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My Experience at the 2006 North American Black Belt Conference

 I just got back from the North American Black Belt Conference.  

The weekend was amazing. Karate-ka from all over the world, Brazil, Britain, all parts of the USA, Australia, Ukraine, Japan, Singapore, Canada descended upon the beautiful town of Banff, Alberta, early Friday, October 6, 2006.  Shihans, Senseis, and Sempais from all over the world came far and wide to train, socialize, and most important of all to improve themselves by participating in the conference. There were over 100 black belts at the camp in all.  

The two main instructors for the event were Shihan Lowe, from Hawaii and Shihan Isobe, from Brazil. Several other Shihan's also pitched in, including Shihan Gorai who gave two excellent lessons on Kyokushin Karate Bo katas, and acted interpreter for Shihan Isobe.  

Training started at 5:30 PM Friday night. There was some unfortunate news that Shihan Stuart Corrigal had for all before training started.... Kancho would not be able to attend as his flight had been cancelled and arrangements could not be made to get him to the camp on time. This was very unfortunate, but these things happen, and as they say the show must go on. Which it did very nicely with all the senior instructors, most notably Shihan Lowe and Isobe, taking firm command of the situation.  

Shihan Isobe from Brazil led the first training session. The focus of the training was basic Kihon and Ido Geiko. After just a few minutes of training, it became obvious that Shihan Isobe is a world class top level instructor and coach - as well as extremely skilled in all aspects of Kyokushin Karate! Shihan's comments to the group were right on the mark and inspirational to all - "Not bad, but where is your spirit? Your training does not start until you have already pushed yourself to exhaustion - you will never improve if you stop there!h "I'm 59 years old, anybody less than that has to kick at least as high as me for the next 100 kicks!" (Even though Shihan is 59 and gave up several years in age and inches in height to most of the class, his kicks were still higher and faster than just about everybody. And he can still do the full splits!); "You are not working hard until your whole body sweats - your arms, your legs, everything! Your body is old already if only your face sweats, so train hard so your body does not get old before its time!"

Shihan Isobe also took the class through the 4 key ingredients to powerful technique. "Most amateurs only use one, maybe two ingredients effectively. Most of you use two, maybe three ingredients. Almost none of you are using all four properly yet". At this point, Sensei Brad Gillespie was kind enough to volunteer himself so that Shihan could demonstrate what the four ingredients are, and how they work (note Sensei Brad is a very fit, still young, strong, 6'2" former Canadian Open champion and international fighter.)  

"The four ingredients we will discuss are all movements. The first, is what you get from Kihon as a beginner - just the arm or leg movement and power you get from that. Second, comes from Ido Geiko or moving basics - its where you add the force of your body moving to the technique. Third comes from how you apply the power from your hips - itfs a rotational power. Lastly - the secret ingredient - its the proper rotation and extension of your shoulder into the technique, and the timing of the entire sequence with it, adding even more rotational power. All four ingredients combined make for unstoppable power!" Shihan Isobe worked his way through the additive effect of the four ingredients with (or should I say on?) Sensei Brad using what appeared to be a very short stroke chudan tsuki. Sensei Brad could not resist being pushed back when Shihan only used the first two ingredients and a small amount of his available power, at three Sensei Brad was already looking for ways to minimize the impact of the short blows (i.e. pulling back before it struck, turning his body to absorb the blow), at four, Shihan had to pull back on the technique to avoid damaging Sensei Brad. It became obvious why Shihan had picked one of his more robust Kohai at that point for the demo. 

Once training was over at 7:30pm, the group dispersed to fend for themselves for the first nights dinner.

A meet and greet session was set up at 8:30pm on the third floor of the hotel. This was a time to re-affirm old friendships and build new ones. A mighty fine spread of Kyokushin Canada merchandise and memorabilia was also set up. I brought my wife Corrie to the event this year and one of her main goals was to do some "power shopping" in the town. Well, she never actually made it that far as she found Sensei Kathy Miller's near boutique set up irresistible. She bought so much stuff our luggage almost did not make weight at the airport coming back!  

Training the next morning started at 6:30am. Shihan Isobe started things off by giving everyone 15 minutes to do their own warm up "You know your bodies best and what it needs to warm up properly." After the warm up we went back to more basic Kihon and Ido Geiko for the first half of the class. But this time things seemed different from the previous night somehow.... even though it was only 6:30am in the morning, the Kiai's seemed louder, the kicks and punches crisper, everybody was sweating harder this time round. Shihan's messages the night before made a noticeable impact already - people were training harder even though it was very early and the adrenaline of the first night's training session was already long spent.  

