To start out the New Year on the right foot, I held a workout on New Year’s morning at 11 am, attended by my students KC, Carminha and Vareena, Matt Mannerow, an instructor with Grey-Bruce Ryusei, and my senior Ted Jungblut. The theory is that if the workout is traumatic enough, that the rest of the year will seem easy.

Althout the weather was cold, it wasn’t overwhelming. However, Matt and I both tried to workout without gloves, and after a while we started to lose feeling in our fingers, so bowed to necessity and put on hand gear.

I worked with the group, leading kata, a rough kicking exercise and bunkai. Jungblut-Sensei, for his part, focused on proper body mechanics in punches, and some two-man exercises.

All in all the 90 minutes went quickly. We of course did a rendition of Shihohai, the Ryusei/Chito-Ryu kata that is supposed to be performed on New Year’s day and other ceremonial occasions.

When all was done, we went into my place and toasted the season in warmth. Lots of fun.

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.

A New Workout for a New Year

2012 Ottawa Summer Camp

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