Central Canada Kyokushin Karate
Valeriy Kukovskiy, formerly of the
Ukraine (now living in Ontario,
Canada)
attended the North American Black Belt
Conference
representing Central Canada Kyokushin.
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This past weekend in
Banff was another great weekend of
training. We were fortunate to have
respected and knowledgeable instructors
in Shihan Lowe, Shihan Isobe, Shihan
Gorai and Shihan Stuart Corrigal who
provided us with so much information and
many insights. The attendees came from
all over the world.
The training was
varied and included kihon, happo no
kuzushi, goshin jitsu, ido geiko, and
kata. A special gtreath was Shihan
Gorai showing us the three bo kata. The
third kata will definitely be a
challenge to learn, as there are many
unfamiliar moves in it.
Unfortunately, Kancho
was unable to attend, so instead of a
meeting with him, we were entertained by
Shihan Isobe, an expressive storyteller
(itfs fortunate that Shihan Gorai is so
adept in translating expressively as
well!).
A trek up Tunnel
Mountain was scheduled for early Sunday
morning, but fortunately Shihan Stuart
decided to reschedule it to Saturday
afternoon (the weather was warm and
sunny on Saturday, but frigid and dark
on Sunday). There were a couple of
times that I doubted whether I could
make it to the top, but I kept
remembering what Shihan Isobe reminded
us of the day before – we must overcome
ourselves. At the top, the training was
enjoyable and the view was spectacular!
The weekend was well
worth the time and the expense. Itfs
obvious that a huge amount of work had
been done to make this such an enjoyable
weekend for everyone. For me, the best
part of the weekend was renewing old
acquaintances and making new ones.
Anyone who did not attend missed a great
opportunity!
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2006 North American Black Belt
Conference
As is the case
with most hobbies/pass times/sports
interests, you tend to go through peaks
and valleys in your level of commitment
and interest. You run and run 3 or 4
times a week for weeks on end to train
for a race - when the race is over your
interest in running wanes until the next
goal comes along. Maybe you read
voraciously, finishing a novel a week
for months in a row until one day you
suddenly realize that youfve been
reading the same book for the last 6
months and you arenft even sure the last
time you picked it up.
Martial arts
training is no different. At one time or
another in my life Ifve trained in
Shotokan, Uechi Ryu, Taekwondo, Wadokai
and since Jan. 2003, Kyokushin; all with
varying levels of commitment and most
with unplanned extended breaks in
regular participation. From my own
personal experience, I know how
difficult it is to stay focused and
committed to regular training - I can
only imagine the difficulties and
valleys faced over the years by the
likes of Shihan Lowe, Shihan Isobe,
Shihan Stuart and the others who arenft
just training a few hours a week and
attending the occasional summer or
winter camp but who are running their
own dojos and have committed a
significant portion of their lives to
the continued learning, training and
teaching of Kyokushin.
Yes it was great
to learn Bo Kata from Shihan Gorai and
Happo No Kawashi from Shihan Lowe, but
to me the real benefit from the weekend
was in seeing 100+ Kyokushin and their
continued level of commitment, focus and
dedication even after many, many years
of training. It is events like these
that help one to renew focus and
dedication and the desire to better
oneself. Now if we could only host this
event in Banff every yearc
Brendan Bell
4th Kyu
Banff Dojo
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What a
great weekend we had in Banff
The training was varied with kihon, Ido
Geiko, happo no kuzushi, goshin jitsu
and three new Bo katas.
All this was very capably shown to us by
Shihan Lowe (Hawaii), Shihan Isobe
(Brazil), Shihan Gorai (New York) and
Shihan Stuart Corrigal.
I recall Shihan Isobe stressing that we
should practice kihon (along with
correct posture) every day, as this is
the foundation that everything else is
built upon. He said g3 years to perfect
your punches, 3 years to perfect your
blocks and 3 years to perfect your
kicks.h and this reminded me of a quote
of Sosaifs g1,000 days of training a
beginner, 10,000 days of training an
experth. I have a long way to go. Focus
and train hard.
All in all it was a very informative
weekend and I look forward to the next
conference.
Osu!
Dwight Sdrogefske (Newton)
Click here for
an additional report by Sempai Terry
from Surrey Dojo
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