Pelle and Erik got Third Place on the National Taikai

On Saturday November 19 there was the Swedish national taikai in Shorinji Kempo. From Karlstad we had Pelle Svensson and Eric Öhrn entering the yūdansha (black belts) category and they placed themselves in third place. Apart from Embu competition, it was also an all-day training for all who didn’t enter the competition.

Both the competition and the training was held in Lijeholmshallen in Stockholm. The competition was divided into two categories, one category of yūdansha (those who have a black belt) and one category for kyūkenshi (those who do not have a black belt).

The result from the embu competition was:

Yūdansha

1. Alexander Tilly & Pontus Haglund, Stockholm Södra
2. Arnaud Tiquet & Joakim Englander, Göteborg
3. Per Svensson & Erik Öhrn, Karlstad

Kyūkenshi

1. Bob & Pontus, Stockholm Södra
2. David Falk & André Falk, Stockholm Södra
3. Anders & Andreas, Stockholm Södra

The award of “Best Club”, which was established in 2009 by the Shorinji Kempo Gothenburg and is awarded to the branch that ranks best in total during the national taikai under a special scoring system, this year the Stockholm Södra shibu. Good work by the Stockholm södra branch that had many participants, hopefully, a lot more kenshi will take on the challenge and try to win the trophy for their branch next year.

Here are some pictures from the event

Here is a video of the winning embu:

Here are a few more pictures from the embu competition.

 

Not only Competition

It was not the only competitions during the day, but also a full day of training. Before the competition, while the competitors and the judges prepared, Viktor Karlholm together with Per Lindblom held a session on Embu for those who did not compete.

After the competitions and lunch the afternoon was divided into four sessions with four different instructors. Boban Mladenovic-sensei held a session on gōhō and applications. He also talked about the importance of mekubari and focus when using one’s techniques.

Next session was held by Leif Kekonius-sensei. This session focused on different types of ashi barai and a variety of interesting exercises to practice this.

 

Anders Pettersson Sensei held a session on the various principles we have in jūhō and how easy it is to learn new hōkei if you’ve understood the principle of the technique.

The last session of the day was held by Alexander Tilly-sensei, and he went through some more advanced techniques and how to switch the technique if the opponent reacts and try to prevent the technique one is doing.