Post by genkaimade on Feb 6, 2011 11:45:15 GMT
So, yesterday was my organisation's 1 year anniversary course, and to celebrate, we managed to get a certain Mr Toshiaki Namiki, 8th Dan, of the WJKA to come down from the USA and do a course with us Before anything else, I have to say the following: this man really deserves his 8th Dan. As we all know, grade means very little nowadays, what with mcdojo giving out 20th Dan multicoulour black belts like there's no tomorrow, however, Namiki sensei was really, really, really good - his grade is legit.
So, the course was being held at one of the centres we use that is a good hour and a half away on the tube from where I live. So, I woke up early, packed my stuff, and got there a good 45 minutes in advance. Upon entering the changing room, I was delighted by how cheerful Namiki sensei was! I had skated from the train station to the dojo and still had my 'board out when I entered the changing room, and as soon as I'd said a customary hello and what not, he engaged me in good old conversation about it amongst other things whilst we got changed! Anywho though, my first impressions were very good, and they only got better as I saw him stretching - doing the splits like they were nothing!
So, onto the actual training. We were a fairly large group, all in all about 60 of us, so we all lined up, and did all the formalities and whatnot. At this point, Namiki sensei went into great depth about the relevance of how you sit down into seiza and get up from it, and made sure to make clear that what we are studying is Karate - not a sport, but a martial art, in which budo is very important. Then we were all called around, and using 2 of our senior instructors, he proceeded to, in incredible detail, explain the mechanics of sen no sen, go no sen, and tai no sen. This incorporated things like analysing distance, anticipating your opponents potential attacks, reading his stance, breaking his rhythm and whatnot. As a measly 3rd kyu, this was pretty much new to me, and now, I honestly can't understand how I survived without knowing it! So, we were then paired, and we worked through the different tactics, Namiki sensei being sure to pay attention to everyone as he moved around the hall, checking everyone's movements. After working through a lot with lots of mini discussions in between things, we had a "break". A "break" in which I spent literally the whole time writing down the shed-loads of information that I'd just been given XD
Then came the second part of the session, which we started with demonstration of the importance of intricacies of kata, and the bunkai. Here, a lot of our dan grades were torn apart Supposedly confused by different previous organisations having said different things, they (thankfully nobody that trains under my specific instructors ) managed to successfully come up with some of the worst bunkai ever, which were quickly torn to pieces (in the nicest possible way of course). Just as this finished though, and we were about to get up for the second round of our physical training (actually applying the implications of the kata in free sparring circumstances), we were abruptly stopped, as someone informed us that we'd already overrun our time in the hall. Disappointedly, we all lined up again for the closing formalities (which were very rudely interrupted by the staff at the centre we were using moving around big trolleys and things), and said our good byes!
I'm missing the second half of the course (which is right now actually...) because I'm at work, but I finish just in time to get to the dojo to say another thank you, and find out what I've missed.
Just to conclude, I have to thoroughly recommend Toshiaki Namiki sensei to all of you! He is a man that really does know his stuff - in fact he really did remind me of our own Steve Hyland, who you would probably have to spend every waking moment for years training under in order to extract all his karate knowledge from him! But yes, my verdict is as follows: if you get the chance to train with this man, I seriously recommend it!
So, the course was being held at one of the centres we use that is a good hour and a half away on the tube from where I live. So, I woke up early, packed my stuff, and got there a good 45 minutes in advance. Upon entering the changing room, I was delighted by how cheerful Namiki sensei was! I had skated from the train station to the dojo and still had my 'board out when I entered the changing room, and as soon as I'd said a customary hello and what not, he engaged me in good old conversation about it amongst other things whilst we got changed! Anywho though, my first impressions were very good, and they only got better as I saw him stretching - doing the splits like they were nothing!
So, onto the actual training. We were a fairly large group, all in all about 60 of us, so we all lined up, and did all the formalities and whatnot. At this point, Namiki sensei went into great depth about the relevance of how you sit down into seiza and get up from it, and made sure to make clear that what we are studying is Karate - not a sport, but a martial art, in which budo is very important. Then we were all called around, and using 2 of our senior instructors, he proceeded to, in incredible detail, explain the mechanics of sen no sen, go no sen, and tai no sen. This incorporated things like analysing distance, anticipating your opponents potential attacks, reading his stance, breaking his rhythm and whatnot. As a measly 3rd kyu, this was pretty much new to me, and now, I honestly can't understand how I survived without knowing it! So, we were then paired, and we worked through the different tactics, Namiki sensei being sure to pay attention to everyone as he moved around the hall, checking everyone's movements. After working through a lot with lots of mini discussions in between things, we had a "break". A "break" in which I spent literally the whole time writing down the shed-loads of information that I'd just been given XD
Then came the second part of the session, which we started with demonstration of the importance of intricacies of kata, and the bunkai. Here, a lot of our dan grades were torn apart Supposedly confused by different previous organisations having said different things, they (thankfully nobody that trains under my specific instructors ) managed to successfully come up with some of the worst bunkai ever, which were quickly torn to pieces (in the nicest possible way of course). Just as this finished though, and we were about to get up for the second round of our physical training (actually applying the implications of the kata in free sparring circumstances), we were abruptly stopped, as someone informed us that we'd already overrun our time in the hall. Disappointedly, we all lined up again for the closing formalities (which were very rudely interrupted by the staff at the centre we were using moving around big trolleys and things), and said our good byes!
I'm missing the second half of the course (which is right now actually...) because I'm at work, but I finish just in time to get to the dojo to say another thank you, and find out what I've missed.
Just to conclude, I have to thoroughly recommend Toshiaki Namiki sensei to all of you! He is a man that really does know his stuff - in fact he really did remind me of our own Steve Hyland, who you would probably have to spend every waking moment for years training under in order to extract all his karate knowledge from him! But yes, my verdict is as follows: if you get the chance to train with this man, I seriously recommend it!