Shihan Bobby Lowe took the class for the last half of the training session, focusing on the 32 Happo Kuzushi moves. We stared by doing the moves alone, and then moved on to partner training. Shihan Lowe was once again in fine form, showing the class the practical applications of the techniques, stressing the need to focus your technique, use your stances properly to be effective, proper timing, etc

After the early morning training session, breakfast was served in the dinning hall ... the spread was excellent. There was something there for everyone's taste.

 The next training session was at 10:30am. This time the focus was on the Bo Kata's, as well as Goshin Jitsu. Shihan Gorai from New York and Shihan Stuart Corrigal took the helm for the Bo training, while Shihan Bobby Lowe took command for the Goshin Jitsu training for the second half of the class.

Shihan Stuart started things off by teaching the class basic Bo Kihon - how to hold the Bo, sit and rise from Seiza, basic blocks and strikes, followed by basic Ido Geiko using the Bo. After running through the basics, Shihan Gorai taught the class two Kyokushin Karate Bo kata's. This was the fifth time I have attended a Bo Kata training session and I think I am finally starting to get a feel for how powerful a weapon it could be with diligent training. Shihan Stuart's point that adding the Bo to your training will flush out any weakness you have in the rest of your training - poor balance, stances, timing, coordination - whatever your weakness may be - training with the Bo magnifies it. Watching Shihan Gorai work the Bo makes me feel this principle also works the opposite way too - the Bo can also magnifies your strength if used properly (Shihan Gorai is awesome with the Bo!) The Bo is obviously an excellent all round training tool.

 After the third training session, lunch was served in the dinning hall. Yet another great spread.

A special meeting was held at 2:30pm. I found this to be the highlight of the camp. Shihan Isobe was the guest speaker, with Shihan Gorai acting as his translator.  

Shihan Isobe discussed how he came to live and teach in Brazil. "I wanted to open a dojo in my home town in Japan, but Sosai Oyama had other plans - 'Japan is small, Brazil is big, if you go teach there for two years, you can come back to Japan and open a dojo in your home town'". Shihan Isobe became suspicious that Sosai had a longer term plan for him in Brazil when the two years passed and Sosai added to his challenge "If you can train 3 more instructors to replace you in Brazil, then you can come back to Japan". Shihan Isobe worked hard and managed to get the three instructors to move to Brazil and approached Sosai again "Did I say three instructors? I meant thirty! Brazil is 10 times as big as Japan!" At this point, Shihan Isobe decided his destiny was set and accepted Sosai's wisdom with "Osu!"

At this point, Shihan Isobe decided it was time to reflect on what he would do with his life, where did he want to go next with himself? What was his destiny? "Every man can strive for three things in this life - 1. Make a lot of money. "But Brazil is not a rich country and my dojos can only make so much money."; 2. Become politically powerful. "But I am not a politician and don't want to be."; 3. Become famous. "My spirit lifted - I know how I can become famous! I can use my dojo to train the first non Japanese world champion!"

As almost everybody now knows, Shihan Isobe not only met his goal to become famous as the trainer of the first non-Japanese world champion, he crushed his goal and went way beyond it. Shihan's Brazilian team has been continuously at (or very near to) the top of the world rankings for over a decade now.  

At this point in the presentation, Shihan turned his attention to a few very critical points that I think he wanted everybody to pick up as either instructors, coaches, parents, bosses, or mentors - he seemed to want this message to be applied way beyond just Karate. He discussed how his vision was the key to reaching his goal (i.e. train the first non-Japanese world Champion). Once he had his vision, his next most important thing was to find someone who shared his vision and had the desire and skill to reach the goal with him. Then the hard part, forming and executing the plan. "The key to success as the coach is removing the obstacles for your team and always striving to make them better, a little bit at a time. You must help them by finding the path. There are clues to success everywhere if you look for them - most people fail by not looking for the clues that are key to success. They just stumble along past them and fail to meet their ultimate goal. The secret is often right under their noses if they looked in the right spot!"

