Taskfighting, it's all about beating the crap out of each other!! And you can't use it for anything out in the real world That was my first thought about this course, I was on my way to early Saturday morning, but those thoughts were put to shame later in the day.

The course started with Keld Renshi-dai and Brian Renshi-dai talking about their karate background. I was quite surprised that in another branch of karate you just had to learn a new kata to pass the 3rd dan degree, and I thought to myself that I'm glad I chose Shindenkan instead of sport karate. Keld Renshi-dai and Brian Renshi-dai told us to be open-minded and not limit ourselves. They also talked about the exerciser and the elite athlete, about the attitude of the exerciser who comes to training to stay active and has a relaxed relationship around fighting, what degree one currently has and about the elite athlete who is constantly looking for more knowledge, more ways to develop as a karate practitioner, as a person and their attitude to combat.

After a good half hour, it was time to get into the hall and train on what we had just heard a lecture about. First we had to train with a pillow, where we just had to mark on the pillow, which can be difficult when you are used to having to push through with pillow training. We were told that the distance that the pillow has was the distance we had to keep at all times. So that no one gets hurt and it's about using your technique, technique to keep a distance of 10 cm, it can't be that difficult! But we became wiser because it is difficult to keep a distance if you don't use your technique correctly, because if I don't use my technique I come out like a rhinoceros gone mad and my opponent can easily read what I do and find a counter to that. And in a real fight I only have one chance or I'm the one who loses. So technique is the alpha and omega so that we can be at the right distance to our opponent and perhaps be the one who does not lose.

This course was much more than I thought it was, because without the right technique, we cannot use the things we learn in the dojo, without the right attitude we are doomed to fail. If the timing of the various parades does not come at the right time, our parades would be of no use and the possibility of a counter attack is not present. That way rule number one can't be observed (rule number one, avoid getting hit) That's probably the three things I learned this Saturday and I'm looking forward to exploring task fighting 2 in 2 weeks