Made of the right stuff - Shindenkan summer convention 2024
The summer meeting is always the culmination of Shindenkan's season and Shindenkan's summer meeting 2024 was perfectly completed with over 80 happy and excited participants and more than 150 positive spectators who together showed us - that we have had an absolutely fantastic season together 😊
The preparation for the Summer Meeting 2024
The preparation and the run-up to the summer meeting 2024 went, as always, in good order, well planned by Yamana-Itotani Sensei, with a focus on positivity and a super good cooperation between the Honbu-dojo and the activities committee with Shisho Michael at the head, which ensured that a fantastic season could therefore end as strongly as we began it.
For the summer meeting 2024, it became the factual proof of how great a season we have had on all parameters 😊. We have the best roots in Shindenkan which are founded in Yakami Shinsei-ryu Taijutsu & Karate-do's multi-track competencies and with the emphasis placed on Shindenkan's value set! Together we have given it the gas from start to finish and what we remember best from the Shindenkan season 2023-2024 are our incredibly committed members with extremely high attendance locally as well as nationally, very great unity across the schools, much more diversity in the membership composition and not least extremely strong determination in both the KYU and DAN degrees. We always have really good and competent training at all levels and we live up to our motto: Space for everyone - the elite as exercisers
Shindenkan Cultural Heritage.
We pay tribute to our 1,000-year-old heritage in Shindenkan through Yakami Shinsei-ryu Taijutsu & Karate-do, because we must know all facets of martial arts – not just single-track, but multi-track – to be graduated.
Shindenkan is a competency organization and Shindenkan's competency system is offered through courses in the single-track competencies that must be completed and passed to a given degree in Yakami Shinsei-ryu Taijutsu & Karate-do. We then develop our single-track competencies through the annual OBC KM courses and run standardized maintenance in our single-track competencies through the local OBC trainings every 14 days and the 6 annual NKT trainings. To that extent, Shindenkan is a fantastic training place for anyone who wants to improve their martial arts skills and strives for personal development through Shindenkan's set of values, but we also make demands on ourselves through annual OBC KM certification, where we have to prove once a year that we still master all the single-track competencies.
After all, OBC was created to draw the future and reflects the level of competence of all the members and is therefore also scalable over time in relation to the different and changing life cycles of all the members - it's just super cool. The annual OBC certification conducted by Shindenkan Honbu-dojo's Chief Instructor, Yamana-Itotani Sensei, is very important to Shindekan members and instructors. The certification has 4 levels and the certification that the members pass is valid for one year - i.e. one season at a time!
What a great party for all participants and spectators with both OBC KM certifications, competency graduations, lots of KYU, brown belt graduations and last but not least black belt graduations and this year was no exception. At the summer meeting 2024, a total of 71 graduations and 14 new OBC KM certifications were completed in our multi-track System 😊. It was fantastic to stand in the middle of it all and feel the atmosphere, the togetherness and that OBC is exactly the continuous development spiral that maintains and gradually increases the level of competence and we did it together - of course after teaching from Yamana-Itotani Sensei.
This season we have seen the most amazing unity grow in the local clubs and across the national training seminars – this is perhaps the biggest compliment to Shindenkan Denmark and bodes very well for the future. We are well on our way to filling up the ranks again, with even more new members, even more KYU and brown belt graduations, also with new black belt graduations 😊
Made from the right fabric 😊
In Shindenkan, all brown belt and black belt graduations start at the start of the season in August, where the members who want to go for a graduation, register themselves on the national gross list for brown and black belt graduation until the final summer meeting of the season. It is a requirement for all registrants that they must be able to maintain their attitude throughout the year and prove it during all SB-BB leadership seminars and all joint meetings. Along the way, Yamana-Itotani Sensei assesses, twice, whether the nominees can proceed to the net list. In Season 2024 there were 8 on the gross list and 4 who went all the way and who passed all their stop tests.
The 4 have shown us all how it should be done, they have been up to 4 different degrees, they have had unity and have been really cool, they have developed throughout the course, fought the best they have learned and had the stamina to last all the way. We have got a new multi track 3.Kyu, a new multi track 1.Kyu and another super cool female multi track black belt in our amazing Yakami Shinsei-ryu Taijutsu & Karate-do and one of our senior instructors in the Honbu dojo has achieved the degree JODEN HIDEN – which is the third highest multi-track competence degree awarded in Denmark since 1965/67 - They are both role models in Shindenkan, for attitude, commitment, endurance and diversity - because you can do much more than you and others tell you!
Those of us who have been with them during the whole process and have seen them push themselves to the limit, have witnessed real fighting spirit, seen their fantastic attitude and will, Yes we are Mega proud and there is nothing else to say but WOW, hats off to them , pay tribute to them and wish them a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to all 4 – because they are truly made of the right stuff.
Shindenkan Denmark today?
