By Martin E. Hansen, Member until 2018
The title sounds like the beginning of a well-known fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. For the head instructors, this year's I-camp was also an adventure in self-awareness and ability and a contrast to the jantelaw and lust for power that the fairy tale about Snevide describes.
In the best Tarantino style, we start with the ending, which took place again this year at an excellent restaurant in inner Copenhagen – Den lille fede, in Boltens gård. Saturday at 22.00 This year's training camp for the chief instructors of the Shindenkan and the sikken one ended. This final ryugi part of the training camp was digested together with a gastronomic experience that can definitely be recommended, and washed down with a wine menu adapted to the 5 courses. Where the training camp has long since ended for most of you and you are sitting safely in the family's lap with coffee, Saturday sweets and the camel's wool pacifiers firmly planted on the edge of the tiled table, it is time for the post-mortem in the chief instructor group. More than ever before, this dinner conversation was a necessary and carefully planned part of our training camp, so in case anyone out there is in doubt – there is nothing about Kimu Sensei's teaching that is accidental.
The purpose and the last task of the year was to gather up the whole year's training and collectively reach a conclusion and create a foundation for next season. There was a lot to talk about and the dinner dragged on and when Kimu Sensei and Jens Kyoshi came by to join the company, we weren't done yet and the decision was that we probably needed to finish this evening alone before the summer holidays could is held.
We all agreed that this year's I-camp had rounded off and picked up the season in the most beautiful way and shown us the way to the "real" training, but also tested our extreme limits, as we had experienced a Kaidenkan camp for the first time!
30 hours before, the head instructor started the training camp, i.e. Friday at 4 p.m. Again this year the weather was with us, so we didn't have to worry about freezing, but more about getting enough fluids to satisfy the sweat glands.
The preparations leading up to this year's I-camp had not been so different from the other years, except that no one was officially set for graduation, and therefore no stop test. However, we should not be cheated about the annual physical test. As head instructors, we see it as a duty to keep the form just about right, and a good physique makes many things a little easier, and above all it benefits health.
At the same time, it is good if you can get confirmation that you are still a "bath iron" like the old boys, which Kjeld Renshi-dai lived up to, and the thin-haired ice shined more than ever. I had to settle for thin and muscular, as the advanced scale told me at the medical weigh-in for the physical test. But even if you are small and frail, you can easily assert yourself and avoid losing face, so I signed off with a double bronze circle at the end of the physical test, and was thus admitted to the boys' "Hall of Fame"
So the body was well prepared for what we thought would be a physically and mentally tough camp, as it had been the other years. We had discussed back and forth several times what Kimu Sensei could come up with this year, but one thing we can always expect and that is to be surprised, and this year is no exception.
We officially started at approx. 4.30 p.m., when we had to wait for the "bath iron" to appear - there are enough excuses and the official one was that there was a power cut on the S-tog network, but Kjeld Renshi-dai had probably forgotten the world around him when he struck poses at home in front of the mirror and assessed whether self-tanner would make a difference or not.
However, the mirror was to prove to be an important piece for all 5 of us, as the first training lesson took place in the "psychological" dojo. The instruction was quite short and was about whether we know ourselves and our emotional register well enough. With that in the back of our hands, we stood in front of each of our mirrors and had to go through our own register of feelings, good and bad. The dojo was silent as the grave…. How do you get started with that task? It wasn't long before we were interrupted in our conversation with ourselves, well actually we hadn't started. Clever as he is, Kimu Sensei cut it out of cardboard by guiding us through various questions that we had to discuss out loud with ourselves in front of the mirror.
It may sound strange, and it probably does if you were a fly on the wall and did not know the meaning of this tool, as it is - the "mirror of truth" - a tool. The important thing about the exercise was that we of course followed the instructions, but the most important thing was that we were honest and were in our own little world and didn't let ourselves be distracted by the neighbor's voice and bodily expressions in front of the mirror.
With one thing, we all knew that this was going to be a cross-border I-camp and a welcome to Kaidenkan and martial arts - new to us, but a familiar tool for Jens Kyoshi, which you can read about in previous articles. I don't remember how long we stood there, but it was hard, even if it doesn't sound like it at first.
Afterwards, we were allowed to gather our thoughts in a circle and discuss with each other what our experience of the exercise had been. We agreed that it was hard to get to know oneself and that the excuses for not doing so were manifold. To our great annoyance, we were told, as always, that it was actually very simple, because you can only be yourself and we now had to show that in the "physical" dojo, so we followed a smiling Kimu Sensei in in the hall for the next part of the lesson.
