Post by fleur on May 24, 2011 0:12:01 GMT
From a Students perspective....Karate Friendship Seminar - Nelson May 2011
A gathering of 19 karateka from 9 different clubs throughout New Zealand came together for one weekend to meet and train together as one. We had a mix of clubs representing Shotokan, Shorin, Kempo, and a weighty Goju influence. The campgrounds were great, the sun shone and the food was brilliant. The girls got luxury inner sprung beds and the boys began their body conditioning early as they climbed aboard the torture racks they called bunks, to ready themselves for the two days of training ahead.
Saturday, Day one - After shaking out the previous nights kinks we headed for the field outside to begin the first of our four 2hr lessons for the day.
Pressure points - How to make a grown man fall to his knees!
There were a number of sessions that incorporated pressure point work. These sessions were effectively teaching us how to quickly immobilise our opponent and take them down. Pressure point work has the ability to stop a person in their tracks and gives you the upper hand to take control quickly with little fuss.
The scene soon consisted of the sounds of sudden painful grunts followed swiftly by large bodies falling southward at awkward angels.
The terms lung 6, heart 2, bladder 5 and colon 10 spring to mind, soon thereafter with an image of Andrew heading quickly to the nearest toilet.
It highlighted why many of the techniques we perform in Kata and kihon direct us to action strikes and blocks to certain targets on the body. The penny drops as I hear my sensei's voice rings in my head...."get in closer, age uke up in close Fleur, above the elbow into the bicep"..... Aaaah - heart 2......interesting. These little bells kept ringing as we looked at Kata's like Pinan/Heian Sandan & Yondan and took out snippets to interpret the pressure point strikes, locks and take downs.
These were extremely informative, painful, yet somehow enjoyable sessions. And we leave with the knowledge that we never need suffer from constipation again.
Big thanks to Robin Warburton.
Take Downs - Goju style with Geoff Blokland
Another fun session working around the body close quarters from varying angles. Geoff was coming from the street brawl scenario, when arms, hands and bodies are flying, things move fast and you find yourself popping up next to your opponent from a variety of angels. This session covered how to action take downs from every angel around the body, whether face to face, at a 45, side by side - either facing the same direction or in opposite directions. Because life isn't nice and simple and in a real life our situation your opponent doesnt always present themselves neatly in front of you for you to conveniently defend with a tidy block and counter. The truth is ugly - so that's what we worked on.
This session tied in nicely with the previous pressure point session, as our new found knowledge enabled us to put a little more bite in some of our strikes and grips.
So as Geoff would say......"We came away with a few more tools in our toolbox!"
And just on that, it is important to note: there was so much info flying around, locks and take downs to master - it is impossible as a novice to take it all on board. But as a novice I appreciate the complexity of the arts and understand that within a lifetime it will never be mastered, so I am happy in the knowledge that if I can pick up just one or two pointers (tools for my toolbox) from the whole weekend then it has been a huge success.
Lunch...yum! And then Geoff and I had a little play with the bo.
Ground Work
At training hour six of day one - half way into our third session after a bit more pressure point work, we headed to the gym for mat work. I vacantly steered as Rob grabbed some poor volunteer to roll around on the floor with. I think I had reached the point of information overload and the idea of rolling around on the floor with someone at this stage was.....well..... a little unappealing. I had never done it before, it looked hard and I was currently..... brain dead.
So I managed to watch for about 10mins before I decided, watching had to be more boring than doing, so down I went....."Yeh!" I can hear you all cheering...."that's the spirit!" Us few girls (3) stuck together, we weren't having any of those big muddy, grass strained gi wearing boys sticking their groins anywhere near our faces.
And then the fun began!
Thrusting, pushing, trapping and rolling, soon followed by screaming and laughing! Time flew and before we knew it, it was time to break for dinner. The purpose of this session this to give us a couple of basics to ready us for the next days session. By the end of the session, I regretted wasting the first 10 minutes and was looking forward to what tomorrow would bring.
