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Me and Sensei (trust me to blink at the wrong time!) |
Hazel (my instructor’s partner) may not be a karate-ka
herself but she definitely has a black belt in organisation, culinary skills
and generally making all things happen at the right time and in the right place…
and always with a smile and never getting
flustered. She was definitely the
lynch pin that helped to hold the whole weekend together and make it such a
success.
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Gathering at the Robin Hood statue for first training session. |
We were blessed with amazing weather – one of the few really
nice weekends all summer. This allowed us to train outside on the grass rather
than in the marquee. Training began on Saturday morning with a run. A run! I
never go running so that came as a bit of a shock. We had to do two laps of a
gravel circuit – uphill going out and downhill coming back. The total distance
was probably about a mile, so not too far but in a gi and hot sunshine……
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Sensei Cool! |
Anyway, I was determined that I would complete the run
without stopping so as unaccustomed I am to public running I set off at a
steady pace, kept my arms relaxed and close to my body and just kept going. It
became clear to me after the first lap that running is as much a mental process
as a physical one; you just have to tell yourself to keep going. So I was
pretty pleased to complete the run – not with the front runners admittedly, but
not with the stragglers either.
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Sensei demonstrating a 'body hardening' kick to the thigh!
(That's my son he's kicking...grrr!) |
After a quick water break we were then straight into our
karate session. We divided into 2 groups – over 16s and under 16s. Our group
worked on some application drills, breaking them down to work on the details.
We practised some soft blocking techniques and worked on some locks. As the
grass was quite dry and soft most of us kicked off our trainers to train bare
foot. It was great to feel the ground under your feet in this way. Half way
through the 2 hour session we had another water break and then switched
instructors. We went through a few basics to warm up again and then carried on
with some application stuff.
We were pretty hungry after that and Hazel had lunch all
ready for us in one of the lodges. After lunch it was time to enjoy one of the
afternoon activities that had been arranged by the activity centre itself. So
people divided up to either go rafting on the lake (after making their own rafts
first!), body boarding which seemed to consist of throwing yourself downhill on
a sheet of wet, muddy plastic on a piece of polystyrene into a mucky lake;
archery (which looked quite civilised in comparison) or doing an assault
course. My sons both opted for the
rafting and my husband did archery.
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What, we have to build it first? |
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Finally on the water. Should that barrel be attached? |
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Body boarding (I kept calling this water boarding by mistake!) |
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Apparently the lake was very cold (and mucky). |
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Archery - Definitely more civilised |
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The rather tame assault course! |
I had booked onto another activity, water zorb balling or is
it water ball zorbing? Anyway those giant plastic balls that you get inside and
walk over the water in but unfortunately the activity was withdrawn because the
balls had holes in or something! So instead, I became the official photographer
and walked around to each activity to take photos of everyone else having fun.
There wasn’t a lot of time (about an hour and a half) before
the next karate session was due so just time for a cup of tea, a snack and a
lie down! I admit it – I had a half hour kip before putting my gi back on…
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Fighting like men! |
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My son beating up children! |
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Miss Determined face - isn't she great? |
The second training session was all about sparring. It was
just an hour this time but pretty full on. We spent most of the session free
sparring with a variety of different partners. We were mixing with people from
different clubs and it was interesting to see the slightly different styles and
attitudes to sparring. We also did a
drill where we had to pull a tag out of your partner’s belt before they pulled
the one from yours – this was designed to speed up your reactions to get in and
out quickly whilst blocking your partners attempts to do the same to you. The only problem with sparring bare foot on
the grass was that you also had to dodge the stones and hedgehog droppings!
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Did I mention we had some fun as well? |
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Looks like they were winning... |
We finished about 5.30pm and had a couple of hours before
the barbeque commenced - time to shower, change and feel human again. This was
also the time you realised how much things hurt and how many new bruises you
had acquired!
The barbeque was a very chilled out occasion – why is it that
men always take charge of the cooking when it’s a barbeque? We had four giant
BBQ’s going to feed the 73 people that were there, so quite a major
undertaking. It cooled down a lot as the sun went down so we gathered around 2
large campfires to keep warm (no we didn’t sing camp songs, we’re not boy
scouts!) Actually we just talked and socialised, getting to know each other better.
And the wine flowed and the beer flowed. What, drinking at a karate camp you
say? Don’t worry it was medicinal – we were in pain!
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Getting warm around the fire |
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Drinking our 'medicine' |
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Look mine's in a cup, not a bottle - I'm so much more civilised don't you think? |
Sunday morning required a fairly early start (for a Sunday
that is). Training was at 9.00am so we had to be up and breakfasted before
then. We were all pretty sore and stiff by now so were hoping we wouldn’t start
with another run – a nice gentle stretching session seemed more appealing
somehow. Anyway, we set off on the run again - why are karate instructors so sadistic?
I set off on my run with my thighs still aching from the
previous day. It was definitely more of a mental challenge this time. In fact I
had decided that I might only do the one lap. However, I was following one of
our red belt ladies who’s a year older than me and I asked her if she was going
to do both laps. She said she was and I suddenly felt ashamed that I was
planning to take it easy so I continued to follow her and did the second
lap. I’m so glad I did – I had a much
greater sense of achievement for having done so.
The final karate session was a two hour lesson on kata. We
were divided into two groups again – black and brown belts in one and everyone
else in the other. Our group was taught a completely new kata (new to us that
is): Chatan yara kushanku. This kata is actually on our 4th dan
syllabus but it is an important competition kata so those in our organisation
that are in the kata squad (not me!) learn it at earlier grades just for
performance purposes. At 4th dan all bunkai are also required.
Anyway, back to the gashaku… This kata is very long so we got about half way
through learning the basic pattern. There are several familiar segments in it
which we know from the pinan katas and kosokun shiho so this made learning it a
little easier but on the whole it is a complicated kata to remember.
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Our early attempts at Chatanyara no kushanku |
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Tyler already knows it - shows doesn't it? |
We finished at 11am and had about an hour to change, pack,
help clean the lodges and marquee and generally make it look like we’d never
been there! We then gathered outside for some final announcements, a few prizes
were given out and thank yous said. Hazel had produced a final packed lunch for
us before we left which was very appreciated… then it was just farewells with
hugs and kisses all round, until next time….
Everyone who went agreed that it was a fantastic weekend …..Roll
on gashaku 2013!
3 comments:
Sounds like a great time was had by all! Great pics, too, Sue :-)
Okay. So, now I'm wondering how we could do something like that for a bunch of grapplers... hmmm. Sounds like a great time!
It also sounds like your weather is a bit like ours here in Seattle. If you have a minute, check out this skit from a show I remember from my childhood here called "Almost Live." I have a feeling you'll appreciate it. Seattle Summer
Thanks Felicia - it really was a great time. I actually took over 120 photos but I didn't want to bore everyone!
Steve, the advantage of karate is that much of the time you don't need mats to train so it is eminently more portable than a grappling art. I'm sure you could think of a way to do it though. I loved the Seattle Summer clip - definitely relate to it...
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