In the physical world, you can best show your true self in kumite, so now we had to fight against ourselves. So, in the absence of a double, Kimu Sensei stepped in and mirrored each of us at our level – you can do that when you're at Grandmaster level – and we took turns getting beaten by ourselves. Why don't you parry? I only attack at between 95.1 and 100 % of what each of you can do! Actually also stupid when you think about it, but it could be that you liked being hit, it was not said, but was written in the air above Kimu Sensei.
One attack and one defense, it should be simple when, on top of that, you know where the attack is coming from, and to make it a little easier, it's also not faster than your own optimum. "Why don't you do as you said in front of the mirror?", "We're trying because f....", could be the answer, but not good enough. Our internal struggle ie. feelings, excuses etc. were perhaps the answer to why we could not stay focused in a relatively "simple" exercise.
At the end of the first lesson, we could train a little with ourselves through the kata Seienchin and Seishan, while Kimu Sensei entertained himself and the eight brown belts who were due for graduation the following day, with a syllabus test - in the new syllabus of course.
Today's lessons were not quite finished, however, as we had to solve a small ryugi task around the subject of TAKMITTCT, which most of you have become familiar with and heard mentioned, if nothing else if you participated in Ken course package 2.
As a small final task, we also had to come up with a show for the following day's summer meeting for everyone a little over 15 hours later, which just showed TAKMITTCT It was some tired heads who drove from Måløv around 22.00 on Friday evening, but also expectant about what the next day's lessons would have to offer.
After an all-too-short night, we met at 7.45 to prepare both the subsequent summer camp for everyone, but also to put the finishing touches on the display, as we didn't expect to have more time during the day. Always fresh and in a brilliant morning mood, Kimu Sensei arrived together with Jens Kyoshi at 8.30 for morning coffee and a chat about the farm day's results before today's lesson had to start. At the same time, Kimu Sensei also announced a change in the show, which we otherwise think we had pretty much got in place with just 15 – 6 hours of preparation in the middle of a very intense Chief Instructor training camp. It was of course part of the CI camp, because as Kimu Sensei always says "Either you can, or you can't - and YOU can!".
Not surprisingly, we had to repeat the farm day's mirror exercise, but with slightly bigger challenges, which allowed us to get around our awareness and emotions. This time it went fantastically well for everyone and I experienced, like the others, an almost meditative state in the company of myself and my feelings in the mirror of truth.
Again with no idea how long we had spent in front of the mirror, we went straight to a meditation. The meditation is not that much different from when you sit in a mokuso for training and use the breath to rest within yourself.
But it dawned on me that once again there was nothing random about the use of tools. I experienced an infinite sense of emptiness, undisturbed by everyday thoughts, stress and hustle and bustle – in other words, focus. It was a complete contrast to the emotional register we had gone through in front of the mirror, and it dawned on me where you have to be mentally during a meditation.
When Kimu Sensei could tell that now was the time, we went back to the "physical" dojo in the hall and now had to start with a bit of a walking base, but with a mission which was a natural consequence of the mirror exercise and meditation. This mission was individual but based on our experiences from the previous lessons and I can't really describe the content as it has to be experienced and is very personal. But the result was that, more than ever before, I experienced the same focus on a walking basis, best described as being in the present moment, throughout the execution of the technique.
Had we improved? Had we moved compared to yesterday? Naturally, this had to be tested in committee. Then again we lined up ready to receive Kimu Sensei's attack. Of course we were hit, but that wasn't so important now either, the important thing was whether we were ourselves and did our best. At least I tried and it also felt different and at the same time I realized that the attacks we got were a bit faster and stronger than the day before.
Without sounding too mysterious, the attacks were adapted to 100 % for each one, and I was personally hit by a blow that I can't describe, as it's a bit incomprehensible, and the effect of the blow didn't come until the next day, but it's a completely different story.
It was getting close to noon and we had a little time to prepare the display and to welcome those of you who had thoughtfully chosen to help prepare for the next lesson, which was the summer convention 2009 for everyone. As you probably noticed, the meeting was steeped in what we had trained for both mentally and physically, namely TAKMITTCT
The conclusion we reached at Den lille Fede on Saturday evening was that this year's training, culminating with our I-camp, had shown us more than ever before the common thread in building a system based on both physical and mental tools, and so you can ask yourself if it is a coincidence that the new syllabus came just now?
