Saturday ( to day ) 15th of October 2011 something happened that I never thought I would be part of up until today. Shihan Funakoshi, 9th Dan Shotokan Shihan and also fourth cousin of our Founder Gichin Funakoshi held a camp in Helsinki and I was there!
Begining of this year we became part of FSKA or Funakoshi Shotokan Karate Association as it stands for. FSKA is founded and run by Shihan Funakoshi and all the sense’s that have there Dojos part of FSKA answer directly to Shihan with no border members in between. This way politics are avoided and also lets Shihan make sure that we train the way Shotokan was meant to be trained, with pure Spirit!
As a 1st Kyu, in other words half way to black belt 1st Dan as my old sense Jumrukovski in Sweden would have said, I will say thi: The whole camp was about pure spirit, about not backing down, about beating in Kihon in not only our muscle memory but directly into the core of our self’s and its still feeling, its truly feeling in my body.
We went through Kihon like there was no to morrow left for us and we had to simple get them into our beings so it could somehow be saved for the future to come. To train in the way Shihan had us train was simple amazing. I could feel how I slowly kept on improving each punch, slowly, but still getting it there. After the first 2 hours I felt like I was going to burst, but it was nothing compared to the last hour . A simple gyaku-tsuki being done in rapid succession with a whipping way and not full kime, about, let me count here…. 300 times in total with the three different ways of punching…. In about 20 minutes or so…. and then to come home and start wondering.. what the he**, why aint my shoulders aching more then this? Could it be that what Shihan talked about relaxing and getting the relaxation in your shoulders by simple repeating a lot of Kihon was successful?? NO way, but then again, my legs are aching way more, my midsection is so dead that I can hardly keep my body up while my shoulders are still wondering…. where is the pain they are so used to?
I have made a decision after this day, I might be soon turning 33, I might have had problems with my knee, my hip and my shoulders, I might be slow to learn, but I will under no circumstances lose my dream this time! To be a martial artist all the way, in the Dojo and in life will be my goal from now on. My new job will let me train every single training session and even double sessions if my body can take it, and I will not let this opportunity pass me. I will hunt the skills of my sempai’s, both in Sweden and in Finland and I will make sure to do it with full and passionate spirit in every single Kihon movement until my body has to train so it does not get any abstinence problems.
Shihan, I am not a fan boy but you just became my Idol!
