During my two years in Japan apart from the training there were lots of publicity photographs. At the time I did not appreciate them but now I value the memories they give me of my days at Honbu. Camps, grading’s and competitions.
Sosai liked to see if you could do handstands. At the end of every training there were sit-ups, push ups and hand stands, seiken was preferred. In the end I was doing this on two fingers. Support my legs was a guy from Scotland, John Kerr.
Photographs from Honbu, there were always photographers at the dojo taken some kind of publicity photos and writing stories. These were used in a magazine to show how popular Kyokushin was becoming and that students would travel to Japan to train.
During the early weeks Sosai said that I must try the HUNDRED MAN FIGHT. I said osu and that was that, two years later the day came. There is not much to say about that day only I was determined to do my best. I had already witnessed two failed attempts at the hundred man fight so I knew what to expect.
It’s time to go through the kata updates, first with my sensei who will in turn pass them on to the students. Nobody had any real big problems with any of the technique so that was positive. Over the years whenever there were some kind of change I would hear people say that it was hard to change! Its only hard in your mind.