The Dojo in Isaszeg, Hungary is long-established and enthusiastically run by a family team; Attila, Adam and László Jakab. This is the Genki Dojo and for many years has been a part of Shikukai Karate-Do International.
This is their annual summer course.
July in Hungary can get quite hot, but at an average of 33 degrees over the four days training, this was not as extreme as southern Europe has been experiencing over the last few weeks.
Like last years’ course, I was pleased to be joined by Richard Barham Sensei, 6th Dan. Richard was just keen to put in the training and work with the various grades, partnering the senior students, offering direct physical feedback, a crucial part of good collaborative training; everybody benefits.
In preparation, I had spent a long time structuring the course and the planning took into consideration the needs of both the instructors and the students. In addition, I always try to thread in a guiding theme or principle to underpin the course content and this time it was something that Sugasawa Sensei has been emphasising on both his face-to-face training and Zoom sessions. Essentially, it is embodied in the question, ‘So just what exactly does that move/way of doing something give you?’ This is a call to really interrogate your technique; when applied to solo or paired kata it can be a really useful tool.
The two main featured kata across the four days were Kushanku and Naihanchi. These were broken down into parts. For Naihanchi, paired drills were included to explain the potential purposes and utilisation of the various techniques contained within the form.
Across the week we covered a surprisingly large range of paired kata (kumite). The junior grades gaining ample time to work the Ippon and Nihon Gumite, while seniors covered nearly all of the twelve of our Gonosen Kumite Gata series, as well as Kihon Gumite.
Also, during the weeks’ training it was good to be joined by members of the Hungarian Wado Kai.
With the three-hour training happening in the morning, and training finishing at midday, we were able to enjoy a relaxed lunch at a very good local restaurant, easily walkable from the training venue. They had an excellent and very reasonably priced set lunch menu. This arrangement then gave us the rest of the afternoon and evening free.
On the Tuesday Richard and I went into central Budapest with a few of the local instructors and students (a distance of twenty miles). They introduced us to the newly developed parkland area, which seems to be setting itself up as a kind of museum quarter.
We visited the House of Music; only opened in the last two years, an amazing building, the work of award-winning Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. For anyone interested in music this was a total delight, interactively tracking the history of music from the earliest origins to the present day.
Local knowledge is really handy and we were introduced to an outstanding, lively, open-air restaurant in the park; the Pantlika Bistro. In fact, we were rather spoiled for good food and excellent restaurants – a massive thank you to our Hungarian hosts for that; as without their guidance we wouldn’t have had such a complete experience.
As usual on really successful courses we had built up such a high level of momentum it was a bit of a come-down when we had to finish our last session on the Thursday. But I am assured by the resident instructors that they gained so much information that they can continue to build on the knowledge into the future.
On the back of the success of the course conversations are already happening to plan for 2024; so, watch this space.
On behalf of Richard and myself, I would like to thank Attila, Adam and László Jakab for all the amazing effort they put in to really make this work as an event on both the Hungarian and the Shikukai calendar, and for the unsurpassed hospitality shown by both instructors and students.
For next year and beyond, I would encourage Wado students from the UK and Europe to support these future events in Hungary.
Tim Shaw
Shikukai Karate-Do International 