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Anders-sensei teaches at gasshuku in England
On the weekend of November 30th to December 1st Anders-sensei visited England for some Shorinji Kempo practice. There was a half-day training for yūdansha (black belts) in London on the Saturday, followed by a full day gasshuku (training camp) in Southampton on the Sunday.
Here a tells a bit about the weekend.
I left home on Friday morning and after some problems with the cancellation of my connecting flight from Amsterdam to Heathrow, I arrived an hour late on Friday evening. Steve picked me up at Heathrow and we went home and dropped my bag at his house (he lives relatively when the airport). Then we went away to met up with Kato-san from hombu (Kato-san is working at the WSKO Secretariat) who was in London for work. It was a quiet evening with traditional fish & chips and some Shorinji Kempo discussions. Then we drove Kato-san back to his hotel and had the time to meet up with Ohara-san (who is the assistant secretary-general of WSKO) who was also in London with Kato-san. Ohara-san, however, had spent the evening watching the musical Mamma Mia. We talked for a short while and then it was time to say good night and go back to Steve.
Steve-sensei leads kihon at the yudansha practice
Saturday was a half day of training for yūdansha (black belts). The host for this was Jonny Daymond, from Acton Shibu. Jonny is familiar to many in Karlstad, since he has visit us a few times when we have had our gasshuku together with Harrow. We were a bit over ten people that attended the training. The training was led mainly by Steve-sensei and myself and the focus was tanen kihon hōkei and the various sōtai forms for these. Then we went through some Rakan appō (pressure point techniques) and had some time for Q&A.
Anders-sensei leads training of tenchiken
Anders-sensei explain the different types of kari ashi that we have in Shorinji Kempo
Dinner after the yudansha practice, from left; Minesh, Steve, Anders, Paul Browne, Paul Barnes, Graham
On Sunday we had to get up relatively early to go down to Southampton. We also picked up James Woodward, who is now general secretary of the British Association. It was Southampton University som University who hosted this one day gasshuku (training camp) and the main instructors were Maeahara-sensei, Peter Moore-sensei, myself, Steve-sensei, Blaise Howard-sensei and James Woodward-sensei.
Kihon practice in Southampton lead by James-sensei
Anders-sensei is also practising
James-sensei in action during kihon
After kihon that was lead by James I held a session on hōkei. The focus was relatively basic hōkei and going over the ura and omote variations, as well as the variations with junsagari ashi or kumo ashi sagari after hōkei such as tenshin geri, etc.
Hōkei practice, Anders-sensei teaching with the help from Jonny
Steve-sensei and Anders-sensei teaching
After lunch it was time for hōwa led by James-sensei.
James-sensei holds hōwa (lecture)
Then it was time for a longer session with embu training. All got a number kōsei (embu compositions) to practice on and we went through the details of how to think when we do embu.
Anders-sensei teaching embu together with Steve-sensei
Anders-sensei demonstrates okuri gatame during the embu session
Full focus in the embu practice
At the end of the session everyone got to demonstrate their embu. Many pairs did really well considering the short time they practised.
In the end of the embu session everybody got to show their embu
In the end of the embu session everybody got to show their embu, in the foreground we see Luke & Jonny
The day ended with some ukemi training and some time for questions and answers.
Group picture from the Sunday
Then it was for the drive back to London and the whole Monday basically consisted of travelling back home to Karlstad.