英国空手白浪会 Shiranamikai

Takushoku Daigaku Karate Club (or ‘Takudai’ for short) is renowned for the intensity and quality of its practice. This Japanese university club has produced numerous champions and JKA instructors. At the December course in Hatfield we were fortunate to have a special visitor present in Tsuyama Katsunori Sensei 8th dan – the head karate coach of Takushoku, a director of the Japan Karate-do Federation and special advisor to JKA.

Takudai can count JKA England’s very own Ohta Sensei 7th dan among its alumni. We were spoilt for quality in that he was also delivering instruction at this course. In addition, Tsuyama Sensei was ably assisted by Richard Heselton 4th dan, who hails from Yorkshire in the UK but who has lived in Japan since 1995. Richard Sensei captained the Takudai club from 2002-2004 and was this year’s 3rd place winner for Kumite at the JKA All Japan Championships. The more observant might also have spotted Richard Sensei appearing as one of the baddies in the karate movie ‘High Kick Girl’ !

We started off by practising kihon (basic techniques) together, progressing from single techniques to longer combinations. Then participants were split into groups according to grade. Tsuyama Sensei and Richard Sensei led the Dan grades through kumite drills, after which there was an opportunity to focus on kata. Those who were participating in the dan grading due to take place later in the day had chosen to perform Bassai Dai, Jion, Empi and Niijushiho. Therefore, each senior instructor was allocated one of these kata and asked to lead a group. Kyu grades were taught separately and practised kata from the Heian series.

After the course had concluded, it was rather tempting to pop to nearby Hatfield House to inspect some fine examples of Jacobean craftmanship. Or, let’s be honest now – perhaps the bright lights of the Hatfield Galleria shopping centre were even more appealing. But we decided to forego these delights and instead stayed back at the sports complex for awhile to watch the dan grading, which provided a useful insight for our kyu grades.

According to Wikipedia, Walton on Thames was used as the location for a number of Monty Python sketches filmed during the 1970s. I’d like to think that this might have included the “Self Defence Against Fresh Fruit” sketch, in which John Cleese advises a group of martial arts students on how to deal with unorthodox attacks.

Rolling forward to the year 2010 and the 24th of October, the combination of fruit and martial arts could again be found in Walton on Thames, specifically at the JKA All Grades Course held at the Elmbridge Excel Leisure Complex. However, on this occasion the bananas and dried mango slices were strictly for snack use only. After all, when you are exerting yourself with an intensive session of kihon, kata and kumite, you need all the energy you can get.

The 1st hour’s worth of training was led by Ohta Sensei and other JKA England instructors assisted with the teaching as the afternoon progressed. The acoustic in the room made it a little difficult to hear all the instructions, but as usual it was possible to learn a lot from Sensei’s fluid demonstration of how to use the hips, ankles and body weight efficiently. For 9th to 4th Kyu students, there was a chance to practise the kata and sparring sequences that will be needed for the forthcoming JKA England Kyu Grades Championship. A feature of the training for those from 3rd to 1st Kyu was a chance to practise katas Empi and Jion, providing a refreshing change from Bassai Dai.

We had an enjoyable day training together at this course. Well done to all who attended!

Sasha

P.S. As for the topic of ‘Self Defence Against Fruit’, those who are interested to learn more can take part in a virtual lesson via this link.

In karate, when we are trying to get things right, we often focus on trying to achieve a perfect final position. This is particularly the case in JKA karate, where there is particular emphasis on attaining correct form. But what is just as important as the end ‘snapshot’, is consideration of how one gets there – i.e. how we make the transition from one posture to the next. With this in mind, one of the themes set for this year’s special JKA England summer course was ‘correct movement’.

This year the guest instructors were Ueki Sensei 8th Dan, Kawawada Sensei 7th Dan and Imamura Sensei 7th Dan.

