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Author: Shihan

European tournament 2015

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This weekend April 17/19 we have our European tournament in Warsaw after its all over we will have European champions in both kata and kumite. We also have our World tournament this year, quite a busy time for those who will compete. When there was only one Kyokushin organisation we had one World champion and one European champion, those days are gone. We have so many tournaments at all levels that produce champions.

Sosai talked about the World tournament being the Karate Olympics. There will never be one champion any more there is far to much politics separating the various organisations. Even if there are some who try to make a united tournament, I wonder why? Is it really for the students or for themselves.

If their aim is to unit Kyokushin why do they have separate organizations? We are all guilty in some way of letting the style split, its sad.

Training in the dojo

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Regularly training at Gothenburg’s karate Kai. I have been the chief instructor of Gothenburg´s Karate Kai since 1977. The dojo was established 1965 by Shihan Attilla Meszaros and is one of the oldest karate clubs in Sweden. We are an idealistic association with almost 400 active members from the age of 8 years and up. Our success in competition and in general have been depending on many factors, the most important ones are the observance of the dojo rules, etiquette and Sosais philosophy.

We just finished…

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We just finished a defibrillator and resuscitation course for instructors and help instructors. For some it was a refresher and for others it was the first time to have this education. I try to have my instructors educated in first aid etc. Hopefully we will never have to use the defibrillator or render any kind of aid, but just in case we are hopefully prepared.

In the last picture as you can see we did our best to resuscitate this student, but we were a little to slow.

So the year has started…

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We started 2015 with a small demonstration at a local shopping centre, it was only for 15 minutes. 15 minutes to show what Kyokushin is all about is an almost imposable task. We demonstrated Kihon, ido keiko and then using focus mits to show some good power and energy using kicks and punches which seemed to impress the spectators and finally some tameshiwari. Even after all these years tameshiwari is still the most popular.

So the year has started for Gothenburg’s Karate Kai, let’s hope it’s a good one.

Its that time of year…

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Its that time of year, Christmas is coming. Time to send cards to those people you think deserve a card. Do you send cards? or are you one of those people who send a mass email with the same message to everyone. Are you just lazy or is it that you have no interest.

The world we live in is changing I know, but old fashioned values should be kept. Such as acknowledging an email or saying thank you for a gift you may have received. We talk about Dojo Kun etc. the fourth line starts with “We will observe the rules of courtesy” unfortunately that seems to be forgotten.

Distance. (Maai)

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Whenever I am driving to the dojo I always try to keep a safe distance from the car in front of me, a thinking distance that give me time to react in case of an emergency. I am sure that most of you do the same. So I have this safe distance where I feel I am in control and the suddenly some other car pulls into my safe distance and changes the whole situation, apart from the fact it’s bad driving its putting lives at stake.

Ok, back to Kyokushin, when you fight you have your safe distance where you feel in control and comfortable in case your opponent attacks. You always try to keep this Maai so you can react to any situation and in turn, so that you can attack. It come with experience, when you stand in front of someone you should have a pretty good idea if they can hit you or in turn you can hit them.

Just get two students to stand in front of each other and tell them to walk slowly towards each other and stop when they feel threatened. When one of them or both stop they have reached that point where they feel in danger, this is Maai.

Now if car drivers could take a lesson from Kyokushin we would be safer on the roads.

Team RM 2014

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National tournament for teams, Junior and cadets. Saturday we held our national tournament although there were not so many competitors the fighting was intense. I would like to say a big thank you to the referees and judges who gave their time freely to attend not forgetting the organizers and the helpers without whom there would be no competitions.

So back to the fighting as I said it was intense with many fighters giving they’re all until the final whistle. That said I feel that the basic weakness of the fighters was their punching, yes they all seemed to punch hard but when they hit their mark there was little impact indicating that the distance was wrong. There was nothing left at the end of the punch to cause any damage. Standing toe-to-toe and exchanging blows is another problem we have to address, especially when you are fighting a heavier opponent in an open weight category. Get in hit hard and fast and get out, but more importantly try not to get hit, easier said than done.

This comes back to basic training, pulling the punching arm back as fast as possible and not just leaving it out there, remember the faster the hand comes back the faster you can use it again.

Is kiai a lost art?

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It seems that wherever I go in the world Kiai is slowly disappearing. Its slowly being replaced by something that sounds like an old steam train. Kiai should represent a combination of energy and technique culminating in ichigeki, the final blow the finishing technique. What we have now sounds like someone trying to blow out a candle. Get back to basics and practice your Kiai.

Demonstration Frölunda Torg

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Saturday 6th September we performed a small demonstration at Frölunda shopping centre. We had some flyers to hand out and some students who could answer any questions about starting Kyokushin karate at GKK. However, the most important is to show the public a short glimpse of Kyokushin.

At these events its is always interesting how many old students are around and when they see us they just have to come and say OSU and talk about their training days and what it did for them and perhaps more importantly how much they miss the dojo. The hard training the discipline were the things that they remembered the most.
For me it’s good to hear such remarks it means that we are helping people and leaving a good impression, what more could you ask for.

Summer training

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This is one of the reasons we have steps outside the dojo. Sometimes you have to test yourself in different ways, walking up steps on your hands or seiken is just one way to do that. We took advantage of the nice weather to do some outside training on a Friday night. There was also the usual hopping up the stairs, running etc hopefully this helps strengthen the legs. You just have to be careful when doing such training in fact you should always be careful.

As in instructor you should always be aware if any of your students have any injuries that might prevent them from performing a particular movement safely if that is the case give them an alternative.