Trainees from England: Sunil Das (and family)

 Sunil Das (Sandan), his wife, and three sons recently came to Japan for renshusei training here in Oita. Based in England, Sunil wanted to learn more subtle details of the Shotokan system; more specifically, traditional Budo/Bujutsu technique.

 

Accordingly, this assigned me as an instructor to re-teach him many of the fundamental kihonwaza, tachikata and unsoku. The removal of superfluous movements was high on my agenda in this process; furthermore, the correction of fundamental actions to fully use one’s mass, move with maximum velocity, and with the ideal form, trajectories and targets. It was great to see Sunil so happy when things made sense and ‘the gaps were filled’ via the underpinning fundamentals.

 

With this experience and the resulting understanding, truly effective karate begins to appear. That is, kihon, kata and kumite really become one—not merely on an intellectual level, but in application; thus, harmoniously resulting in the destructive waza that technically characterizes our art: ‘ichigeki-hissatsu’. This was taught not only within the context of the fundamentals and partner training drills but also via the 応用 (Oyo: applications) of various Shotokan kata.

Sunil now has plenty of homework, and newfound knowledge, that he can share at his own discretion. Overall, we wish him and his family the very best in their training. 

December 21st, 2022.

押忍 — AB

 © André Bertel. Oita City, Japan (2022).