Through the various sessions led by our visiting instructors from JKA Headquarters and by Ohta Sensei 7th Dan, we paid particular attention to the different ways in which we could move our bodies efficiently from the start to finish of various techniques. Expansion and contraction of the body, inner thigh tension and balance transfer were some of the concepts we worked on. We also considered the most effective ways of using the ankle, heel and forefoot, including some ‘workarounds’ to use for those with less flexible ankles.

Sensei Ohta explained to the kyu grade students that when trying to learn the correct path to a technique, it can be useful to think of it as composed of multiple frozen pictures from a movie. For example, during Sensei’s earlier studies, while there wan’t much around in the way of karate video, he was able to study ‘cine-camera’ footage that provided a frame by frame view on the movements. Breaking down a technique into a series of well-defined intermediate positions, and blending these together smoothly, can be a useful method of training the body to follow the correct course of movement.

Through polishing our basic techniques we were able to set the groundwork for a better quality of movement in kumite and kata. Kumite drills incorporated adjustment of distance through changes to stance and angle of attack. Kyu grades studied all Heian kata plus Tekki Shodan in depth, and Dan grades worked on Bassai, Kanku, Chinte, Gojushiho Sho, Sochin, Empi and Jion.

A handful of Shiranamikai students joined us on every day of the course, some training for a day’s training and a couple opting for the full three day course. It really pleased us to see club members getting the most out of this opportunity. Regular training at club level is the core of our karate training, but the wealth of knowledge and inspiration gained from these courses will really help you to advance to the next level.

In July my friend Sarka and I attended the Czech JKA’s annual summer camp: ‘Gasshuku Czech Republic’. ‘Gasshuku’ 合宿 is a Japanese term meaning ‘a time of lodging together’. In karate, you can think of a gasshuku as a sort of mini-break, where we get together in order to train a little bit harder than usual. Eating, drinking and parties usually form a very important part of the programme too.

The Czech Gasshuku 2010 was held in Sporice, near Chomutov, which is about a 40 minute car journey from Prague airport and in total lasted 6 days. Our commitment to compete in the JKA England Nationals over the 1st weekend of July meant that we could only attend the final 3 days. But what an action packed 3 days they were! The training schedule was divided by grade into groups, with each group scheduled to take part in a morning and afternoon session, each session lasting 90 minutes. Dan grades had the option of participating in all the sessions, so for the super keen there was the opportunity to attend 6 sessions per day. On arrival at the Gasshuku, it was a pleasure to meet Sarka’s first instructor, Michal, and other members of his club. They welcomed us into their group during the Gasshuku, making the experience all the more enjoyable.

Visiting instructors from JKA Headquarters were Naka Tatsuya Sensei 7th Dan JKA, Okuma Koichiro Sensei 5th Dan JKA, and Takahashi Yuko Sensei 3rd Dan JKA. Naka Sensei had visited England earlier in the year for the JKA England Spring International Course. We were excited to have a chance to learn more from this talented instructor and former karate champion. Okuma Sensei and Takahashi Sensei have both had considerable success in international JKA competition in recent years and we were eager to experience their training methods.

There were many memorable lessons. I particularly enjoyed practising kata Nijushiho led by Naka sensei, developing the wave-like rhythm of the opening sequence and the control and coordination needed for the tsukami uke – yoko kekomi – gyaku tsuki sequences.

A kumite footwork session with Takahashi Yuko Sensei was also enjoyable, where the emphasis was on moving naturally and quickly. Sensei also inspired us with a reminder of the importance of positive thinking and self-belief. She urged each of us to treat every new day as an opportunity to improve, remembering that we all have the capacity to get better. Yes, we lose some speed and muscle power as we age, but we can more than make up for this with knowledge, spirit and better application of technique. With this in mind karateka of all ages should view our best days as yet to come!

