Austria was the setting for this year’s Gasshuku in the small village of Stockerau,? arranged by Sensei Mario Wolfram. This was to be a six day course; the first three days were open to all grades of Goju karateka, with the final three days attended by Jundokan members only. The instructors were Senseis Taira, Gima and McIllvride from the Honbu Dojo in Okinawa.

It was an early start. We left at 5:00am on Thursday 24th May; the group comprising my instructor Sensei? Ken Erridge,? myself,? Sue, Guy and Luke, all from the Gosport Dojo. We arrived in Austria at about 2:30pm and caught a train to the town of Stockerau; thanks to Guy’s amazing GPS system on his phone we found our hotel. We met up with Robert and Pegvak from Sweden and headed out to a nice pizza place.

There was a welcome party that evening, where we met up with Mario and Andreas. There were several faces that I already knew, and it was a good opportunity to meet the other students and the instructors.

By Friday morning the weather was really starting to get hot.? We started off doing warm up exercises and basic blocks and punches, the emphasis throughout the course was on using the hips for every movement, focusing on the importance of using the hip and tandon to generate power. Taira Sensei reiterated the importance of good basics as, without a good foundation, you would not be able to manage the more advanced bunkai. He explained that a block is not just an arm movement, the whole body, including the hips and tandon, are used. Taira Sensei reminded us that kata is not a dance, and explained the importance of practicing kata and how it is applied. We practiced Gekisai dai ichi in Kihon (or basic) form, we then went on to try the next level of the kata, incorporating the more advanced versions of the techniques we had been practicing earlier. In the afternoon we went through Saifa in the same fashion. We finished off with about 20 minutes of conditioning.

On Saturday the weather was even hotter as we headed to the dojo; after the initial warmup we carried on with Saifa and again did? kihon? and next level kata. Taira Sensei demonstrated some good techniques; although most of us struggled it was something to? take away and practice. He also emphasized the importance of not moving up and down in height between moves when doing kata, as once you stand up you lose power. He demonstrated this with the first part of Gekisai dai ichi; when blocking after the first gedan barai, if you turn and then block you just use your arm, but by pushing upwards into the block using your back leg you could really get power into the block. We finished again with conditioning, adding to the bruises we already had on our arms.

In the evening there was a Sayonara party for those who were leaving after the open three day course.

On Sunday we moved onto Seiyunchin, again as Kihon and next level kata. Taira Sensei explained that a block can be an attack and an attack can be a block; he also explained the concept of using all parts of the arm to block in a continuous flow, for example if you use your forearm to block it leaves your hand and elbow free to block or strike. He demonstrated this using? bunkai from the kata and kakie. We paired up and tried some of the applications and again finished off with conditioning training, acquiring even more bruises. As this was the end of the three day course a group photo was taken.
Monday saw the start of the closed course for Jundokan members, first kyu and Dan grades only. Taira Sensei explained that the closed course would not cover the type of training that you would normally do in your dojo back home; the focus would be on next level training. The katas today were Seiyunchin and Sanseru. We practiced using hip rotation? to gain power and speed. We spent a lot of time going through the katas? to try and develop this and, pairing up, practiced the techniques. We also did some kakie practice, trying to apply the techniques which we had been shown. After all this training we decided to try the hotel’s sauna. Myself, Luke, Guy and Sue spent a relaxing hour or so in the sauna before going out for an evening meal whilst the Shibu heads had a meeting with the Okinawan instructors.

Tuesday’s training focused on Sepai and Kururunfa; again we practiced next level training and applications. There was a grading after the training sessions, and Guy from our club and both Robert and Pegvak from Sweden graded.

By Wednesday the final training session was upon us; it had been quite a hard six days of training. The hot weather on the first three days had sapped our energy and we were all feeling tired by now. We went through all the katas, including Suparinpai, and? to finish off we did chishi and sashi training.

I would just like to thank my instructor Ken Erridge for the privilege of being able to train on these courses, to the Okinawan Senseis, Senseis Taira, Gima and McIllvride for their superb instruction, and to Mario and Andy, the Austrian Senseis who arranged the course.

I would also like to congratulate Guy Hewitt on achieving Sandan, and Robert and Pegvak on being awarded Nidan.?

Bob Fowler

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