Autumn (Fall) Camp

[AnonymousOne]

I am off to another Gasshuku this weekend.

 

It should be good. There will be some 400 people attending.

 

Its out at a country boy scout camp in a beautiful location called Hunua.

 

We will be doing around 14 hours training over the whole weekend. The first lessons starts in 2.5 hours so I better get down there.

 

We will be up at 4.30am Saturday morning for the first lesson of the day. No doubt Kancho Sensei will have us in the river at some point before breakfast. He loves that hehe.

 

I wont be teaching. There will be about 10 instructors from all over the country attending and I specifically asked if I could train rather than teach.

 

We are also going to separate out the Dan and Kyu grades. I believe there will be about 60 Dan grades attending and I am looking forward to the Dan grade lessons with our Sensei.

 

This particular camp also has an Army type obstacle course and just up the road there are some great hills for our usual Sunday morning running.

 

When I first did these camps as a Kyu grade, I had to take a week off work afterwards because they were so exhausting. But when I recovered I really noticed the difference.

 

Its also a great time to fellowship with other Karate-Ka from around the country.

 

So have a great weekend guys and I will see you when I get back. And yes my son is attending.

 

 

[Phantasmatic]

Have fun man!

 

 

[YODA]

Sounds like my kinda thing AO.

 

We'll be off to our annual bash on March 28th - Two weeks of hard work & hard play

 

 

[YODA]

....... Just had a startling realisation! Autumn/Fall camp? In MARCH!!!

 

You must live on the other side of the world of something!

 

 

 

[Joecooke007]

sounds cool!

 

 

[AnonymousOne]

Well what a weekend. We started at 7pm Friday night with all students training in basics. This went on until 9.30pm

 

After that we 'tried' to get some sleep, but with so many young people there, staying up late, giggling and making a lot of noise and laughter it was really hard. Then of course us Dan grades get asked to go and settle things down. Sheesh you young people behave!!! LOL

 

4.30am Saturday morning the bell is rung, we have 15 minutes to be ready for training. The day went in a pattern. In the mornings the first lesson at 4.45 to 7.45 consisted of basics.

 

Then we had breakfast at 8.00am. And started again at 10am.We then did a lesson on Kata. The Kyu Grades were spit up from the Dan grades at this lesson. The Kyu grades were split up in ranks and moved out onto the huge lawn area. The Dan grades trained inside (out of the heat too hehe) in the huge main hall. This lesson was great. We had about 60 Dan grades in these lessons. The lesson was dedicated to practising the Kata Gojushiho and Enpi. We also practised Bunkai.

 

Then we stopped for lunch for two hours. Kitchen duty for the Kyu grades (I hated that back then). We had a good rest and I was able to meet again with Karate-Ka from other parts of the country. It was great to share ideas and so on.

 

We started training again at 2.0pm. We did a lesson on Kumite here. We were also training in competition technique as some of the guys are preparing for that. It was really good and very hard. We also did a 100 man fight which I was in. This is the fifth time I have done that now. Its extremely exhausting. We trained until 5.30pm.

 

We then broke of for dinner. I had to organise the Kyu grades in the Kitchen, so no rest LOL. We had a great meal of beef stew, vegetables and bread and cold drinks. Breakfast was cereal, toast and coffee. Lunch was sandwiches and fruit.

 

We rested until 7.30pm and we all went for an hour long run. It was nice running in the cool of the evenings out there. There were several really steep hills. I really enjoyed that. I love hill running.

 

After that we broke and had showers. Several people were given the job of cleaning up the whole camp from any litter. There wasn’t much but that’s our way. Also the Dojo area is washed and cleaned after each lesson. Everything but the roof is done. Toilets, showers, all hallways and locker area is cleaned after each lesson also.

 

On Saturday night we showed some video’s on martial arts for all those that wanted to attend. Some people preferred to relax after a really hard day. In fact some went to sleep straight away. I stayed up, not bad for an old koot like me. But as I said before you young people stayed up and annoyed the Hell out of us. LOL We then had to instigate a 100 press up punishment for anyone making to much noise. That settled them down!

 

Sunday morning we woke at 4.30am again. We have a short cup of tea or coffee and a few dry bisquits to settle the old stomach down again. We then go for an hours long run again. Same route only backwards. Just as hard. When we got back and did some very repetitive basics for about 45 minutes and then we moved onto the Army obstacle course. This particular course is very long and you also have to rope yourself up a tree then across a river. The scenery here is quite profound. Man I would love to own that property. The majority of people got across okay but some fell in the river to safely swim ashore. It was a long lesson and we had a late breakfast at 10.30am. I really enjoyed the course and much of it has been renewed lately so it looked really good. Its getting quite old now but they have often added and upgraded it.

 

After breakfast it was decided to train until 2pm and have a late lunch. In this lesson we did Kumite again. However this time all grades were together. We did basic sparring, one step and two step sparring, and a lot of free sparring. Sadly a few people got hurt. Not too bad though. In these lessons people get very fired up. The standard of the school is really excellent. We have some very talented young people coming through. We also had all the Dan grades all at once and do as many press ups as they could. We counted them, took an average and then made the Kyu grades do it.

