While travelling with my friend Kate through Japan, we stopped over in Tokyo in the first week of November to attend the 10th World Open Karate Tournament. We met up a day earlier with Tohyama Sensei who was an official during the event and to collect our entry passes. That day the first ever Women's World Open took place.
We experienced the preparations and the fights from real up-close and were hugely inspired by this, for which I am very grateful to Sensei.
Under the warm autumn sunshine, many of the Dojo students had gathered up at the Acton Dojo to attend the 2nd Kata Seminar. Each and every one of them eager to gain the essence in depth and to possibly master the Katas we were about to work on.
All Dojo students who were to attend this Kata Seminar have been notified of the Katas to work on and had all practiced, but the seminar itself was of a very advanced level that most of us found it challenging to even keep up with it.
With the fact that this seminar was held on a Sunday, all of us should have come with high intentions in an
It is a pleasure and honor to share with all dojo members my experience of the first London Dojo Kata seminar. In a nutshell the Kata seminar was very informative, we spent two hours going through three Katas. The approach was very different to how we practice Kata in a normal training session. The information given by Sensei was immense and I felt that it was based on Sensei's many different experiences. Not only Kata experiences but also Kumite, Street Fighting, Kihon and many other experiences that Sensei had. I also realized the importance of Kata in Kyokushin.
Since the first moment I saw Shihan Yamamoto in the dojo, my head was full of questions. Shihan Yamamoto is a very senior figure in the Gojuryu school of karate and yet he has guts to start from a white belt to learn Kyokushin karate under Sensei Tohyama. What made him leave his comfort zone? Why does he do that technique that way? What does he think of Kyokushin's theories and techniques? So I cannot express how thrilled I was to know that Shihan Yamamoto had kindly agreed to teach us about Gojuryu karate.
Sosai Oyama learnt karate at the Gojuryu school and the Shotokan school before
Padova - a historical city 30km west of Venice was this year's site for the European Championships. This tournament holds a significant meaning as the two top fighters from each category are automatically qualified for the World Tournament in Tokyo which will be held in November.
I was excited to be a part of this tournament as all fighters will be fighting to their capabilities in order to secure their places in the finals in Tokyo and expected good fights from each category.
Tohyama sensei and I left for the venue on a hot Saturday morning - the venue was only 5 minutes away by car