Dinner was fab! I was ready for my nanna nap when a call came through the door - "Fleur - we're on!" And session 4 of the day was ready to start.
Nijushiho Bunkai with Andrew Paxton
As there was a large Goju presence Andy wanted to throw something in the mix that he knew even the experienced Goju boys most probably would not have worked on. So in comes a Shotokan Kata to play with, an Asai favourite.
After a good warm up and challenging combination special of Andrews we moved into learning about the first half of this very cool Kata. We worked in partners experimenting with bunkai application as we stepped through the Kata.
By the end of the night I was ready for my cuppa and cake! Did I mention that the food was good!
Then bed, oh those comfy mattresses....they were soooo good......... sorry boys.
Sunday, Day Two - Two more two hour sessions that followed on from the previous day, more pressure point work followed by our second session of groundwork. All I can say is, that beyond the absent minded boob fondling
(just as well Megan and I are good friends!) and thigh burn to my left ear, it was a very fun session indeed, filled with grunts, tap outs and lots of laughter. ;D
We finished the day with Glen Morgan back out on the field with a little Goju feel - Gekaisai dai ichi kata while holding our wee or not so wee chi ishi, hey fun! Kata on a hill side, hey fun! Some conditioning moving drills, hey fun! - "Smiling, we're all still smiling" Glen would call.
And finally Richard Dickens tried to install a little hip action into us all to round off this final session.
Another yummy lunch and our last chance to chat and laugh together. I'm always thirsty for information and very interested in other schools lineage and history, so I'm always asking lots of questions. It was great to be around passionate, like minded people where we could compare notes and appreciate style differences and similarities.
A huge thanks goes out to Andrew Paxton for putting it all together. Massive thumbs up to Robin Warburton and Geoff Blokland for pushing me outside my comfort zone and cheers to Glen Morgan and Richard Dickens for keeping us constantly entertained.
And to the rest of ya, well - we'll be chatting on facebook!
A gathering of 19 karateka from 9 different clubs throughout New Zealand came together for one weekend to meet and train together as one. We had a mix of clubs representing Shotokan, Shorin, Kempo, and a weighty Goju influence. The campgrounds were great, the sun shone and the food was brilliant. The girls got luxury inner sprung beds and the boys began their body conditioning early as they climbed aboard the torture racks they called bunks, to ready themselves for the two days of training ahead.
Saturday, Day one - After shaking out the previous nights kinks we headed for the field outside to begin the first of our four 2hr lessons for the day.
Pressure points - How to make a grown man fall to his knees!
There were a number of sessions that incorporated pressure point work. These sessions were effectively teaching us how to quickly immobilise our opponent and take them down. Pressure point work has the ability to stop a person in their tracks and gives you the upper hand to take control quickly with little fuss.
The scene soon consisted of the sounds of sudden painful grunts followed swiftly by large bodies falling southward at awkward angels.
The terms lung 6, heart 2, bladder 5 and colon 10 spring to mind, soon thereafter with an image of Andrew heading quickly to the nearest toilet.
It highlighted why many of the techniques we perform in Kata and kihon direct us to action strikes and blocks to certain targets on the body. The penny drops as I hear my sensei's voice rings in my head...."get in closer, age uke up in close Fleur, above the elbow into the bicep"..... Aaaah - heart 2......interesting. These little bells kept ringing as we looked at Kata's like Pinan/Heian Sandan & Yondan and took out snippets to interpret the pressure point strikes, locks and take downs.
These were extremely informative, painful, yet somehow enjoyable sessions. And we leave with the knowledge that we never need suffer from constipation again.
Big thanks to Robin Warburton.
