweat resistant t-shirt from hombu. It really helped. I’m grateful for the Finnish federation members because they are fluent in English. Otherwise it would be a lonely week!

With Ms. Uebayashi - VIP for WSKO members!

Today we worked on uchi age zuki, hara uki geri, randori, some upper curriculum techniques, sen no sen, tai no sen, go no sen.

At night we went to a social arranged my Hombu for WSKO members and enjoyed fellowship, good food and drink.

Day 3

Lots of Okuri Gote, Kiri Gote, Kaishin zuki.

6 hours of class time instruction. Ended with a professional embu demonstration by senior students—yondan and higher.

Seniors demonstrate embu

Extensive Samu where we took up the foam tatami in Rensei dojo.

Day 4

Half day. Three hours of practice. Samu. Closing ceremony. 12 Japanese students were awarded 1st kyu. Celebration followed with pictures. The Japanese are very formal but they become surprisingly sentimental at the closing ceremony.

Thus ends a very intense week of training in hot weather conditions in a remote region of Japan… What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger!


Gassho

John Dadosky
Toronto Branch