My way back from the bench, JODEN and how cool it is with this test and trust
This year is a landmark year, as it is the 50th anniversary of Shindenkan in Denmark
Personally, it is also a defining year. I started my budo career in 1982, with sports karate. After 14 years I switched to Shindenkan in 1996 where I have been ever since. Thus, I am one of the old people in the yard.
People start karate for various reasons, and for me, it was the dream of being the Danish eastern gentleman with energy and overview and the true values, and if necessary the skills to back them up.
For reasons I myself do not fully understand, I ended up in a glorious sports career culminating with 2 x WC bronze in 1994, but with a strange "empty" feeling, after which I ended up disillusioned looking for the original idea - inner values, profit, overview .
Here fate helped, and I found Shindenkan, where, according to good old tradition, I received a suitable pat-down (from a brown belt and I was 3rd dan!), which made me realize that here I could learn something, and so it started me from the beginning on my journey.
The journey has taken me up through Yakami Shinsei-ryu's extensive curriculum, both within Ryuha (technique) and Ryugi (philosophy/attitude), and as expected, it is clearly Ryugi that is the big challenge. It's no use having even the best techniques if you don't have yourself!
And that is precisely the reason why I have been on the sidelines for 1½ years - the process of connecting the inner values with the outer world - the real world.
For it to have real value, it must be constant – all the time; even when there are only left-handed socks, traffic jams, angry people and a downturn in the world - precisely there you have to show your values and your worth.
After chewing on it, I have returned to the field in Shindenkan at full speed, which I feel at home in the local school, and in Honbu, where I have again been allowed to make a contribution through an increasing number of tasks, courses and roles in Directed by Honbu.
But most clearly it can be seen that after 6 months, I have just graduated the densho degree JODEN (4th dan Yakami Shinsei-ryu, 4th dan Sr., Bujutsu Kodosokukai, 5th dan Kodosokukai Gensei-ryu Karate-do).
So right now I feel flying and ready for anything.
And that's a good thing, because that's exactly what was planned for the X-mas SBTLUS convention – reality, raw and unsweetened straight in the face. An extended version of the OBC3 course was run the evening before it took place. Kimu Sensei as usual had a plan to hold SBTLUS, 12 hours after OBC3; because then we were already drained of a lot of resources, and then the true person behind the facade emerges.
We started with the historical perspective, where Søren Renshi conveyed Kimu Sensei's Kodosokukai Gensei Karate-do presentation very well, where parallels were drawn back 50-70 years in Kodosokukai Gensei, and 1000 years back in Yakami Shinsei-ryu.
The body was also activated with Tai-Chi followed by the essence of the Hsing-i 1 course, and on to Task Fighting 3 where Søren Renshi and I had to assist Kimu Sensei. Here, it is important to be ready to follow instructions, and to always demonstrate learning points and optimizations from Kimu Sensei's side as best as possible. We worked through the course, and realistic attacks and defenses were required, so that everyone got a good warm-up. From there it went directly to Jujutsu 3 with balance wrestling, throwing and floor combat, and everyone really got going.
ShindenFight is a combination of the courses Hsingi 1, JuJutsu 3 and TaskFight 3, and we were thus already well underway with the new ShindenFight concept, which is an optimized execution of ShindenFight, where there is less risk of injury, while all participants still learning to deal with the realities, and not one's own constructed reality.
And then there was fighting, working and sweating all the way through in the ShindenFight itself, where the fight went on with ever greater intensity, from Task Fighting 3 Randori, over Jujutsu 3 Randori to the floor fight in necklock, where you fight 100% for your "life", and all reserves were used.
The whole morning had suddenly disappeared, and I found my rye bread clappers to refuel a bit, as yesterday's hardships also began to be felt.
And thus we were then warmed up for the main attraction IKU1-3 (Instructor courses 1-3), battle against several opponents, in the role of instructor. IKU is based on the real world and what you can experience in a dojo/teaching situation, as well as the fact that as an instructor you must be a role model and lead by example.
And of course it must be tested!
And it was!
SOPORG, had been given the task of assisting in planning the content of the course, within the framework set out by Kimu Sensei, and we had worked a lot with it to be able to help make the optimal learning for everyone, which was most relevant in the local schools.
For the next 3 hours, everyone worked intensely on cases where there were one or more conflicts or challenges in the dojo that had to be resolved, while keeping the overall goal in mind. Cases were reviewed in 3 dojos at the same time in several runs with different people in the main role (Deputy Head Instructor, Team Instructor), and then the Honbu Instructors had to go one at a time to "present the optimal solution". And indeed, optimal pressure was put on us!
Each review, the effort was assessed on the points by the entire dojo team, – even KonKollegaeer on;
- Visible leadership
- Delegation and control over the situation
- Solving the task
As I said, it was a fight - kumite, and after ShindenFight earlier where the adrenaline had been running, we all knew that if you hesitate, or hold back, you're done before you start. So the atmosphere was high, and it went to the macrons within the roles they had.
Remember Shindenkan's value: "You are much better than yourself and others tell you".
So show it!…….
I am super proud of how well the majority fared and how willingly everyone absorbed the solutions that were presented, the honest and raw unsweetened character assessments of one's dojo team, and subsequently where the essence was brought out by Kimu Sensei.
And we were judged along the way, all as one, because rules apply to everyone.
The final
In the end, we Honbu instructors were sent outside the door, while Kimu Sensei instructed a "special" case for us. We had no doubt that it would put us under maximum pressure.
The situation turned out to be with 2 totally unpredictable students, you had no idea how to react, who used all the tricks that had been found during all the previous cases to bring the instructor down.
Jens Hanshi-dai had been the first on the floor, and had handled the situation well, after which Kimu Sensei had given supplementary instructions before Søren Renshi was on fire, and you could clearly see that the pressure on him had increased even more.
And then it was me. And again Kimu Sensei gave further instructions…
It was around this time that I took a few deep breaths and muttered to myself "inner values, profit, overview", and sank a lump, and then we got down to business.
I must honestly admit that I was pushed past what I thought was my limit by the 2 totally unpredictable star psychopaths, and there is no doubt that it was a match against 2 opponents. Well, it remained a mental battle, but there was so much excitement in the air that sparks flew, and my adrenaline level was maxed out.
I still hadn't fallen down during the evaluation of my efforts, and it was only afterwards that there was time to think about what had actually happened...
But I stood my ground and handled the situation
one as well as I could, so I was proud to get top marks in this test.
I think everyone agreed that it is the most educational SBTLUS so far, and I can only say for my part: How great it is to be tested, and then actually feel "inner values, overview" and maybe even profits.
Kjeld Renshi
