Tenshinkan Junior Karate Tournament 2009

                                                                     

 

 

                       

                         Report by Mark McGowan  

 

                                       2009 Tenshinkan Junior Tournament

        Sunday 3rd May held at the Ardler Complex, Games Hall, Turnberry Avenue, Dundee.  As the sun sets on yet another exciting Tenshinkan event the gamut of emotions that accompany any competition, fears, anxieties now subsided, tears have dried, trophies take pride of place on the mantle piece and the Sensei organizers look forward to an early night.  Tenshinkan's most humble servant offers a brief report on how the day went.
 
                                                                      Spectators
         Forty nine junior competitors with an entourage of some eighty mums, dads and siblings gathered to see an impressive display of martial arts skills.  With an early start of 9:30 am - that is early for a Sunday morning. 

                                                        Organizer

         Those skills matched only by the behind the scenes organisational skills of those who burnt the midnight oil to make things run smoothly, still sorting applications at 11:30 pm were Jim Barlow, Shihan-dia; Sensei Kevin Scott and Sensei John Young.

                                                                Kata Competition     

         The art practiced by Tenshinkan students is the set movements of kata, taught to then practised 'repeatedly' to create instinct, demonstrating to instructors and peers alike the dedicated hard work.  The following junior members showed true Tenshinkan spirit and showed the correct arrangement of kata from the heian series.  Divided by their current colour graded belt, bracketed age group, judged by three instructors to avoid a draw.  To those who were in the gallery chances are you know little of the fastidious management that took place to time keep, play fair and match age/ height.

                                                        

 

                                                              Kata Competition Winners

Yellow/ Orange          1st Rhys Todd; 2nd Morgan Walker; 3rd Jamie Dunmore
Green/ Light Blue       1st Cameron Wighton; 2nd Abby Lang: 3rd Heather Bews-Ivins
Blue/ Purpe/Prpl Wh   1st Chloe Irvine; 2nd John Reid; 3rd Beth Sommerville
Brown                     1st Melanie Stewart; 2nd Hayley Hart; 3rd Wesley Coutts

                                                          Freestyle Kumite Competition

To complete the circle of training, the application i.e. bunkai of those movements kumite or freestyle fighting competition puts test to those skills.  High kicks and karate punches, for those who left before the end an even higher standard of martial arts were offered, visually impressive and hard effort on both the boys and girls sides.  While every effort is made in the interest of safety with hand pads, gum shields and instructions of light contact only.  The girls, yes the 'girls' - sorry boys but they had more spirit, shed some tears but it is vital to recognise this as volition to doing their very best in the face of tough competition.

                                                

                                             

                                                       Freestyle Kumite Competition Winners

  Details of kumite group winners to follow soon. (Editor: 18-05-2009)

                                                                                                     Mark McGowan

                                                                                                                                  OSSU!!!

 

 The Tenshinkan World Gashuku 2008.      

       Report by Mark McGowan

As indebted Tenshinkan Dojos from around the United Kingdom, across Europe, and even some countries from the African continent take a welcome break from karate training following the very successful four day Tenshinkan World Gashuku.  Held right here in Dundee encompassing Gashuku (special training), the Kata and Kumite (sparring) tournament, weapons demonstrations & Gradings held in Ardler Leisure Complex.  The following is the briefest of reports on how things went.

Opening Ceremony – Day 1.

Day one of the four day event was finally here something that had included training extra hard for, with a clutch of injuries for those who over did it, aching muscles for those who had endured extended bouts of sonaba zuki and Kata practise.  Everyone having done as much as could be done in practicing the drills, etiquette and katas (set formal routines).   Everyone being eager to impress the World Chief Instructor Kancho Mamori Miwa from Japan, Chief Instructor Shihan Hans Haupt from South Africa, plus many other visiting Sensei’s and fellow students equally.  The honour this bestows on those who trained with them is not to be taken lightly or underestimated.  The following two hours of training included Kata, various sonaba zuki techniques, solo drills and drills with a partner, a good ice breaker, a chance to shake off the nerves.  This was followed by a more relaxed gathering in the Ardler lounge, drinks and food being complimentary, groups mixed and chatted amicably.  Calling the room to order Shihan Robert Kane started the speeches, welcomes, toasts (in a variety of languages) and explanations of how Tenshinkan has spread so far across the globe, followed by some freestyle singing – an evenings entertainment all will be sorry to have missed!  Even if you could not understand the language you could not mistake the fact that everybody was having fun.

