JKA GASSHUKU INTERNATIONAL

This week-end I participated in the Gasshuku International of JKA France which was held in Saint-Julien en Genevois, just on the border with Switzerland.

First, I liked it very much. JKA representatives were very friendly and welcoming (I am not a member of JKA) . The amount of attendees was high. I lot of senior karateka and many children. I didn't spot many teenagers though but this is rather usual for karatedo from my experience.

The course was split on three sessions to swap sensei (there were three) between different levels (colored, brown and black).

1. Daniel Lautier Sensei (7 dan, JKA Fance) 

Impressive session focused on techincs in GYAKU HANMI. Surprisingly for me it was relatively complicated. Well, I am usualy quite comfortable performing GYAKU-technics. But when we started to move back and forward performing different sets of technics, all of them in GYAKU HANMI I found myself a bit lost from time to time. The SANBON KUMITE in GYAKU part was ok (I faced a couple of opponents and definitely dominated) but still I feel like there is something I have to work on: more flexibility, HIKITE, point of application etc. We finished with a couple of KATA to glue the GYAKU HANMI KAMAE. I liked the session. It was very informative and left a lot of home-work for me. I am going to review it again this week.

2. Izumiya Seizo Sensei (7 dan, JKA)

Entire session was dedicated to the kata that I had never learned before, BASSAI SHO. Very good session. Actually it was my favorite from all three sessions. We broke KATA on several parts in order to learn the sequence first. Once it was done sensei started to show applications for each movement, kind of BUNKAI, and I was very lucky as for the rest of the session I was chosen  to assist   Izumiya sensei. All the technics were shown on me! :-) I have to say that all the applications were real and doable. No dancing! I benefited from my young judo years as I was forced to fall many times, too many times! As one may imagine falling on the bare floor with no previous experience is quite tricky unless you are a former judoka :-). So, we worked all applications in pairs. I felt very confident (probably due to the fact that I was assisting :-) ). Actually BASSAI SHO didn't look very complicated to me. Why Have I Never Practiced It Before?? From now on I include it in my KATA arsenal. During the practice I noticed my SHUTO UCHI became stronger and snappier. I am still not very confident in MANJI KAMAE. I have to figure out the last two movements of the KATA. We did worked on them but it still takes some mind efforts to do them, no automatism yet. Very inspiring session it was.

3.  Sergio GNEO Sensei (7 dan, JKA Belguim)

We did UNSU. I found it to be a very difficult KATA for my level, I guess. Interesting KATA. Many new technics. One day I will learn it. For now I will try to remember the basics only. Generally speaking this session I liked the least. I didn't learn much as I had to focus on copying moves looking at others who also didn't feel confident. So, it was rather messy. The way sensei was teaching is also not my favorite as there were many jokes and chats and suggestions regarding applications etc. but no clear system. No method. So, unfortunately for me it was rather a waste of time though I am very thankful to the sensei for the new KATA .

Summary. Very good practice.Shame it doesn't happen often in "my area". I will be definitely looking for more. And thanks to JKA and to the Sensei for interesting lessons. My mistakes are getting more and more exposed like that.