By Martin E. Hansen, Member until 2018

I have already introduced you readers to an article about special training with Kimu Sensei. The three articles I now want to present to you will go more in-depth with both the special training, but also my personal benefits, both physical and psychological, as well as the experiences with this, both internal and external. This series of articles is also material for other future 1. dans, where I represent the new generation with the publication of a 1. dan's thesis. This reflects the extensive upheavals that have occurred in the Jokokan association over the past few years, with a more open communication policy following in its wake. In order to better understand the motivations for the special training and the road to 1st dan, we start with the beginning...

Prehistory
On a normal working day in March 2002, I was called in the middle of my work (at the time I was still working at Merlin A/S) by Kimu Sensei. You never quite know whether to pick up the phone when Kimu is on the display, it would also turn out to be a fateful choice to press "pick up". Actually, I was supposed to get an answer on whether I could teach self-defense and Tae-Bo at the local gym that I had inquired about, but Kimu Sensei had more sinister ulterior motives (never try to figure that man out). The conversation ended with a very simple question loosely formulated; "Do you want to start a school in Korsør now that there is fertile ground for a new karate school there?" From this moment on, my life was changed, and I passed into a process of transformation, which, of course, at first I could not yet see. The next week was filled with restless nights as I simply struggled to make a choice. Later, I recognized that this was where the actual "test" and special training started, not that I received specific training, but psychologically things started to happen.

After endless email correspondences with Kimu Sensei, and not one step closer to a decision on my part, I was put in touch with the “Jokokan advisor, Personal Coach” for Jokokan. This one has an insight into spiritual aspects of life in his capacity of being clairvoyant, which I do not have, and was able to quickly find a blockage in the subconscious that prevented me from making such a decisive choice. I don't want to go into the treatment process here as it is, as it is deeply personal and individual, but it got my thoughts started and a process with our associated "Jokokan advisor, Personal Coach" started. I came to the first session with an open mind and was not biased and skeptical, as many are towards something inexplicable, as the spiritual is. After the first session, I was more clear about myself and what I had to work on.

As you know, I agreed to the task of starting a new school in Korsør, which of course required a lot of work, but it turned out to be the right choice for me today. At the same time, the time was ripe for me to be nominated for 1st dan Yakami Gensei-ryu, which I passed on 15/6 2002 at the annual I-camp. This camp was tough both physically and mentally, but my visits to the associated "Jokokan advisor, Personal Coach" had helped me in, among other things, kumite, where I had gotten better at handing out beats, but also took on more people who passed through when my mental block was gone. It manifested itself physically in that a week after the camp I urinated blood, which came as a shock, but I had the explanation and it also turned out that it went away again.

My career within Jokokan had really started, and I accepted the offer of special training, which was a reward for my hard work and my willingness to lead the way by starting up a new school. This resulted in me attending the first special training with Kimu Sensei at Tjørnely School on 15 September 2002 (1 week after the start-up of Jokokan Korsør) (we all know it by now, otherwise you can try to notice the traces of blood, the sweat shields and drag marks on the long corridors next time you sign up for a T-camp). The special training was to consist of 6 lessons both with psychological counseling and physical training and correction, thus the way was paved for my 1st dan Yakami Taijutsu graduation in week 8, 2003. The last lesson I found out later was also a pre-graduation.

The grains are sown

As the diligent reader has already calculated, there is a point to the above and it is of course that it should form the background for my special training on the psychological level. I didn't know that, but Kimu Sensei did, who of course knew it all beforehand. In addition to this, I was naturally asked to write down things that I thought I was missing in the curriculum up to 1st dan Yakami Taijutsu, which should form the framework for some of the physical training. Naturally, it turned into a few things or more, and in order not to embarrass myself and be the subject of bullying and other quirks from instructors and students alike, I will not publish the list here. Otherwise, I just got the message from Kimu Sensei: "It is you yourself who determines the benefit of the training".

The first interview was intended as a sales cooperation meeting, and was supposed to remove the worst nervousness and in this way create a student/teacher relationship. Kimu Sensei expressed the essence of the training course in a beautiful way that I have taken to heart: "I sow the seeds in you, then it is up to you to let them sprout". The more you think about the words, they can be used in many aspects of life, which I will also get into more later. This is where you notice to train Yakami is to train in all aspects of life, which can be difficult to understand, but this too will be dealt with in these articles. As many of you know, or you will know by now, nothing is ever accidental when Kimu Sensei says it.

The essence of the above statements, which I only later really understood and experienced, is of course that everyone can train karate in the traditional way, but it is up to the individual whether they want to train martial arts. Only when you start training instead of practicing movements do you practice martial arts. It is this that is entirely up to you, and along this path you must create the yield or, as it is written, make the grains sprout. Of course, this should not be taken as a guideline for how the special training should be, as it is individual. So when you do get the opportunity, it will not be the same question you will be asked, it will be adapted to your situation and life cycle. The reason why I was faced with having to create the yield myself and make the grains sprout was naturally with the ulterior motive that I had a hard time choosing, like when I had to choose whether to start a new school. So, although it may sound strange, it was actually to give me a helping hand so that I could move forward on the road of life and make the right choices. Just making the right choice was reinforced by a familiar question from Kimu Sensei: “Do you want it, enough????”, “It's up to you to show it”. You then sit and grind over it while you chew your way through a roll that feels increasingly dry. There really isn't much to say about it. During this conversation, you must look your teacher in the eyes once in a while (it doesn't actually kill you, but he has X-ray vision....trust me). The funny and strange thing is that it is not always Kimu Sensei who sits in front of one, but oneself. It should not be understood as seeing yourself physically, but it feels like looking into a mirror and seeing the good and bad sides of yourself talking to you and asking ugly questions. It can be quite hard and at times you feel really pressured and speechless. The next thing I was told before we had to start the actual physical training was that I had to trust my teacher to show me the right way.

The physical training was not much for me during the sessions themselves, but it is again a question of what is needed. I needed to talk and get some aspects of private life in place, so ergo "we trained here", or said in another way, which is also the essence "In Yakami, you have to train the weak sides and in this way also make the strong ones sides stronger" or in everyday speech "The chain is not stronger than the weakest link". I liked the trust thing, it is what we build a lot of the order society on, which again reflects that Yakami is an aspect of the whole purpose of life. I naturally expected that now we would have to train all the ancient and secret techniques from ancient scrolls. We should too, but the secret isn't that big, it's called basic techniques. In fact, I think the scrolls are empty and you write the content yourself, understood again as the special training is individual. The techniques we are talking about here are the five basic parades: age-uké, gedan-barei, soto-uké, uchi-uké and naname-uké. But it was not enough that the techniques oi-tsuki and the three basic kicks mae-geri, mawashi-geri, yoko-geri also had to be trained. I was asked to show the techniques as I thought they should look. I suddenly had a moment of clairvoyance and supernatural abilities when I could read Kimu Sensei's thoughts and facial expression “Haven't you grasped a living meter of the whole thing”, of course he didn't say it out loud, but I could see it. I was asked to practice the basic techniques 3-4 times a week for a number that I won't mention here because someone will think I'm crazy or an exercise junkie.

If that's the case, that's fine, but they don't belong in a specific place, but there has to be room for everyone. What I try to say again, and as I was asked: "Do you want it enough?". What should one answer to that? A well-known phrase from the Olsen gang might be appropriate: "Well, I'll do it", but don't say it to others, say it to yourself, and you must mean it! After this, you can simply pack your bag and sweat, say thank you for the lesson and go home and water the crops.