By Martin E. Hansen, Member until 2018
Only one week after the first RRCAMP10.1 (d. 20/8-21/8) came an invitation to RRCAMP10.2 (d. 10/9-11/9) because Kimu Sensei thought we needed a quick follow-up at the first camp both in terms of the specific content but also our personal benefit.
My calendar was already booked when the email from Kimu Sensei containing an invitation to another RRCAMP slipped past the spam filter on my mailbox J. As you know, RR stands for Ryugi/ryuha but could also mean Reasonably Raw. What I skewed in the calendar that was the alternative to RRCAMP10.2 was the Novo Nordisk annual party. So what I was comparing was either 26 hours of hard work with an annoyingly sharp-witted Kimu Sensei, who whips up a mood in the best Drill Sergeant style, or an evening with all paid and private concert with Nephew in the Bella Center with my colleagues. The choice was simple, although it tormented my little party heart and I emailed back that I was of course interested in participating in another RRCAMP.
My fellow colleagues and I agreed this time that we should meet a little earlier than last time, so that we had a bigger buffer in case something unforeseen happened. So that's why we all met at Søren Renshi's on Friday 10/9 at 11.45, when those of us who needed to change into official Shindenkan outfit did so, after which we set off in Søren Renshi's car towards Malmö once more. Along the way, the conversation naturally fell on the coming 24 hours, when we knew that we would probably have to be pushed in one direction or another in the best Jack Bauer style. We again agreed that we shouldn't expect anything in advance, but learned from the last RRCAMP, we quickly came to the conclusion that sleep was probably the only thing we wouldn't get very much of, and later it turned out that we was quite right!
We arrived at the Hilton in Malmö in good time, actually half an hour before the meeting time. We immediately went to the reception, where we expected our rooms to be prepared as last time even though we were early for it. Kimu Sensei is always thoroughly prepared, and also this time the rooms were already booked, and also who was going to stay where, but this time the cup was shaken a bit and we got a new room mate, I therefore had to share a room with Brian Renshi-dai, the explanation we found out about this later. But our room was the only one not prepared for check in, so we had to wait until later in the day to get our key. While we were standing there in the reception, Kimu Sensei and Jens Kyoshi came down with the elevator from the 12th floor, where we were to reside for the next day. As usual, we were greeted with a big smile "Welcome to boys, you are early on it", after which firm handshakes and smiles were exchanged.
We quickly got the room plan listed and while we were riding up the elevator the first task was presented and not surprisingly we had to stand in the fitness center on top of the Hilton at 13.00, but first we had to prepare the room which was our common ryugi room. However, this was managed quite quickly, a little easier reshuffling of furniture as well as a few free chairs from our rooms and finally connecting the projector, and we had all of 7 min. to change and show up at the gym - luxury. I changed clothes and at the same time remembered my heart rate monitor because I wanted to keep an eye on my body's performance after a Shindenkan detox.
Up until this RRCAMP I had chosen to do a detox. As most people may know, this detox is quite simple and here is the recipe for 10 days. Day 1 morning: Organic long brown rice, with a topping consisting of organic sesame seeds roasted/popped in pure salt (without additives such as iodine etc.) and Japanese green sencha tea. And now hold on tight, now it gets exciting 😉 Day 1 lunch: as morning, Day 1: evening, as lunch, Days 2-10, as day 1. This detox recipe is approx. 800 years old and like all other knowledge in Shindenkan that works, it should not be lost but used, which is also one of the messages in the RRCAMP vision. It can be taken for 3-5-7 or 10 days. 7 and 10 days are most effective for effective detox. If you ask your chief instructor, he has the recipe and can guide you, because he has gone through it himself at least 2 times :-). I had chosen a 7-day detox and was very doubtful before the camp whether I would get enough energy from just rice and tea, but was advised by Kimu Sensei on the 6th day, when I otherwise really wanted to consume something with more calories, that I should just continue. "You will get plenty of energy, just hang in there" was the answer, so I did. So I was excited when I was asked to get on the exercise bike for the first test and cycle for 25 minutes with an average of at least 235 watts. One of the messages of RRCAMP is also that you have to live in the present, that's why everything is planned so intensely, so there are no breaks to linger and think about what will happen in a couple of hours or more. I was about to make a mistake and think back to what it was that I had struggled to ride home on the bike last time, and briefly I thought that I knew I wasn't even at the 235 watts last time. I started the bike and It actually felt pretty easy and I quickly found a rhythm of around 105 revolutions per minute and the display showed 265 watts or so. "That was pretty strange," I thought, wondering if there was a difference between this bike and the other one I had ridden last time, but continued on without hesitation. After 25 minutes, the average showed 255 watts, so it was home. The funny thing was that I didn't overexert myself like last time, when I was quite stressed, I had what is called "good legs" in cycling all the way. Now I know that I can't compare my performance to an A-level rider, but compared to the norm it was quite good. There is only one explanation for this significant change in my performance, as I hadn't trained much since the last RRCAMP, and that was the detox. So if you are looking for top performance in relation to your current form curve, you just need to detox 7-10 days up to the day when you have to perform at your maximum 🙂 After 25 minutes of testing, we were to start strength training, where the principles from the last RRCAMP were to be used again, so that we could incorporate this new and A proven form of strength training, which is therefore included in our overall knowledge bank for the benefit of those we teach.
I don't remember what time it was when we finished the physical test, but just that we had about 10 min. to bathe and get ready for classes in the common room. During this time, I simultaneously went up and down the elevator a few times to try to open access on the chip card to Brian Renshi-dai's and my room, but even though the cleaning was finished it didn't work, and I instead had 4 min. to bathe in the bathroom of the common room.
