Andre Bertel 2012 European Seminars (Part Three)

It was once again a huge pleasure to teach seminars at Mauro Mion Shihan's Italian National Honbu Dojo in Mira (Venice).

This year the core focus was on tai no shinshuku (the contraction and expansion of the body) for effective martial arts karate - as defined by my late teacher Shuseki-Shihan Tetsuhiko Asai. The kata taught was Shotei (Dai). This koten-gata is focused on employing teisho (shotei) and other open hand techniques such as koken (kakuto), haishu, shuto and haito. The focus was on creating `extreme power' which if released, without careful control, is uttery destructive.

I will not outline the seminars, except to say that they were fantastic, and for the members of Mion Shihan's Organisation. IT WAS TRULY A SPECIAL TRADITIONAL KARATE EVENT IN ITALY. Next time, we will cover an even higher level of Asai-ha Shotokan-ryu to compliment the diversity of the previous two courses. Sadly, many could not make it due to the terrible weather conditions in Europe, which unluckily hit Italy during the seminar weekend.

I'd once again like to thank Mion Shihan (7th Dan), Silvio Cannizzo Sensei (5th Dan) both pictured with me above, and all of the karateka who participated in the seminars (also as pictured). Overall, there was strong spirit in the dojo throughout, so I felt like I was at home. Until next time. OSU!

(c) André Bertel. Christchurch, New Zealand (2012).