 

We stopped for lunch, but not before cleaning the Dojo and grounds. Sandwiches again. And a rest too.

 

We started again at 3.30pm. In this lesson we did a lot of self defense and counter street fighting techniques. Also we trained using wooden knives (for safety reasons). This was excellent. We really got into this. The other Dan grades were attacking like mad man and really coming at you hard. When Dan grades train together its very strict and one is expected to give a 100% effort. Not only are we taking our training seriously but we are an example to the lower grades. In our camps, you are not allowed to walk in front of a Dan grade in between lessons or not. You walk behind them in the traditional Japanese way. The higher up the rank the lesser the degree of bowing is required. In other words the top grades just basically nod. I never really understood all this until I went to Japan and learned their ways. Its all just a sign of respect. And believe me Dan grades earn their ranks.

 

Also in this lesson we did basics and line work. We finished off with a brutal session of line work. We worked on a lot on foot work.

 

This lesson finished at 6pm. We then cleaned the camp up. Cleaned the Dojo. Packed up. Lined up at 7pm for a head count to ensure all were present. We also did this on Saturday. We also have to keep record of attendances for grades. To sit Shodan one must also have attended at least 8 training camps.

 

The Kancho Sensei had a good talk to us at the last lesson and commented on the standard around the country, the up coming competition and training in general.

 

Once the place was cleaned and vacated we broke off from the weekend. Most went home. I stayed back with some guys from out of town and had a BBQ. We had a good discussion and shared some philosophies on training.

 

Our camps are done in a truly traditional Japanese way. Its very strict in training and relaxed however outside of training. Many people were able to camp there and bring their families who watched. They had bbq’s and took the children to the river for boating and swimming. There is also a great playground for the kids.

 

I also took a bbq and had steak, bacon, sausages and salad. Yummy and did I need it. The weather was really hot and I was fortunate to be able to find a tree to train in the shade when we went outdoors. Sheesh the breaks one gets when you are a Senior Dan grade!

 

The accommodation is really good. There are huts that sleep up to 14 people in them. And different Dojo’s were allocated certain huts and there was some very funny and amicable rivalry between them. I took my tent an 8 sleeper and lined it with carpet and had a decent bed and comforts like a clothes draw, gas cooker, bbq and portable fridge. I have been to too many of these to realise that you have to be prepared. Trying to get a decent night sleep in those cabins is madness. LOL

 

I really enjoyed the weekend. I trained very hard with all the others. I was a little tired on my run this morning but I was ok really. I am glad we had a balanced weekend of training and all the first timers loved and hated the obstacle course. We did a balance of many many techniques. From basics, including combinations and a balanced amount of kicking. We did a good amount of sparring and Kata and we also got several longs runs in and used the obstacle course to develop endurance, agility and confidence. The weather was just perfect. Very sunny with a nice cool breeze. I also swam in the river several times between lessons. I have eight Gi’s so I was always able to have a clean dry one.

 

Some of us Dan grades also did some short training between some lessons. The Kancho Sensei wanted to spend as much time with us as possible. These added on lessons were mainly about technicalities of certain techniques and Kata applications (Bunkai). We were also discussing teachings methods and so on with the ones that are instructors. We have many 3rd and 4th Dans, that don’t teach but still train. It was good to talk to these guys and encourage each other in our self-training.

 

In one of the lessons we found a steep grassy hill and had to piddy back someone to the top by running up it. People were falling down and sliding down the hill all over the place. It was really funny. And several girls beat many guys to the top!

 

I cant say there was a particular highlight for the weekend. It was very hard but also very balanced. It was also really good meeting new people and training with them. Some of the comical stuff that went on between the lessons was really funny. One group of guys completely swapped their hut with another lot and pretended like nothing happened and baffled the other guys. It was so funny. Then we had some younger people doing this break dancing stuff on the grass in their Gi’s. As they spun around some would kick their feet out from under them and send them flying. The ones who got thrown most got the biggest cheer. Outside of training it was very much a social event and it was great to see all the young people laughing and enjoying themselves in the summers sun. There were many young couples there and many were both training. I don’t know how many acres the land is but is quite huge. They cater for all sorts of sporting clubs and organizations to go there. Right from boy scouts to business groups. We are only lucky to be able to get this particular camp twice a year usually. The other times we go to another camp but its not as good as this one. It is right in the middle of a woods setting, with a river and also many walking tracks to way up in the hills. The facilities are excellent and there’s plenty of room for tents etc.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed it and took several photos that I should have soon.

 

___________________________

 

Soft teachers make soft students

 

 

 

[ This Message was edited by: AnonymousOne on 2002-03-10 22:36 ]

[Karateka]

I am glad that you enjoyed yourself. I hope you came back with some new knowledge.

 

 

[Angus]

Sounds like my mountain training when i was 15. Climb mountain, train on mountain, climb down mountain... It was mostly crap and a waste of time... But i guess it was kinda cool.

 

Angus

 

 

[Ryukyu1]

Sounds like you had a great time. Let us know when you post the pictures.