So the two week training intensive is at an end. I would highly recommend doing next year’s intensive to anyone looking to give their karate a turbo boost.

I would first like to thank and show my appreciation to Sensei Martin and Sensei Sandra for not only guiding and pushing me through the training intensive, but also sharing their immense knowledge and impeccable advice for the last few years. They have made karate enjoyable and personally rewarding for me, and I couldn’t imagine having a better pair to teach me.

My fellow scholarship compadres, Selina and Klaudia, you have impressed me both so much. When I heard Selina was going for the scholarship I was very happy to have her along for the ride. I feel we get along quite well and she is always eager to improve her karate, and I try to help her where I can. I believe Selina has gone above and beyond during her training intensive schedule, putting in a huge amount of effort I have not seen from her before. Keep up the awesome levels of dedication and you will go far.

Klaudia is a machine. I believe she attended every class available during the day and night, which can be up to five hours a day. When I would do the speed training during the evening class, Klaudia was beating me in speed by a fair margin and she had already done two hours of intense training. You cannot fault Klaudia’s attitude towards her karate. She is always engaged and ready to learn, thinking of ways to improve and leads by great example.

The three scholarship contenders; Klaudia, Selina and Sam.

To everyone that I trained with over the last two weeks, you are what gives me my drive and energy. I really believe we benefit from the people around us, we can share the energy to help push through whatever obstacle comes before us. Thank you to all that I have had the pleasure of training with, it is a great community we have in the dojo and I am very grateful for it.

You never stop learning from Karate. Something you have been doing for years can change quite dramatically from a relatively small lesson learned. I have taken a lot of small lessons from this two week intensive. One is such a small change, but has me changing my habit of years. When using the hips to generate the power of the punch I have always pushed with my front hip, now I need to concentrate on pulling back with my other hip. It seems like such a small change, but every small improvement and tweak carves out a better you. It is about refining and removing unnecessary parts that will make your karate better and ready for the next small adjustment.

The next step is working towards Soke Cup in Japan this August. This is the International Chito-ryu Championship Tournament held every three years. Unfortunately last year it was postponed due to some devastating earthquakes near Kumamoto where the tournament was taking place. If I qualify for the training scholarship I will head over to Japan for training at the Sohonbu a couple of weeks before the tournament to train with Soke Sensei. Everyone going for the scholarship is most deserving and the best of luck to Klaudia and Selina – great job guys!

We are getting to the end of the second week of the intensive and it continues to challenge and push me. So what is different about the intensive compared to regular training? I usually do 4 or 5 sessions a week, doubling it shouldn’t have that much of an impact I would have thought. The early morning starts have been quite nice, as I am usually not an early riser. But they don’t call it an intensive for nothing, the main difference about the last two weeks of training has been the intensity (big surprise!) Pushing through the pain and not giving up has been a real test for me, and I feel I am better for it.

Take Thursday night’s class as an example, would you say you could do 1500+ punches in a row? I would have had my doubts, but that is what we did. It was painful, mainly from the stitch I had from the first hundred punches or so, but it is an accomplishment that I am proud of, and everyone who did it should be proud of themselves.

I am looking to finish strong for the last remaining classes, and then it is off to the beach for early morning beach training on Saturday.

The last couple of training days have featured a lot of leg work. Concentrating more on using the legs and body than just using the arms. I am fairly guilty for using my arms, especially in a throwing context. The work we have been doing in the dojo has really highlighted for me the importance the legs and body have in strength, and how much less effort is required compared to when trying to muscle with just the arms.

I would have to say this mornings session with Sensei Sandra was my most physically demanding of the two weeks so far. Everyone’s favourite stance – shiko-dachi, was our challenge for today. There’s nothing quite like the burn in your legs from shiko-dachi to push your pain barrier. For me, holding a low position shiko-dachi for extended amounts of time is a real mental battle. It is really easy to stand up and have the pain go away, but the challenge is to work through the pain to show your perseverance. One of our exercises was using the Chi Ishi (short wooden stick with weighted end) in a figure eight motion with our wrists while shuffling in shiko-dachi across the dojo. This required more mental coordination than I had thought, and I struggled a lot with going backwards. After completing the session, you could say I was a bit more sweatier than usual.

There is something I like about sweating. It might be that it is a physical confirmation that I am working hard, it might also be the sound my gi makes when I scrape my arms against the side of my body. It is probably pretty gross for my classmates that need to throw me or get a flick of sweat to the face when I kick near them, but I still like something about it. In these hot conditions especially, the towels are required fairly often to make sure no one slips in a puddle. By the end of the night my towel needs to be rung out. Sorry if this grosses anyone out, but my reason behind telling you this is karate can be messy. If everyone was bone dry by the end of the night, do you think anyone had pushed themselves physically? I wear my “sweat badge” with pride and I hope the next time you feel the sweat drip down your forehead you can know that you are putting in an effort and you are there to make the most of your training.