Karate camp

[BarbedTerror]

What is done at karate camp? I'm sure the activitys would vary depending on the style of karate, yet what kind of activitys are usually done?

[evergrey]

From what I hear about ours, it involves pain, suffering, more pain, more suffering, kata and kumite in a river, bruises, welts, jogging, climbing stairs all the way up a dam, running uphill, sleeping on river rocks, doing on the knuckle push-ups on river rocks, possibly running barefoot in the snow, standing under a freezing cold waterfall, and probably a lot of kihon.

And also pain, suffering, and karate.

[BarbedTerror]

Oh wow, that actually sounds incredibly awesome Hmm.. I wonder if other styles are as intense as yours sounds

[Wastelander]

Basically, karate camps are intended to give you long periods of serious training where you are away from all of your normal distractions--how the camps are run depends upon the person running them. Shorin-Ryu karate camps tend to be a little less hardcore than that --Hanshi Perry's camp, for example, is in the woods down South and everyone stays in cabins overnight and more-or-less trains from sunrise to dinner time. Lots of kata, bunkai and kihon! My sensei loves that camp but I haven't gotten the chance to attend, myself.

[Kruczek]

It is unique to the style. It is similar to a sports camp for sports. What do they do - depends on the sport, but the general idea is a lot of time to do karate.

Do you have a specific karate camp in mind? Maybe we can give you more specifics on that.

[monkeymorgan]

I have attended 2 camps and my dojo is running one for the first time this year. We had the normal kata sessions with bunkia and oyio (sorry about the spelling). We went on hikes, archery, obstacle courses, weapon battle (2 teams with foam weapons), weapons training, self defense, knife defense, gun defense, strength training games, and cardio games. This year we are planning camp fires, hikes, ziplines, volleyball and the the usual workouts. The camps have a wide variety of ranks so we would get free time which was when we did the extras. We did crack of dawn workouts at 4 and late night get togethers (talks, demos, talent shows). Camps are to create friendships and camaraderie between dojos.

[yamesu]

From what I hear about ours, it involves pain, suffering, more pain, more suffering, kata and kumite in a river, bruises, welts, jogging, climbing stairs all the way up a dam, running uphill, sleeping on river rocks, doing on the knuckle push-ups on river rocks, possibly running barefoot in the snow, standing under a freezing cold waterfall, and probably a lot of kihon.

And also pain, suffering, and karate.

Haha

I did a kyokushin camp once. I love Kyokushin, but hated this with a passion.

No-one can expect me to run 5km at 4.30am without a cup of tea first - it's just plain rude

Further to that, we did four more formalised training sessions a day -

1 pre-breakfast (4.30am, gah!)

2nd pre-lunch

3rd post-lunch and finally the 4th pre dinner.

Other training included conditioning and endurance training, but the best part was the end (probably because of the sake...)

[tallgeese]

As someone said earlier, it's a chance to train intensively for a short period out of your normal training operations. So far, most everyone seems to have dealt with the "in-style" camp, where it's an in depth look at the aspects of a style you're familiar with.

Another version, and one I've been lucky enough to be part of on a few occasions is a broader spectrum approach. This is when an organization brings in people, or taps people within that organization, to teach blocks of instruction on aspects of combat arts they are particularly proficient with.

So, you might get someone in to teach knife work, another to do guns, yet another to teach sticks, someone to grapple or show judo, ect. I even got to go to one where a high ranking iaido guy came in to teach. I was too young to really appreciate this, but I'd sure like that chance again.

This really gives you a chance to do a couple of things: 1) you can get a look at what else is out there, this helps you determine if there is an aspect of your response pattern that has a hole in it. 2) it gives you different energies and feels to work against, making you a more prepared fighter.

Just a slightly different, and very helpful, version of the camp concept.