On the 8th of October the Swedish Federation arranged, for the fifth time, a training day for everyone who has sandan (3 dan) or higher. The Federation is sponsoring all from outside Stockholm with travel cost and there is no fee to participate. From Karlstad shibu our shibu-chō, Anders Pettersson, and Mansur Mirtorabi both participated.
The format of these seminars has been to share and exchange experience, give each other tips on different exercises, etc., but above all an opportunity to practice techniques for higher levels together with others on the same level.
We were nine participants that day, as mentioned above we had Anders Pettersson 5 dan daikenshi & Mansur Mirtorabi 3 dan chūkenshi from Karlstad Shibu, from Bromma Shibu we had Leif Kekonius 4 dan seikenshi, from Gothenburg Shibu, Arnaud Tiquet 3 dan chūkenshi, from Stockholm Norra Shibu; Robert Liljeblad 4 dan seikenshi, from Stockholms Studenters Shibu Erik Andersson and Magnus Gustafsson both 3 dan chūkenshi and last but not least Alexander Tilly 4 dan seikenshi from Stockholm Södra Shibu, who also was the host for the day.
The day began at 10 o’clock when all of us gathered and wrote down all requests for what each one wanted to do during the day and then it was decided together which of all things that came up that we should focus on. It becomes almost impossible to cover every request in one day.
We spent a lot of time going through all the techniques to 5th dan at this time we did it according to the new kamokuhyō that soon will be used, we went over things like the rakkan appō techniques that has been moved down from 6th dan to 5th dan. We reviewed and practiced on details, variants, on all these techniques. After a quick lunch, we continued with discussions on the development of training and our branches. Specifically, this resulted in a decision to start up a try a “Busen“-training in the Stockholm area. All Stockholm branches will take turns to host and the first opportunity will be in December.
We also had time to go through some techniques in the group Kongo ken that are not listed in today’s kamokuhyō and therefore are not practiced that frequently, but in the new kamokuhyō they are all listed. We also had time to go through and practice a little on the new kumi embu that will apply for grading to 4th dan and 5th dan.
Then we continued with technical practice and rounded off the day with an hour of randori, both gōhō and juhō.