The worldwide pandemic continues to affect all of our lives and I am sure that we are all experiencing degrees of uncertainty, which impacts significantly on our well-being and our livelihoods. Experts have mentioned how consistency and regular routines are key to maintaining a healthy level of general wellbeing. I would like to think that in some way the Shikukai community has been able to supply that consistency, albeit through circuitous routes.
In a very practical way we have been able to keep secure contact with all of our members and also bring on-board new members; something we are keen to do.
The Zoom events have proved popular and have certainly not interrupted our Instructor Course programme. The challenges involved in presenting and sharing high quality training through the medium of Zoom has actually opened up new possibilities, as the instructors rise to the test and present new and old ideas in ever more interesting and innovative ways. The most recent instructors course involved three separate presentations of training patterns, concepts and ideas delivered by the most senior Shikukai instructors, with Sugasawa Sensei joining in and adding comments when necessary. These sessions have also given Shikukai members outside of the UK chance to join in with the programme, and in a way has drawn us all closer together. All of these Zoom sessions come completely free of charge.
We have also been presenting Zoom sessions targeting kyu grades, hosted by Sensei Carol Chatterton, Tim Dixon and Richard Barham; these have proved to be very popular as each instructor has a wealth of experience behind them.
Access to these sessions can be found through the Shikukai Members and Clubs Facebook page.
In addition, many of our clubs are steadily beginning to open up and return to face-to-face training. We have all been working hard to stay within Covid-secure guidelines and have been developing different strategies and ever-more devious ways of enriching our training, despite the lack of the up-close and personal necessities of pair training and sparring. It is the creativity of the instructors and the student’s response that unwittingly has produced a wider range of possibilities, which in-turn enriches the broader experience of the complexities of Wado as a system. I genuinely believe that when we finally emerge into some form of ‘normality’ the students who have engaged with these opportunities will not feel that the lock-down and restrictions plunged their training into a period of hibernation or regressive stagnation, but instead they will feel enriched and invigorated by new layers of understanding and application.
Tim Shaw
Shikukai Karate-Do International 