Take Downs - Goju style with Geoff Blokland
Another fun session working around the body close quarters from varying angles. Geoff was coming from the street brawl scenario, when arms, hands and bodies are flying, things move fast and you find yourself popping up next to your opponent from a variety of angels. This session covered how to action take downs from every angel around the body, whether face to face, at a 45, side by side - either facing the same direction or in opposite directions. Because life isn't nice and simple and in a real life our situation your opponent doesnt always present themselves neatly in front of you for you to conveniently defend with a tidy block and counter. The truth is ugly - so that's what we worked on.
This session tied in nicely with the previous pressure point session, as our new found knowledge enabled us to put a little more bite in some of our strikes and grips.
So as Geoff would say......"We came away with a few more tools in our toolbox!"
And just on that, it is important to note: there was so much info flying around, locks and take downs to master - it is impossible as a novice to take it all on board. But as a novice I appreciate the complexity of the arts and understand that within a lifetime it will never be mastered, so I am happy in the knowledge that if I can pick up just one or two pointers (tools for my toolbox) from the whole weekend then it has been a huge success.
Lunch...yum! And then Geoff and I had a little play with the bo.
Ground Work
At training hour six of day one - half way into our third session after a bit more pressure point work, we headed to the gym for mat work. I vacantly steered as Rob grabbed some poor volunteer to roll around on the floor with. I think I had reached the point of information overload and the idea of rolling around on the floor with someone at this stage was.....well..... a little unappealing. I had never done it before, it looked hard and I was currently..... brain dead.
So I managed to watch for about 10mins before I decided, watching had to be more boring than doing, so down I went....."Yeh!" I can hear you all cheering...."that's the spirit!" Us few girls (3) stuck together, we weren't having any of those big muddy, grass strained gi wearing boys sticking their groins anywhere near our faces.
And then the fun began!
Thrusting, pushing, trapping and rolling, soon followed by screaming and laughing! Time flew and before we knew it, it was time to break for dinner. The purpose of this session this to give us a couple of basics to ready us for the next days session. By the end of the session, I regretted wasting the first 10 minutes and was looking forward to what tomorrow would bring.
Dinner was fab! I was ready for my nanna nap when a call came through the door - "Fleur - we're on!" And session 4 of the day was ready to start.
Nijushiho Bunkai with Andrew Paxton
As there was a large Goju presence Andy wanted to throw something in the mix that he knew even the experienced Goju boys most probably would not have worked on. So in comes a Shotokan Kata to play with, an Asai favourite.
After a good warm up and challenging combination special of Andrews we moved into learning about the first half of this very cool Kata. We worked in partners experimenting with bunkai application as we stepped through the Kata.
By the end of the night I was ready for my cuppa and cake! Did I mention that the food was good!
Then bed, oh those comfy mattresses....they were soooo good......... sorry boys.
Sunday, Day Two - Two more two hour sessions that followed on from the previous day, more pressure point work followed by our second session of groundwork. All I can say is, that beyond the absent minded boob fondling
(just as well Megan and I are good friends!) and thigh burn to my left ear, it was a very fun session indeed, filled with grunts, tap outs and lots of laughter. ;DWe finished the day with Glen Morgan back out on the field with a little Goju feel - Gekaisai dai ichi kata while holding our wee or not so wee chi ishi, hey fun! Kata on a hill side, hey fun! Some conditioning moving drills, hey fun! - "Smiling, we're all still smiling" Glen would call.
And finally Richard Dickens tried to install a little hip action into us all to round off this final session.
Another yummy lunch and our last chance to chat and laugh together. I'm always thirsty for information and very interested in other schools lineage and history, so I'm always asking lots of questions. It was great to be around passionate, like minded people where we could compare notes and appreciate style differences and similarities.
A huge thanks goes out to Andrew Paxton for putting it all together. Massive thumbs up to Robin Warburton and Geoff Blokland for pushing me outside my comfort zone and cheers to Glen Morgan and Richard Dickens for keeping us constantly entertained.
And to the rest of ya, well - we'll be chatting on facebook!
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