IOGKF New Zealand South Island Gasshuku

For people that don’t know New Zealand geography or our climate, August is well into our winter months and the South Island is close enough to the Antarctic that Snow sits on the mountains right through the middle of the South Island for the winter and can also fall to very low levels.

We were hopeful that Sensei, being from the warmth of South Africa, would not experience one of these snowfalls, which had been occurring prior to Sensei’s arrival reasonably regularly and not that far from our training venue. However on the first day of the Gasshuku a clear sunny day dawned. A great start!

The first session was Kata training for senior Dan grades, with Sensei passing on a tremendous amount of knowledge. Sanchin, Sanseru and Suparunpei were covered over the weekend and I know the seniors who trained greatly appreciated the input, particularly relishing the excellent Suparunpei training.

After a small break, all grades trained together. This session covered the warm-ups in detail, with explanations on how and why we do things the way we do.

The afternoon session revolved around Gekisai training, but not just practicing the Kata. We used different combinations of the techniques from Gekisai, along with the obligatory sabaki techniques. Generally one technique turned into two, which of course turned into three, then four, etc. It was interesting to see that by just varying the combination of basic techniques in Gekisai, along with a sabaki movement, throw in a kiai on each technique and seemingly very basic techniques became difficult for many of the people training, including Dan grades.

The theme of the Gasshuku continued on in the same vein, senior kata, followed by two general sessions through the day.

I do remember Sensei emphasised that Karate is simple and basic techniques are all you need in a self-defence situation and preceded to demonstrate this on a willing student called Matt. I can say from a spectator’s point of view that the eye gouging, wrist locks, throat grabs all appeared very effective on Matt, basic though they were supposed to be. I think most members will remember the very effective distracting head butt and Matt’s face and/or nose making a cracking noise. All I can say is good on Matt for volunteering. You did volunteer, right.

Students that I spoke to came away from the Gasshuku enthused with the training, not just with what they had learnt, but also to have experienced training with an amazing Sensei and Karate Ka. Sensei Bakkie’s humility and humour is also an example and the humour was much appreciated, especially toward the end of the weekend when a good dose of the fatigue factor had set in.

We would like to take this opportunity to once again thank Sensei Bakkies for his visit to New Zealand and have already invited Sensei to return to New Zealand, just in case we forget Karate is Simple! At least it appears to be for him anyway.