SBTLUS means Black Belt Theme Leader Development Seminar. And that means a super course prepared by Kimu Sensei 🙂

This Christmas, the theme was:

"Why not be good to yourself - and learn the right thing from the beginning? – and continue this – all the time?”

Our tools at this seminar were Ryugi (philosophy) and Ryuha (technique) and leading up to the seminar everyone had been encouraged to send their questions to Kimu Sensei. IT gave bonus, with over 75 questions which had to be divided into themes, which seemed to fit well with the theme of the seminar.

There was an exciting Ryugi lesson on e.g. the organization, how it is developed and adapted to the members, participants and reality - and where we leaders at different levels in Shindenkan fit in, and can support the organization and develop ourselves, by using the system for empowerment of ourselves.
It was told about martial arts vs. martial arts - how the path to martial arts through the densho grades is very much about attitude and the will to take life with oneself, and to take responsibility.
And it's not that complicated either. "Keep it simple" for the sake of complicating everything, is just another means of avoiding taking responsibility.

The setting can also be found in some of the ancient myths such as

"Better spend 10 years looking for the right teacher than train 10 years under the wrong teacher"

Because if you have first learned it wrong, it takes 10 times as long to unlearn the wrong thing and learn the right thing. And then we are back to the convention's theme: Be good to yourself. Get it right from the start and keep at it.

When you have found the right teacher, you still have a responsibility. A responsibility to actively follow the instructions and do what it takes to learn – to actively follow the path he shows.
It is a matter of faith or trust. You have to believe that the knowledge you are offered is the knowledge you need, and that the tools you are recommended are the optimal tools for learning that knowledge. If you doubt here, or lack confidence, it is much more difficult to learn that knowledge.
In the same way, you must have confidence or believe in yourself that you can learn and perform the exercises you are asked to do. And you don't need to analyze, understand and check the exercises to learn from them. "Keep it simple".

And if you have found a good teacher, you are still, and always, responsible for the path you choose for your own life. If you relinquish that responsibility, you are not on the road to martial arts, but on the road to helplessness. Shindenkan stands for empowerment, with e.g. the motto "you can if you want", not to take responsibility from people, but to give them the tools to handle the responsibility themselves.

Upstairs Ryugi we went to the dojo and trained Koryu Naihanchi Shodan. In it, "One Stroke – One Kill" is trained, and it requires you to have 100% of the kata's content with you. We had already trained the form and movements of the kata, and now we immersed ourselves in the content of the kata, with all the subtleties that make ”One Stroke – One Kill” possible.
As a basis for Koryu Naihanchi, we have also previously trained the Pinan katas – Ankoh Itosu's introduction to Koryu Naihanchi, and Shiho which we have trained at many different levels.
Naihanchi was in ancient times beginner kata, but in recent times with us it is brown and black belt kata.

And then we just got details and working points – release the body and let it flow freely; catch it again and add weight and explosion. Let one movement follow the flow of the other, but still perform the movement correctly, let the shoulders roll and transfer the energy from one technique to the next, etc., etc. Delicious!
And we were challenged on our control, where we had to let the body fall freely to the side, in order to utilize the natural movement. It only works if you let go of control and let the body do the work itself, without analyzing and controlling the movement. Hmmm challenging, but luckily Kimu Sensei came by and helped to "let go of control".

When Kimu Sensei finished teaching, we were allowed to continue training ourselves for an hour, to have time to digest and incorporate the trained techniques.

Then it was time for group assignments, about our optimal teaching situation, quantity and structure from Kimu Sensei. The answers were sent to Kimu Sensei and then it was time for the groups of instructors to coordinate tomorrow's training and then go home and get a few hours sleep.

On Saturday morning we had morning coffee with ryugi, as Kimu Sensei concluded on our proposal and answered some more of our many questions. We also touched on martial arts, and how big the difference is from martial arts up to martial arts – it is admittedly big, but every journey begins with the first step.

WE went back to the dojo and showed how good our Koryu Naihanchi Shodan had become - hmmm.. Yes, there were quite a few bodies that had become stiff and sore from several hours of power training the previous day, so we just had to loosen up a bit before we again got into gear. We had a fun exercise of walking around the other participants while imitating a clucking hen. IT loosened up, right up to the smile lines 🙂

And then it was Koryu Naihanchi Nidan that had to be filled with details.
Fortunately, and it was probably no coincidence, there were plenty of principles that built on, resembled or elaborated on Koryu Naihanchi Shodan. We also met the hen/rooster and the snake, who were joined by the pig, as the kata itself naturally also contains ryugi.

All in all, it was a pleasure with the many old and new principles that should go together into a larger unit, brought together by Kimu Sensei's red thread and theme, to make it easy for yourself, by doing it right from the start, and all the time.

And then it was time for the X-mas convention with Santa hats and other two series. Traditions are good 🙂

Kjeld Renshi-dai.