2012 Ottawa Summer Camp

The 2012 Ottawa Summer Camp ran at the end of August, held in rural Quebec, near the Gatineau. Again the event was hosted by Ottawa Ryusei instructors Rick Going and Kambiz Miranbigi. As usual Rick and Kam were great hosts, and the location, on an enclosed platform, in the middle of the woods, on Rick’s property was spectacular.

I led the morning session on Saturday. First, I  had an optional mediation session before breakfast, attended by a few brave souls. Then for the regular session we picked up Naihanchi kata, and Sakamoto-Sensei’s lessons of the previous summer, concentrating on ‘shime-goshi’ hip technique. This led into an investigation of using ‘soft’ power in our techniques. We closed the morning session with some selected kaisetsu or bunkai from Niseishi kata, using sen-no-sen timing to do more advanced variations.

After a wonderful lunch, provided by Kam and his wife, Nell, we had a session led by Terry Valentino, a 7th dan from the Koshin-ha Chito-ryu in Pittsburgh. During the workout, Valentino-Sensei showed us a two-man exercise that takes all the moves of Bassai and performs a continuous set of applications. He also led various exercises drawing on his investigations into Chito-ryu applications and internal Chinese martial arts, which proved to be fascinating.

That evening we had a great celebration, with fireside song, great food, including sushi made by Pittsburgh’s Brian Buirge, and the occasional drink.

The next morning, Ted Jungblut, a surprise visitor to the clinic, led a session. As a seventh dan and technical advisor to Ryusei Canada, Jungblut-Sensei has a wealth of knowledge that he shared with us. He is particularly adept at making slight adjustments to a karateka’s posture and techniques that make amazing improvements to the strength of their performance. To close the session, I led the group in a continuous bunkai exercise, trying to promote a flow from technique to technique, rather than just doing one move at a time.

Overall  everyone seemed to enjoy  the exchange of ideas and the socializing with people from different Chito-ryu backgrounds and different regions and countries. Thanks again to Kam and Rick for hosting what has become a wonderful summer tradition.