By Martin E. Hansen, Member until 2018
You ask yourself from time to time when we hold a convention in Shindenkan, can it get bigger?
The answer is YES! Even in the darkest of times, we manage to gather the most people for this year's traditional Christmas gathering. The Christmas convention is a highly anticipated event, mostly because there is more time for this convention than for the spring and summer conventions. So the population is just as impatient in the Christmas shopping queues, all around Denmark, as are the jokokidz, who this day have the prospect of 1, 2 or 3 stripes on their belt, which is perhaps much better than this year's Christmas gift harvest.
How big was this Xmas event this year - approx. 200 registered and just as many spectators, so it's a great turnout and a new record in Shindenkan's event history. There has been good support from all Shindenkan schools and not least the newcomers in Sorø, Dragør and Veksø for whom it was the first convention and event in Shindenkan - welcome!
Christmas time is the time of traditions, so all instructors wear Santa hats during the start of the event and chief Santa Kimu Sensei naturally starts with a "little" speech. This year's speech primarily dealt with the feedback and questions that we as instructors and not least Kimu Sensei get over time.
Naturally, everyone looks up to our grandmaster and children of all ages ask the smartest questions, eg can you fly? Can you parry a lightsaber? Why don't you have a long white beard and are very old? (not to be confused with Father Christmas ed.)
There are many people who write to Kimu Sensei and they were also encouraged to continue writing, as Shindenkan has an open communication policy and a flat organizational structure. At Shindenkan, we like to receive feedback, and we take constructive feedback and use it in the eternal spiral of improvement, where we always try to make courses, rallies, etc. more optimal. But of course there are also things we can't do, either because they are simply impossible, or are very selfish and not beneficial to the community, which we pay tribute to in Shindenkan.
Many questions were answered in the speech, who is Honbu? and what do they stand for? Who is connected? What are the graduation rules? and how has Shindenkan evolved into what it is today. Quite briefly, our possible Japan Tour was touched upon, which has soon been on the drawing board for a long time. There has been an unfortunate development in the Yen exchange rate in the past few years, so the trip has now averaged approx. 60% more expensive than budgeted, which perhaps brings it up to, for many, an unrealistic price level, but you can read more about that here on the website in a short article.
After a quarter of an hour, the participants started to get a little cold feet and the meeting had to begin slowly with a warm-up, but first a proper presentation of the instructors on the podium, so that all the participants could see who was going to be responsible for the day's teaching and here too was there are new instructors in the form of a group of recent black belts: Elisabet (JBA), Claus (JSL), Karsten (JKO&JSO) and Jonas (JBA).
For all instructors, the Xmas convention is part of their leadership development, which is why it also conveniently follows TSM 1 Xmas (Theme Seminar Module), which lasts from Friday afternoon, overnight and Saturday morning.
So the instructors are on quite a task to maintain the energy and at the same time motivate a lot of happy people who are waiting for a good experience and high level of service.
You will be able to read about this TSM course in the many articles that will soon be published here on the web over the New Year. Before the warm-up could start, those with vocal cords had to warm up with both a beat song and a birthday song for those who had a birthday within the past week, because you shouldn't be cheated just because it's Christmas J
The convention itself was divided into 2 lessons. Lesson 1 consisted of walking basics. It was a fantastic experience to have to teach so many people, especially in grades 10-9. the kyu group, which consisted of approx. 100 participants alone. It's a lot of people to teach, but judging by the smiles, it went well. The many new faces got a good insight into what it means to go to a Shindenkan karate competition, which also means Dyyyyybe leg positions and sore thighs, but they did well.
On the occasion of the day and because of the crowd, the barefoot hall was also put into use, so that the highest graders could train in it and leave the hall to the other 2 teams and thus also make it a little easier for the instructors to penetrate the inferno of sound like so many people can create J.
Lesson 2 was a pure kata lesson, which meant that some were training kata for the first time while others were given time and opportunity to immerse themselves in the kata they would later show at the graduation ceremony that followed the event.
After the joint picture, where the camera really worked overtime to capture all the people, which is also a tradition, it was time for the highlight for many - Graduation. But before that, the participants at the TSM camp the day before had prepared a small demonstration, which was performed by the total of 4 teams, and had to show the theme of their camp, which also involved POMW, which you can read a lot more about here on the website.
There were a lot of people who had to go to graduation, so in itself it is a big task to undertake, which Jens Hanshi-dai with Kimu Sensei as chief judge managed for UG.
As always, the graduation took place in teams, so that you in TG groups support each other and have to show the same techniques. At the end of the graduation, everyone must be on the floor for kata separation, where you are gradually eliminated if you do not know the next kata in the row from the syllabus. It was quite a sight to see 200 people perform the kata at once and see how they try to avoid bumping into each other while having to remember and perform the kata.
In addition to the regular graduation, there was also competency graduation in kotachi package 2, ken package 2 and jo-jutsu package 1. Shindenkan is a multi-track karate system, so there is also graduation in these ancient samurai disciplines, which are part of Yakami The Shinsei-ryu curriculum.
Before the official graduation ceremony had to end this year's Xmas event, there were 4 brown belts who had to go through the 5th and last stop test – the stamina/cushion test. All the participants formed a large circle in front of the podium, from which Kimu Sensei, stopwatch in hand, led the battle. The 4 brown belts did well and passed the 3 rounds with punches, kicks and combi respectively without problems, but with a lot of sweat on their foreheads J So we can congratulate Søren, Bertran, Oliver and Christian on a passed degree, you did well.
All deservedly passed their degree and many even got a little extra on top of their pixie hat in the form of three dashes or an extra degree (nice to see that old students are back at Shindenkan and haven't forgotten everything). So they could all enjoy the loud applause whenever Kimu Sensei finished a call for a group.
Sometimes it happens that a student gets a long-term injury or comes to Shindenkan to train despite a disability or chronic illness. In Shindenkan there is room for everyone and certainly also students who want to train despite being disabled. We would like to pay tribute and honor that in the form of an award such as Kohaku-Jin. So that's why Marilena Pedersen from Slagelse was called to the podium, where she was presented with the Kohaku-Jin bronze badge by her chief instructor Claus shishu. Marilena Pedersen trains despite a mens degree of 10%, which she took a long time to acknowledge because she wants, as she says, to train on equal terms with everyone else. A big congratulations to Marilena who deserves respect and honor for the will and attitude she shows every day in training, she must wear the Kohaku-Jin mark with pride.
A long day was over and with tired feet, but also with a good feeling, we bowed out and wished a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I would also like to end by wishing all Shindenkaners, their families, our supporters and friends and readers worldwide a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hope to see you at training and competitions in the new year.
