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During the weekend of May 7th to 8th there was a gasshuku (training camp) for children in Gothenburg.
It was the first time ever that it was a training camp that was only for children. The arrangement was that we started at lunchtime on Saturday in order for everyone to have time to travel to Gothenburg on Saturday morning. Then there were a number of hours of exercise followed by a much appreciated visit to the amusement park Liseberg.
Sunday had training in the morning and the finish was scheduled for lunch so everyone could get home in reasonable time on Sunday.
From Karlstad there was a total of 14 Kenshi; Filippa, Tindra, Oscar, Simon, Hugo, Joar, Victor, Robert, Oliwa, Gabriel and Sarah, then it was Anders, Pelle and Erik, who was attending as instructors. We also had several parents that helped with a lot of the practical things around the event.
We gathered at eight on Saturday morning for departure to Gothenburg in a number of cars. We then met up at a McDonald’s in Gothenburg for a quick lunch before we drove the last bit to Göteborg Shibu’s dojo.
In addition to participants from Karlstad Shibu there were participants from Göteborg Shibu and a big bunch of kids from Bromma Shibu. One of the participating Kenshi from Bromma was Camilo who began training in Shorinji Kempo Karlstad, but at the beginning of this year moved to Stockholm and therefore started training in Bromma.
In total there were 35 children attending the gasshuku in order to train all weekend and the gasshuku began when all lined up and we did chinkon gyō together.
Then Peter from Gothenburg held an intense warming up with fun exercises which then was followed of basic training that was held by Anders-sensei.
We also divided up the training after grade and had several instructors who helped each group.
After three hours, only interrupted by a few short breaks so we finished Saturday’s practice and everyone hit the showers and prepared to leave for Liseberg.
It was a short walk to the tram, which then took us to Liseberg. Once inside Liseberg it was really full speed on all the kids and everyone was too busy to have time to go into all the different rides. The group from Karlstad kept running until half past nine when most of our members ended with 3-4 trips in the Flumeride before we were forced to get back to the dojo to sleep.
All people that came from Karlstad and Bromma stayed in the dojo on air mattresses.
Sunday morning we had breakfast together and then started practice again at nine.
On Sunday, Erik held in chinkon gyo. Erik began himself as a ten-year-old to train in the children’s group, he now is 17 years and graded this past winter to shodan (1 dan black belt) and is one of the instructors for our children’s group.
On Sunday we started to train Embu. Anders-sensei went through the tandoku embu (Embu in solo form) Hombu has prepared for competitions. Almost all were able to learn the form but even a few brave also showed up for everyone else just like you do at the competition / exhibition. Anders-sensei also reviewed important things to remember when to show up embu.
Then we went through the various predetermined kumi embu (pair embu) available for each grade group of children.
This was a bit harder when it was fairly new to most kenshi, however, we had a really good pair consisting of Filippa and Tindra from Karlstad, who presented theirs embu for everyone else. They did really well and impressed everyone who was there.
We also had a short Howa where we talked about why you practice Shorinji Kempo and what the purpose of our training is.
Last hour of Sunday’s workouts were divided into groups according to grade and everyone got to practice their techniques for the next grading.
At 12 o’clock the camp was closed and everyone agreed that it was really successful and it is something we must try to do again.
