Chesley Clinic Brings Ontario Ryusei Instructors Together

On the weekend, I enjoyed teaching a Ryusei karate clinic, in Chesley, Ont., hosted by instructors Matt Mannerow and Peter Zehr. Not only did the clinic attract Peter and Matt’s students, it was attended by instructors Rick Going and Kam Miranbigi, and their student Alex, from Ottawa Ryusei Karate-Do, and Kevin Fobert of  our Belleville dojo.

Through the day we practised basics, kata and bunkai, with the black belts splitting off on their own to share ideas on technique. With the beginners I concentrated on technical details to improve their punches, stances and front kicks.

Peter Zehr and I judged a black belt grading at the end of the day.

Later that  evening, we had a group dinner in Hanover and then retired to Matt’s house for a long, enjoyable evening. In the morning, I ran a small instructor’s clinic in the basement dojo in Matt’s house. We concentrated on the practice of kata, breathing/internal exercises and bunkai. For the self-defence techniques we experimented with defending against attacks at higher-than-usual speeds. Often bunkai are done at slow, safe speeds because of the risk of injury. But I felt that since the session included senior people only that we could speed things up if we showed proper control.

The video below shows Rick, Kam, Alex and Matt trying to apply an arm bar against fast, penetrating punches (but stopping before pressuring the elbow too much).