We are very much looking forward to the season that has passed, filled with really lovely memories of a joint effort, once again with positive bright youthful energy, a fantastic dynamic training, a lot of new and old happy members who are together on their journey in Yakami Shinsei-ryu Taijutsu & Karate-do.
Shindenkan Denmark is, as it has always been since 1965/67, a federation of local municipally approved independent democratic associations, all of which offer teaching and training in the 1000-year-old Japanese cultural heritage and martial arts Yakami Shinsei-ryu Taijutsu & Karate-do. We were founded already in 1965/67 and have been a member of the international competence organization Jokokan International since 1988.
Jokokan Honbu Dojo Camps is the pivot for all competence in Shindenkan Denmark and is the guarantor of the preservation of the genuine system and the original competences and represents the national and international level of competence in Shindenkan Denmark as a genuine course and leadership development organization for all Shindenkan member schools.
All Shindenkan's member schools teach and train according to exactly the same curriculum manual - One common competence and One common standard - that's what makes us so strong.
Democracy in Shindenkan
We are one of Scandinavia's oldest martial arts organizations since 1965/67, but we also have 1,000+ years of history and background in Japan. That's why we call ourselves Viking Samurais!
The summer meeting celebrates the end of the season for us Viking Samurais, but also at the same time celebrates the democratic process in the voluntary and unpaid association work. It is an old tradition that the chairman of the association gives a short presentation at the summer meeting - this was also the case this year.
Shindenkan Process for General Meetings (GF)
We effectively ensure democracy and that as many as possible are heard, through a Bottom-up process - which starts in the Local General Assemblies and rises to the National General Assemblies.
The process follows the same structure every year and contains the following process steps:
- Basic structure – from the GF of all local member schools
- The creation from the KYU Representative Office, Brown, Black Belt and OBC teams
- The finishing touch – All national activities during the season – the operation
- GF decision - Those who contribute actively also have the most active influence
Continuity is created through the primary participants in the process – who follow it all the way:
- SOPORG – Shindenkan Organization Committee which consists of Honbu dojo's chairman and deputy chairman, Shindenkan Denmark's chairman and deputy chairman, and a qualified member representative and the most important thing is that they are democratically elected.
- Executive board of representatives which is made up of the highest graduated, most active members in all local schools, and almost all of whom are either local board members or national board members - they are all role models who contribute and lead the way!
In Shindenkan, we always think about Bismarck's proverb that says: "Everyone can learn from his own mistakes, but a true leader also learns from the mistakes of others!". Therefore, we have cleaned up hard and consistently looked at all the bodies in the cargo and once again we have learned that one person with Entourage can ruin the life of everyone else.
FACTS about Shindenkan Schools
All member schools are democratic associations run by passionate people who carry out a 100 % voluntary and unpaid effort - because we want to make a difference!
- We have room for everyone – the elite such as exercisers.
- We are value-based.
- We meet our members where they are and take them on a journey.
- We believe that we can make a difference.
- We invest in multi-track competences, which, like life, are multi-track wholes
We all know it, perhaps from our workplaces or from our schools - that one bad boss destroys an entire competence team or that one bad chief instructor can destroy an entire association! or more! When we stand there, we know that there will be confrontations and that confrontations lead to choices, which are always either additional choices or opt-outs! So the most important thing we can do is – to do the right thing!
And that's OK, because we must live up to our purpose clause and put the joy of training above our own interests - We must put Shindenkan's Value Set above everything and live up to meeting people where they are and taking them on a journey in the world of Shindenkan multi-track martial arts .
The new season will be even more amazing 😊
In the 2023-2024 season we have gained many new members and it is my great wish for the coming season that we will have as many new white belts join the local associations. We are ready for all JokoKidz, JokoTeens and adults. We have to because the fantastic energy and atmosphere we have felt this year has given us the hope we wanted and again given all of us old members in Shindenkan an opportunity to show the way, a new fantastic energy for them and for us, a opportunity to show Shindenkan's value set in its very best version and where we can be the very best version of ourselves.
The coming season is no exception – because the goal for us at Shindenkan is still to be of benefit, especially to our members but also to the community around us! Because all people need the cool energy and to be taken along on a journey that will develop us and to be met where they are and to be taken along by us who passionately want to make a difference.
Come and join us for another great season and make your mark on life - because there are no limits to what we can achieve together if we honestly strive to go all the way.
We are so happy and proud of the development that has been in Season 2023-2024 for Shindenkan and now a fantastic summer has started in Denmark and who could wish for more than the unity, the joy and the level we have achieved.
But we want to do more - be more - reach out - make a difference - show who we are 😊
Derfor invite Everyone who wants to is welcome – We are accepting new members as early as 19 August 2024.
We are looking forward to the coming season together with ALL of you - In Shindenkan and in all the local schools there is room for everyone - the elite as the exerciser.
