On March 15th Sensei Louise and I travelled with a small group of fellow karate-ka to Koh Samui, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. After briefly settling in, we started training with Sensei George Andrews on Monday morning at 10am. We trained for a solid 2.5 hours, covering junbi undo, basics and impact work. The temperature on that first day was roughly 32°C, with high humidity. At 12.30 we stopped for a lunch of tropical fruit and lots of water. We relaxed at our hotel in the afternoon before returning to the dojo at 5pm for another 2.5 hours of training, which included practice of san dan gi and kata.

Training continued in a similar manner for the following 4 days. On Saturday, the group training was only held in the morning as the evening session was reserved for grading candidates, including Sensei Louise. The final session of the course was held on Sunday morning, at the end of which Sensei George announced the results of the grading, and it gives me great to pleasure to say that Sensei Louise passed to sandan (3rd dan).

In Goju Ryu it seems that three is indeed the magic number. At the heart of the system is Sanchin Kata, which translates as Three Battles, referring to the physical, mental and spiritual challenges. The number three also describes regions of the body, Jodan, Chudan and Gedan. For this month, the number three meant consecutive weekends of training courses with Masters of the style.

The month started with the regular monthly course held at the OTGKA Honbu Dojo in London with our Chief Instructor Sensei George Andrews, 8th Dan. As we train regularly with Sensei George it is easy to become complacent, easy to forget the decades that he has devoted to the Martial Arts and the literally countless students Sensei George has taught around the world.

The following weekend we joined hundreds of fellow practitioners of Karate-Do in Liverpool for the EGKA's 40th Anniversary celebrations. We were privileged to receive instruction from the IOGKF Supreme Master, Morio Higaonna Sensei, 10th Dan. On the Friday evening a group of roughly 150 black belts practiced the fundamentals of Goju Ryu Karate-Do, under the instruction of Higaonna Sensei, together with the IOGKF Chief Instructor Tetsuji Nakamura Sensei, 7th Dan. The following two days included sessions with Sensei Ernie Molyneux, 8th Dan, Sensei Roy Flatt, 7th Dan and Sensei Paul Nolan, 7th Dan. There is so much to learn within the Goju Ryu system, that the weekend was filled with very little practice of kata. Nakamura Sensei introduced us to the concept of environmental friendly karate, or efficiently moving with relaxed muscles rather than using strength. Other personal highlights included a rapid session on self defence techniques and an interesting twist on bunkai practice. The weekend finished with a Master's Demo, including a very special performance of Shotokan Kata by Natsuko Mineghishi Sensei, assisted by Sensei Terry O'Neill, 8th Dan.

The last weekend of this trilogy was a remarkable course devoted to aid Sensei Paul Coleman, 7th Dan, in his fight against cancer. The Oxford Brookes University training facilities were provided free of charge and the instructors waived any fee to allow every penny of the money raised to support Sensei Paul. The line up of instructors was an inspiration in itself. Sensei James Rousseau, 9th Dan, the instructor responsible for spreading Goju Ryu in England and across Europe and three of the instructors that trained with him from the introduction, Sensei Tony Christian, 8th Dan, Sensei George Andrews, 8th Dan and Sensei Len Sim, 7th Dan. As if four masters were not enough, they were joined by Sensei Paul himself and Sensei Kevin Nason, 7th Dan. The junior students were taught by Sensei Penny Hughes and Sensei Natasha Coleman. Highlights of the training included the clarity of instruction from Sensei James, focusing on fast movement from the right starting position; a whirlwind tour of the martial arts world from Sensei Tony, bringing everything back to Goju Ryu, including the trinity of boxing (another important three) and practice of Hojo Undo and kakie with Sensei George.

Training with friends new and old, under inspirational instructors, it's as if Christmas came early this year!

The 2012 Lambert Gasshuku started on Friday 28th September in Kirkcaldy, the birth place of the social philosopher and economist Adam Smith (1723-1790). The dojo for the evening was an upstairs room of the theatre named in his honour. The instructor that we had driven 400 miles to see was the newly appointed world chief instructor Nakamura Sensei. After personally greeting all of the participants, Sensei began the gasshuku briefly informing us of the new organisational structure of the IOGKF and that we would also be taught be the newly appointed vice chief instructors Sensei Ernie Molyneux and Sensei Henrik Larsen. The class that evening covered Junbi Undo, Ten Tsuki and Sanchin kata.

Training on Saturday and Sunday was over 4 hours each day. With 3 senior IOGKF instructors on hand we spent much of the time in smaller groups, allowing for greater relevance of training depending on grade. The gasshuku finished with many repetitions of ten tsuki.  Mo ichi do!

As is traditional for a gasshuku, many of the participants joined the instructors for a meal on the Saturday night at a local hotel. We had not been to Scotland for many years, so Louise and I instead took the opportunity to explore the local area and took a drive along the coast road to St Andrews.

We would like to thank the SGKA for organising a great weekend of training and the instructors for sharing their knowledge and experience with us. We look forward to returning to Scotland in 2014 for the European Gasshuku, if not before!

On Saturday 7th July we left Heathrow airport bound for Japan.  After a 2 hour connecting flight from Osaka to Naha and a short taxi ride we arrived at our hotel early Sunday afternoon.  It was hot!  Later that evening we visited the famous Higaonna dojo and watched the last 10 minutes of a regular class.  The sweat was flowing just watching the students practice seiyunchin kata.  This was our first trip to Okinawa and it was wonderful just to watch a small class in a truly traditional dojo.

