Black Belt Camp in Armstrong
June 8-10, 2007
This past weekend, the Armstrong
Dojo once again, played host to
the annual Black Belt Camp –
'good
old-fashioned Kyokushin training'.
And it definitely was. There was a
great turnout of students, with 30
brown and black belts representing dojos from Newton, Sea Island,
Richmond, Vancouver, Cranbrook,
Oliver, Penticton West, Keremeos,
Armstrong, Vernon, and Calgary.
There were five training sessions
in all over the course of the
weekend. The first class was held
on Friday night, and I heard it
was a good start to the camp. I
arrived, coincidentally just in
time for the meet and greet after
the first training session. The
atmosphere for the camp was
welcoming as I saw friends whom I
havenft seen in quite a while.
Shihan Stuart's focus for the camp
was to hone in on our basics,
balance, and posture. We
accomplished this through intense
and strenuous classes that covered kihon, ido geiko, goshin jitsu,
fight training, and katas. I
learned a great deal about my
technique and how to improve upon
it. From the first session on
Saturday morning, through the ido
geiko combinations, I learned how
to breathe (after nearly passing
out from holding my breath). And
from the bo kata class, I learned
to be more efficient with the bo,
as well as how to be aware of my
surroundings (after being hit in
the head with the bo staff).
I really enjoyed the goshin jitsu
portion of the camp. We covered a
few self defence techniques, then
Shihan challenged each of us to
develop our own self defence
application, which we demonstrated
to the entire class.
On Saturday
night, there was the ever-popular
steak dinner, which was generously
hosted by Sensei Larry at his
home. It was the perfect way to
wind down for the evening after a
long and hard day of training.
I had an incredible time at the
black belt camp and I definitely
learned a lot. I would like to
thank Shihan Stuart for all his
invaluable training sessions and
Sensei Larry and the Armstrong
Dojo for hosting another
successful camp. See you all next
year!
Osu
Cathleen Bailon
Newton Dojo
@
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