We settled down in front of the projector with a cup of coffee, and our mentor and teacher Kimu Sensei started the next Ryugi training session, which was actually supposed to last until 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, interrupted only by dinner and breakfast. The first part was mostly a summary of the last RRCAMP and served the purpose of setting the stage for the next 24 hours of teaching and problem solving. As you know, RRCAMP's are an initiative to strengthen leadership development in Shindenkan, mainly for chief instructors, and part of the Honbu strategic plan 2010-2015, which I'm sure you'll hear a lot more about 🙂 You got a taste of the 2010 summer convention before the summer holidays. During the first part, we were also told that the screw just needed to be tightened a little, so we probably felt that this RRCAMP would be harder than the first one, mentally. I will not hide the fact that I was pushed very far to the edge and this time even more than last time, which was my own fault, without me having to go into more detail about this, other than simply saying that you should always come well prepared even if you think that what you have done in preparation serves the right purpose 🙂 We received instruction until around 7:00 PM when we were asked to change and get ready for dinner, which was again to be eaten at TGI Friday's. By changing, we mean that we had to dress in ordinary clothes. pants, shoes and Shindenkan sweatshirt, as described in the email we had received, everything else triggers a prize 🙂 It was raining this Friday evening in Malmö and on the way down in the elevator I wondered if a jacket would have been quite ok, and it annoyed me even more when I saw Kimu Sensei standing down in the hall through the glass facade of the elevator in a jacket over the Shindenkan sweatshirt, "It's raining outside, why aren't you wearing a jacket, BIG smile", "Fuck, we all thought", except for Kjeld Renshi-dai, who with a painted-on I-am-really-smart smile looked at his folded jacket between his hands and Jens Kyoshi who was late because, yes you guessed it, he was just going up in the elevator to get a jacket. The trip to the restaurant took place at a high pace, worthy of a power walker, as Kimu Sensei was indescribably hungry after a long day of teaching.
After dinner, when we were back in plenary, the screw was tightened once more and the self-realizations began to appear again in the mind. We continued to work with the theme from the first RRCAMP around leadership development and the importance of Shindenkan and how the local schools must be brought into position for the new Honbu strategic plan so that handover and thus education takes place in the most optimal way. What turned out to be a challenge for me personally was that my preparation had not been optimal as previously described, this was made clear during the evening and the consequence was that together with 2 of my colleagues I was given an extra task which had to be completed next morning at 8:00 a.m. Strongly dissatisfied with my own ability, I naturally had to eat it, and it was in the back of my mind for the rest of the evening. During this session it also became clear why we had a new room mate. In the new strategic plan, it is planned that, among other things, start-up of satellite schools and closer cooperation in regions must take place. Brian Renshi-dai and I are both chief instructors in West Zealand, so it naturally made sense for us to become sparring partners. So the last task of the day concerned precisely this collaboration and it also had to be solved before 8.00 the next morning Around 23.00 we were about to reach the end of the lesson and Kimu Sensei thinks we should have a bottle of good red wine for each room, which he had brought, just so that the atmosphere was pleasant during the night's work out in the rooms.
It was a really long night and a test for me, whether I could stay focused and work concentrated with a requirement for 2 tasks to be completed by the next morning – add to that a bit of irritation about my own performance and the effect of red wine in the late hours. I actually think the detox also helped me here, as I felt that I actually had the energy to get through without getting overtired and unfocused even though my energy was a bit low around 5:00 am 🙂 So in this way I was actually pushed more than I have been before and it was an interesting and rewarding experience to share with myself and my room mate, since we had to do the one task together. This kind of problem solving and leadership development in a closed „training arena‟ (dojo) as it is, was a really rewarding experience for me and I am glad that it happened in a „closed‟ environment. We managed to finish around 6.30 am and were able to catch our breath and enjoy the view of the morning sun rising over Malmö and get some water in our heads before we went to breakfast at exactly 7.00 am.
Today's lessons after breakfast were exclusively "classroom" training, which again shows that you shouldn't expect anything, as we all expected to go to the fitness center again. I was excited about how the night's work would be received by Kimu Sensei. We had been told that you either pass or you don't pass - black and white (life/death). But "grandfather" was happy, as Kimu Sensei himself puts it, and relieved that there was some leadership potential in us after all 🙂 I was also happy and got my energy back, helped along by the effect of caffeine from the morning coffee, which I hadn't had for a long time due to detox, which my stomach could also feel, but it's nice not to have to spend a long time on the toilet. As a conclusion to RRCAMP10.2, we were of course given some short deadlines for solving tasks, including the article you are reading now, plus a lot of other things that you will see the effect of in the future strategy plan. Exactly at 1:00 p.m., 24 hours after we started It all ended and we said goodbye and thanked each other for a good camp in the lobby of the hotel and the trip home first passed the "China Box" where a quick meal was thrown in.
If I have to somehow describe these 24 hours, it's probably like the brain is an electric kettle. It starts by becoming slightly lukewarm during physical testing. Then you gradually turn it up a little until the water starts to bubble, that's when we ate dinner. After dinner it has become a little colder, but quickly rises to temperature again and during the night it rumbles and continues like this with smoke coming out of the ears until RRCAMP is finished with only a short power cut during breakfast. I think these two experiences with RRCAMP's have been quite educational and told me a lot about myself through realizations but also the physical pressure I have been exposed to during some very intense hours. I can't help thinking that martial arts is what we have felt on our body for 26 and 24 hours respectively, but the difference is that in martial arts it is 24,7,365. So look forward to it one day being your turn, there is something to look forward to.
