This year we heavily focused on what I now call as “Okuma Sensei Special”, that is...Expansion & Contraction of our body in every karate technique.

 

The first 2 days i.e 8th and 9th Jan; were spent on revising the basics with Heian katas and kihon combinations, ofcourse bearing in mind the 3 concepts of KATA—Corect use of Speed, Correct use of Power and Expansion and Contraction of body and when everyone (juniors and new comers to Shotokan) were comfortable with the movements, Sensei made us do Heian Katas again, explaining the key points and major error prone movements.

 

Be it, Kihon, Kata or Kumite… every technique we did from 10th (Tuesday) onwards was with Expansion & Contraction of our muscles/body. Okuma Sensei; it seemed he had planned this training well in advance for us and he made us do combinations of Kihon, with this principle to follow, pairing up and practicing attacks, block and counter attack was also with the same principle in mind, Kata...be it all the Heians and Tekki Shodan, were to be done with this very principle in each and every movement.

 

By the end of the camp Expansion & Contraction of muscles/body was almost in everyone’s system.

 

One thing very special about Okuma Sensei is, he will never have more than 2/3 things to teach in a gasshuku. Sensei sticks to just one method and sees to it that it is well understood and practiced by all present in the gasshuku. We know this about Okuma Sensei and expected just that from him, thus we all had enough time to understand and practice Expansion & Contraction of muscles in different sets of training.

 

Sensei did go through Nijushiho and Gojushiho-dai too.

 

Speed and Reflex training, counters at close quarters, and strengthening ones spirit while practicing Gyaku tzuki (both partners together—1 chudan and the other jodan simultaneously) were done with inspirational explanation of Sensei Funakoshi’s personal training with his Masters, examples and experiences of Okuma Sensei’s university dojo training.

 

All this revolved around just 1 thing which was on his training agenda…How and when to Expand and Contract your body while practicing JKA karate? He also added that it was of prime importance to understand and be able to do the expansion and contraction of muscles for betterment of one’s own karate training as it enhances speed and power in the techniques. One of the most important lessons of JKA karate was clear to all by the end of the gasshuku.

 

As usual, we did have our Dan test; Judges Seminar and Qualification test too, and am glad that now we are having increasing numbers as in Dans and Qualified Judges.

 

My sincere gratitude and appreciation for Okuma Sensei for his honest efforts and fantastic teaching style, his dedication and love for JKA and JKA karate is beyond words and his ability to instantly spot the good in any karate-ka is a must see…First hand.

 

I wish to thank the JKA W/F hq for extending their support and teaching us karate in its purest form.

 

Oss!

 

Milan Trivedi

Chief Instructor: JKA India