We practised some drills with Okuma Sensei to give us the courage to execute various ‘de-ai’ attacks in kumite. ‘De-ai’ is a strategy that involves meeting the opponent’s technique as he executes it, by launching a counter-attack to reach him before his attack lands. If you can pick up on your opponent’s intention to attack you at an early stage and are able to respond immediately, you can strike before he has an opportunity to change the course of his initial movement, his psychological commitment to the technique already having been made. These drills involved decisively moving further into the attacker’s path. A bit scary, but what a feeling of exhilaration when one was able to get the timing just right!

This Gasshuku was attended by karateka from all over Europe, including quite a few participants from Germany which is just next door to the Czech Republic. It was a really nice surprise to bump into ‘Mukki’ from Tübingen University Dojo near Stuttgart, who Austin and I had met briefly at JKA HQ in Tokyo during 2009.

On the last day of the course, there were probably a few sore heads and tired feet after the previous night’s end of Gasshuku party, which was most enjoyable but had reportedly finished at 5am. Nevertheless, everyone was in place early the next morning for photographs with the visiting instructors followed by training. The session culminated in a team kata competition, each team made up of a mixture of different grades and performing a Heian kata of choice. Okuma Sensei then took in the votes for an overall winner, after which he congratulated everyone on how well they had worked together.

Once the course had ended, Sarka and I were off to Prague for a couple of days where I enjoyed meeting her family, took in some of the the sights and had the chance to sample the flumes of ‘AquaParc’ as well as some more traditional Czech foods and beer.

The high-calorie content of Czech dumplings seemed the perfect way to recover from the exertion of Gasshuku.

Sasha

We always look forward to the special karate courses held at Guildford over bank holiday weekends. These present an opportunity to catch up with friends, enjoy a few days of intensive karate training and to benefit from the tuition of some of the finest instructors in the world.

This spring’s course featured JKA England’s Sensei Ohta, as well as visiting instructors Naka Sensei, Osaka Sensei and Mori Sensei. Osaka Sensei delighted us with refined technique, good humour and an endearing variety of facial expressions. Naka Sensei also inspired us, combining charisma and physical talent to share JKA’s highly technical approach to concepts such as hip rotation, body alignment and moving centre of gravity.  Mori Sensei, Chief Instructor of JKA New York, reminded us of the importance of putting maximum effort into everything we did.

With Naka Sensei having recently starred in two martial arts movies, Kuro-Obi (‘black belt’) and more recently High Kick Girl, there were quite a few self-confessed fans among the course attendees, keen to see if their hero was just as dynamic off-screen. They were not disappointed!

As ever this course provided a wealth of information to assist our karate development and further knowledge to be shared at Shiranamikai. Some of the highlights of the course for Austin and myself were:

• Naka Sensei’s session concentrating on correct posture, maintenance of centreline and awareness of the tanden (the physical centre of gravity). Throughout basic training we often try to think of the centre of gravity as sitting at a fixed point as a means to maintaining stability. At a more advanced level, Naka showed us the dramatic effect of becoming aware of the changes in the balance point as we move, creating instability temporarily to result in a smoother and faster technique.
• A variety of detailed kata practice sessions, including detailed instruction in Bassai Dai, Kanku Dai, Enpi, Jion, Unsu and Gojushiho Sho. Kyu grades were treated to sessions focused on the Heian katas. Ohta Sensei’s Gojushiho Sho was smooth, flowing and with beautiful variations in timing. Osaka Sensei’s signature Sochin featured a dynamic and elastic hip rotation that he made look so easy!
• An assortment of lengthy combinations to exercise the brain and body, with the detail presenting a challenge for both senior and junior grades alike.

These international courses are open to all grades and participants are put in groups according to grade. Kyu grades were taught in their own group, allowing Shiranamikai students Sheila, Rupert, Peter and Mo to benefit from lessons fully tailored to their needs.

The next JKA International course takes place over the August Bank Holiday weekend with another impressive line up of instructors flying over specially from JKA Headquarters. Check the events page for full details!

Sasha