Dan Gradings & Training   – Day 2.

That afternoon was taken up with the Dan grading, that is those who were ready to attempt the exam for black belt and those who wished to further their black belt qualification with more advanced exams.  The evening training session was of the same, exhausting, spirited training with the addition of learning how to perform katas in the opposite direction - a very difficult task indeed. This was followed by a visit to the pub to hear how the black belt gradings went.  Still a little nervous about sitting their own various coloured grades those gathered were sincerely proud of those Dan grades that had all passed, whether it helped at the time some words from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet “nothing is a bad as thinking makes it so” was banded about.

Weapons Demonstrations, Kata & Kumite Tournament – Day 3.

When 150 karate students line up in front of their Sensei Instructors, Shihan’s and the World Chief Instructor it is understandable if not to be expected that a fulfilling sense of pride would inspire even this years Emo poster child.  Those gathered were treated to a series of demonstrations,  first of Kata by our our own Chief Instructor, Shihan Robert Kane who led the proceedings with an excellent demonstration.  Kancho followed with a marvellous demonstration of Iaido – flawlessly controlled drawing of a sword, striking or cutting shown in a Kata with all the etiquette associated with this weaponry.  Hearing that sound, “blood wind” – the defining swoosh as a seriously sharp heavy piece of metal sweep through the air does actually make the hair on the back of your neck stand up!  Our Japanese visitors then showed in spectacular fashion how the moves of a Katas would be applied in the hopefully unlikely event that you were attacked in the street. This was followed by another excellent Kata demonstration by Takashi Miwa. Shihan Hans Haupt then demonstrated a bo Kata, wielding and sweeping with a six foot wooden staff he showed both defensive blocks and offensive strikes to all four sides, the staff having such a long reach can be considered as a potential defence against the sword.   Kancho returned with a Kata showing the use of a pair of short swords, one in each hand called Sai, shaped like a pitch fork, the length of your forearm, used in defence against sword and bo staff to trap, block, punch even stab.  Weapons Katas need extremely well developed hand to eye co-ordination, a profound understanding of karate stances, moves and ought to be supervised by a suitably qualified instructor due to the hazardous nature of such training. Finally we had a demonstration of Team Kata from our Japanese visitors with flawless co-ordination.  Very high standards indeed to strive for!!

The Tournament started in the usual way with a warm up inspiring words of encouragement and fair play from the federations most senior instructors.  Kata competitions were first, drawing names from sealed envelopes to ensure random placements then split into separate groups – juniors, senior Ladies, senior Gentlemen.  Called on to the floor two at a time, free to choose the Kata they will show, the competitors did their level best to impress the judges.  There could only be one winner out of the two, as finally first, second and third places were awarded stunning trophies duly presented by the World Chief Instructor amid much applause.  Next the Kumite (free style sparring) separated in to groups again, junior, ladies, men and quoting one sensei “the old men’s group” were last to compete.  The standards were exceptionally high, both from those competing and from those who, it is worth mentioning, judged the matches, kept scores, called up the competitors and administered first aid.  The jury is still out on who was the braver, the fighters or the administrators. 

All the other Kyu Gradings – Day 4.

By this time the strain typically associated with such sporting events was beginning to tell, heavy legs, sore muscles, lack of sleep from possibly premature celebrations and that post adrenal fatigue.  Last minute practice, asking anyone who was a higher grade than yourself and hoping that your sensei was right when he or she said “you will be fine, don’t worry just do your best”, knowledge like that only comes with experience.  Finally, well it was actually right on time, coloured belts were called in to the main hall, asked to line up in grading order and to show basic techniques.  Then divided into junior to senior belts each took turns going through the set Kata, more often than not flawless performances were executed, enough to ensure a 100% pass rate.  The pride of being presented with a grading certificate by the singularly highest ranking person in the Tenshinkan Karate Federation is difficult to convey.  It really is something that has to be worked for, lived through to fully appreciated something that one can say is lost in translation.  Tenshinkan Karate translates to True Mind (or Consciousness) House Empty Hand, or as the translation we use True Way of the Empty Hand.

Conlcusion

“I can’t say if the pen is mightier than the sword but I know it is far easier to write with”

Mark McGowan.

Ossu!!!