As I drove to our ‘local’ airport to collect the Rawson Senseis for their annual instructing
weekend of Norway’s Hoku Sei Jyuku, I was hoping that the weather forecasts were wrong
and our recent warm and sunny spell would continue. Alas, we would not be quite that
lucky but it was positively Caribbean compared to last year when the course (in
November) had to be quickly adjusted due to heavy snow and ‘difficult’ driving conditions.
All was not lost then though, as those who could make it from the adult contingent of the
club were able to enjoy a reduced training schedule in my home dojo, the Denshinkan;
with the curtailed weekend ending with Marianne Vik Wymer gaining her Shodan under the local assessment of the Rawsons and our Association’s Chief Instructor via Zoom.
Congratulations Marianne!
This year’s more appropriately timed September course ran more smoothly with us
securing the exclusive use of our routine training location, the local community hall
(Grendahus) for the duration, and our routine Thursday night matted sessions allowing us
to set up for the weekend. We have a fairly consistent 10:00-14:00 Saturday and
12:00-15:00 Sunday routine for these courses and when in the Grendahus, any timing
overruns are not an issue.
The first 1.5 hours of the Saturday is for juniors and in this case a dad also, from a parent
and junior class (see image and please note that his youngest son in the picture whilst not
yet age appropriate to join his brothers to train, just had to have a gi…).
The junior session is always a more light hearted event, with the aim of encouraging participation and issuing praise when students do their best. Marianne and I were on hand when individual needs required some management but all attendees enjoyed the full group instruction where Pam and Steve covered a number of basics (some of which would appear later for the adults) and a period featuring a 1-to-1 punching and kicking speed competition. Then the group was split into Kihon kata instruction under Sensei Steve and Pinan Nidan instruction under Sensei Pam.
All performed well and enjoyed the experience as can be seen by the photographs, mostly
taken by our resident professional photographer, Per. For the reader that is unaware, Per
is the senior, white haired gentlemen on the right of the group image whose face does not
appear to have changed in any picture he has produced over the last 10 years…
The adult session was soon enough upon us and it was not long before we were all
enjoying the Rawson basics drills that the juniors had experienced. The drills were
focussed on basic stances with repeating stance changes aimed at reenforcing the
transition requirements, as well as understanding what the body is required to do to
maintain and get into the stances, properly.
The remainder of the session introduced a movement sequence drill aimed at the body
moving smoothly and under control, followed by a period of pair work activity where Sen
No Sen was explained, in particular the technical and timing requirements and how they
differ to Go No Sen and Sente.
Saturday evening saw the routine social gathering at the Wymer household and apart from
there being too much food and a family ‘taxi’ slipping off the road next to the Denshinkan,
the evening can rightly be described as a successful one. Of course, no pending birthdays
were discussed, although a couple of gift presentations were made and there was a
rendition of Happy Birthday Norwegian style, should their relevance appear at any time.
Sunday’s session was planned to start at 12:00, which it did for most… Isn’t Seiza a
wonderful reminder of the need to be punctual?
This session was a real mixed bag as was the plan. The instructing Senseis repeated and
built upon some of the basic stance transition instruction from the Saturday session, with a
number of the students commenting on the importance of understanding the Hiki hand,
almost as if it has never been mentioned before!
We then moved onto Jitte Kata for a period before the Senseis introduced a 12 move pair
work sequence, teaching 3 moves to each of the attending 4 pairs. The pairs then passed
on their moves to each adjoining pair, building up to the final sequence where everybody
went through the full sequence, carefully.
The session closed all too quickly (despite the 1/2 hour overrun) after a demonstration of
kneeling defence (Idori 1,2 and 7) and a brief walkthrough / talk through of knife defence
(Tanto Dori).
This was yet another very enjoyable weekend under the experienced instruction of Pam
and Steve Rawson, 7th Dan Senseis. Their repeated visits to Norway are always
welcomed and if any member of the Shikukai Association would like to join them on their
next visit or perhaps on another occasion, don’t hesitate to make contact.
Bob Wymer
5th Dan
Hoku Sei Jyuku
Shikukai Karate-Do International 