The reason for our long journey was the 6th IOGKF world budosai, a martial arts festival held in Okinawa every four years.  Over the following 6 days we took in 20 hours of training under the best instructors from around the world.  We were also privileged to have lectures from Aragaki Shuichi Sensei, 10th Dan (last living student of Chojun Miyagi Sensei, the founder of Goju Ryu Karate), Sakiyama Sogen Roshi (Zen Master) and Hu Jinhuan (China Fuzhou Teacher's University Wushu Professor, Tiger Style). 

The week finished with the Master's Demo with some of the brightest talent the IOGKF has to offer, followed by the traditional Sayonara Party.  At the closing party the results of the black belt grading, which was held earlier in the week, were announced.  This included the news that Sensei George Andrews, OTGKA chief instructor, has been graded to the rank of Hachidan (8th Dan).

After a week of great training we returned to the mainland and spent a further week sightseeing in and around Kyoto.  We're back now and looking forward to sharing our experiences and new training ideas with you.

On a sunny Friday 25th May we boarded the Eurostar at London’s St Pancras station and 2 hours later we arrived in Brussels. We were met by Fréderic Lantreibecq, who whisked us out to our hotel on the outskirts of the city. Sensei Marc Sanglier and his wife Eles had done an excellent job organising this first Gasshuku in Brussels and after a brief rest at the hotel we were driven to the training venue by Alex Gherschon, another one of our very welcoming hosts.

The venue was large and well equipped with a matted dojo next to the main training hall, which was being used by an Aikido group. Our instructor for the weekend, Masuyama Sensei began the weekend with a children’s class, which we joined in with at the side. This was followed by the first all grades adult session, covering Miyagi Chojun no Sanchin Kata and Gekisai Dai Ichi. Training was followed by a traditional meal at a Belgian restaurant and the first opportunity to sample the excellent local beers.

Saturday brought the first full days training during which we covered a great deal of stance practice, considering preparation before movement. After a lunch in the sunshine we continued with practice of Shisochin kata. We returned to the hotel and after a brief rest we gathered for a few drinks in the bar, a great chance to meet new friends. We were then taken to an excellent Japanese restaurant, with hot bowls of noodle soup and fresh Japanese salads on offer.

On the final day we were taken to a different venue, used regularly by Sensei Marc’s club. Another well equipped sports facility with a gymnastics hall situated next door. We covered Junbi Undo preparatory exercises in great detail often referring to the relevance to aspects of Kata. The black belt only session covered Kanryo Higaonna no Sanchin Kata (also called Sanchin Dai Ni or Sanchin Kotei) and we practiced the turning section with many repeats. This was followed by practice of Sanseru kata.

We returned to the city centre and caught the last Eurostar train home, tired but very satisfied with an excellent weekend of training. We would like to thank Masuyama Sensei for his wonderful instruction and sense of humour. We would also like to thank Sensei Marc and his wife for organising such a great Gasshuku, Sensei Patrick Curinckx and all of the very welcoming IOGKF Belgium.

We have just returned from the 26th IOGKF European Gasshuku in Copenhagen. Training for four hours a day from Monday to Friday, we were taught by some of the world’s best Goju Ryu instructors. We started every day with junbi undo with all students training together, on the first day there was over 800 of us. We were then split into groups according to grade and in our group we trained alongside fellow shodans from Denmark, Italy, Germany and Holland. After two sessions with different senior instructors we would all come back together for the final session of the day.

On the first day Morio Higaonna Sensei (10th Dan, World Chief Instructor) took the junbi undo session, which was followed by smaller group training, initially kakie with Sensei Luis Nunes (7th Dan) and then kata practice with Takashi Masuyama Sensei (7th Dan). Over the course of the week our group had the privilege of being taught by the following Sensei; Kazuo Terauchi (8th Dan), Ernie Molyneau (7th Dan), Linda Marchant (6th Dan), Morio Higaonna (10th Dan), George Andrews (7th Dan), Henrik Larsen (7th Dan), Roy Flatt (7th Dan) and Masakazu Kuramoto (6th Dan).

The week ended with the traditional sayonara party. Great food and entertainment and a chance to have a proper catch up with friends that we hadn’t seen for a while.

Away from karate we were able to see some of the sights of Copenhagen and meet up with an old friend who now lives in Denmark.

On Saturday 15th May, a group of karate-ka met on the grounds of Hereford Cathedral School to train with the OTGKA Chief Instructor, Sensei George Andrews. Sensei Tony Smith uses their new gymnasium as the dojo for regular classes held in Hereford and this was to be our base for two days of first rate training.

Following the traditional junbi undo warm up, Sensei George took us through a rigorous session of kihon training. Our practice of basic techniques began with closed hands and as the day progressed we worked on various open hand strikes and blocks. We frequently trained with a partner, which eventually led to practice of San Dan Gi, a form of pre-arranged three-step sparring. We moved onto keri waza (kicking techniques), putting together a variety of combinations, before finishing the day with pad work. The training was so involved, we all lost track of time and suddenly it was three o’clock and time to finish for the day.

On Sunday we were joined by a group of Shotokan karate-ka from Wales. The theme for our second day of training was self defence. We built up a range of defence and counter routines for three levels of the body. We then put our skills to the test by defending ourselves from 4 attackers in quick succession. Kata practice was next on the agenda, an important part of any gasshuku and very appropriate on a day based on self defence. The day was completed with practice of tai sabaki (body shifting) and kakie (sticky hands).

The weekend finished with smiles on everyone’s faces and a round of applause as Sensei George was presented with a framed picture of Tom Spring, a famous 19th century bare-knuckle fighter from Herefordshire, who rose to become Champion of All England.

Our thanks go to Sensei Tony for organising the gasshuku and to Sensei George for his eight hours of instruction and insight.  Arigato gozaimasu.