By Martin E. Hansen, Member until 2018By Martin E. Hansen, Member until 2018
Christmas is the time of traditions, also in Shindenkan. Every year, well over 200 Shindenkaners and the public gather to enter Christmas with a good round of karate training and perhaps a graduation as a Christmas present 🙂 Saturday 12 December was thus no exception to the tradition, as approx. 170 Shindenkaners met in festive formation for samurai goblin training, cake eating and graduation in high spirits.
As usual, Kimu Sensei opened the meeting with a general information. The rallies are the only opportunity to create a broad communication that affects all Shindenkaners across the schools. This year, Kimu Sensei took the opportunity to explain the new structure that is for progression in Shindenkan. It has been created under the motto "Space for everyone - the elite as exercisers, progression according to effort". Since Shindenkan in its time opened up the breadth with Yakami Shinsei-ryu karate-do and the concept of jokokidz and jokoteens, a lot has happened. This has led to small changes along the way, as everything has to be adapted in a modern and high-tech world. The requirements have not changed and you still have to fulfill the same requirements as you had to a good 1000 years ago if you want to follow the samurai path in the Shindenkan. But the clarity has been changed, and the structure is now adapted so that EVERYONE can plan their development path in Shindenkan within a manageable time horizon. Previously, it was a bit unmanageable to plan when you should acquire different skills such as ken-jutsu, ju-jutsu, etc. In the new structure, it is completely fixed, and the different accelerators and their meaning have become very understandable.
Kimu Sensei was then able to present the instructor team and event manager Søren Renshi, who as usual started with a group song and information about the practicalities of the event. There was a high Christmas spirit when the participants were divided into 4 groups according to grades to start the practical part of the event. The theme this year was like something out of a Disney movie – Samurai goblin training. Although we are serious about Shindenkan and our 1000-year-old knowledge originates from the battlefield in ancient Japan, where people have given their lives for what we can do today, we can add a touch of Christmas spirit to it. Because even though martial arts have their starting point in the battle on the battlefield, it is just as much about celebrating life, diversity and each other. The framework for the convention itself was designed by Kimu Sensei and was built up as four successive lessons. First lesson and the foundation of every samurai goblin was kihon. They went for the macaroons and no imagination was spared, to the great delight of the smallest jokokidz who were allowed to fight for Christmas and the presents against the evil blue trolls and whatever else threatens a good Christmas in lesson 2 as a kumite before it went completely free to beat the life out of the blue trolls in the form of punching pads. Well wrapped in the good story, of course, the good messages were hidden, so that even the adults had something to relate to. Because there was of course also a connection between kihon, kumite and the pad training and finally KataFit5s which were performed fantastically by "The Youngsters" - Elisabet, Karsten and Mathis.
No Christmas without cake, coffee and other goodies, so before the highlight of the day goodies were sold from the sales stall in the front hall to the hall, where the participants and their families enjoyed with great pleasure the good cakes and fresh coffee that had been made by voluntary unpaid efforts, which with everything else in Shindenkan. The profit goes to the good cause in the form of Shindenkan's Friends, who last supported the ShieldKiss project.
After the fun break, it was only time for competence graduation, which this time offered a full two of the kind. First one team that had been through ken-jutsu package 1 and afterwards a large team that had been out quickly and participated in the ken-jutsu 2 transition course. It is the case that Shindenkan holds a lot of courses at the beginning of 2016 so that the students can catch up on the courses that they may be missing in the new structure before the transition period ends at the spring assembly 2016. The graduation assembly was attended by a total of approx. 90 Shindenkaners who went through selected techniques from the curriculum as well as extra challenges posed by Kimu Sensei. Extra challenges can be techniques that are not directly in the syllabus or techniques from a higher syllabus. Everyone did really well and in good spirits.
A warm Shindenkan greeting to you all with a wish for a merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year, and a big congratulations on the well-deserved graduations.