 I have attended over fifty management and leadership courses and seminars over the years, and read dozens of books on the subject. None have come close to hitting the mark like Shihan Isobe did in communicating how to be a leader and manager on the path to ultimate greatness for your team. This can be applied to karate, work, family, whatever. All I can say is "Osu Shihan Isobe - Thank you!" Shihan Isobe is a natural born leader.  

The last Saturday training session started at 4:30pm. The walk up Tunnel Mountain was rescheduled due a forecast for below freezing weather Sunday morning. The hike consisted of a 2.2km hike with an elevation gain of 800' (approximate 11% average grade). The combined effect of three prior training sessions and a starting point elevation of 1,500m made the hike challenging but enjoyable. Sensei Jan who is 73 years old was an inspiration, leaving behind several Kohai less than 1/3 of his age. Once at the top of the mountain, Shihan Isobe lead a training session that consisted of kihon and Ido Geiko. A photo session followed. The scenery was awesome from up there - Banff is a beautiful place!

 On the way down from the summit, I ran into Sempai Kathy Desrochers who had sprained her knee when she slipped on some loose rocks while training at the summit and was walking down alone (despite the obvious pain and danger of making her injury worse), not wanting to be a burden on anybody. Fortunately, I was lucky enough that she trusted me to remain discrete during the decent as people passed us by as we both took our time on the journey down. Sometimes, Kyokushin Spirit can show itself in mysterious ways - there was no way Sempai Kathy was going to put a downer on anybody elsefs day. Once again, all I can say is "Osu!"

 On the way down the mountain, I got to know Sempai Kathy a little better. What a nice lady! I understand in the old days, martial arts were mostly male dominated organizations. As were almost all of societies major institutions just a few decades back. From my own experience and what I see in the world, the addition of the kinder and gentler sex to the higher levels in our organization, as well as all others, is a very good thing. Sosai Oyama must have also thought so as well - a simple example being his use of female models in his books dating back 40 years or more.  

Kyokushin is about balance - training to fight, but committing under oath not to. I am not a feminist by any means, but had this been 40 years ago someone like Sempai Kathy would probably not have even been at this camp. Looking at all the ladies who attended the conference with well earned black belts made me proud to be part of Kyokushin Karate organization.

 The last activity for Saturday was the Sayonara party at the HOODOO Lounge in downtown Banff. It was another excellent opportunity to meet new friends and re-affirm bonds with old ones. Dinner, drinks, dancing.... good times were had by all.

 The owner of the lounge must have known we were coming, as there was a "How hard can you punch?" machine set up in the bar. You basically have to pay to punch the machine as hard as you can, and have your effort measured against the hardest punch so far. My guess (and its only a guess) is that Shihan Isobe must have come to the bar early in the day and unleashed one of his famous "four secret ingredient" tsukis on the contraption to reinforce his point that we all need to work on these if we want ultimate power because the score that was on the machine seemed to be at the "baseball bat to head" power level. Although Sensei Terry Price had an alternate theory that the owner of the bar probably used a baseball bat to goad us into feeding the machine more money by setting the machine maximum to 'just out of human limit' range. 

I ended up heading out a tad early as I had been fighting a cold bug all weekend that seemed to have been following me along and learning all the Shihan's lessons for it's own evil purpose. By 10pm Saturday night, wham - the cold virus started to kick my butt - It seems this virus had some of its own secret ingredients too - follow the victim through some hard training, make his throat scratchy at night to ensure little sleep, embellish a change in altitude, and finally attend four classes with top world rank instructors - the outcome - "Super Virus!" off to bed I went. Super Virus one, Sempai Terry zero! Ippon!

 The next morning when the alarm went off at 5:45am I knew I was done, unless I wanted to start an international incident by showing up to training with a box of tissue, croaking sore throat, and spreading around what was obviously a nasty well trained evil bug. No, I would not allow that to be my legacy for this conference.

 Oh well, I can't complain. Even though I missed Sunday's two training sessions I knew I had gotten way more than what I expected out of this conference already.

 There is just one last thing I want share with everybody.... its something Shihan Don Corrigal said at winter camp during the interviews of Dan candidates last March that has been ringing in my ears ever since he said in seven months ago. The ringing got even louder at this conference as I trained under some of the most accomplished masters in the word - "Kyokushin Karate is about helping people become the person who they were meant to be".  

I had an awesome time. Thank you to everybody who made this event possible. I look forward to seeing everybody next time!  

Osu,  

Terry Lange, Surrey Dojo

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