The autumn of 2019 has come in as No. 1 for the wettest autumn since 1874 and the whole of 2019 is on its way to the top 5 for the grayest and wettest year since 1874. Despite this, there were as many as 135 people registered for the Christmas gathering 2019 as was No. 52 in the series which means that the Shindenkan train is back on track by Strat23. There is always a bit of sickness and during the Christmas season also a bit of a headache after Christmas lunch, but despite this and despite the dark autumn there was a will and spirit to light the Christmas lights in all those present.

The autumn's PR campaigns in Shindenkan have been successful and the result has meant that the season's first SST convention and KataFIT course had a massive number of participants and attendance. The X-mas convention 2019 did not hold back because the line continued and there are many indications that it will continue far into the future. We have already fulfilled the Strat23 participant level for conventions which must be between 135 to 165 for the conventions, and never again the "Turkish bazaar conditions" from 2014-2016 with up to 250 on the floor and even more outside. But then we have also tried it, learned from it and it was not at all as skill-developing and fun as we thought! A meeting in Shindenkan is always prepared and thoroughly processed so that everything runs smoothly and so that all teams can very quickly change their set-up if something needs to be changed along the way. An event is learning for the participants, but to a great extent also for the teams that are put together – learning in management and learning in cooperation across the individual attitudes.

The theme for X-mas 2019 was also focused on everyone having to be part of a rescue operation which would culminate in the Christmas light being found again. Was it gone or was it turned off? It turned out that a certain and not particularly positive Elf brotherhood had hidden the light away and despite government help from various postal authorities, no one could find the Christmas light. So Shindenkan had been asked for help, which we of course agreed to, because everyone must remember that there is only one Christmas and we had to save it.

Every journey starts with the first step and the first step on this journey was about lighting our own personal light in our own center – physically, mentally and spiritually. This candle can show the way to the light of Christmas and it must be said that it was lit and it lasted all the way. It was so strong that even the sun wanted to shine over Måløv Hallen - in the spirit of Shindenkan.

X-mas rallies are always a time for good mood and a really good atmosphere. The busyness of Christmas has been put aside for a while and all the participants are there to learn and to be ready for the dark winter time. But when, like at X-mas 2019, you turn on your inner light, then winter doesn't even get so dark 🙂 In fact, the light can also show the way to the positive sides of life even if it's dark outside. Because the facts are that it's all about attitude - do you want to be controlled by darkness or do you want to be controlled by yourself and your own attitude. In Shindenkan we take responsibility for our own lives and we manage our own center with light and positivity - and why? Because we can and want to!

Before the convention itself got under way, Shindenkan's new website was presented by federation chairman Jens Hanshi-dai on behalf of the project team, which consists of SOPORG chairman and editor-in-chief, Kimu K. Bjarkmann and federation chairman and technical editor, Jens Hanshi-dai, with ad hoc support by several zealots. The new website is completely unique and front runner in all areas because it informs, enlightens and creates a good mood. The website goes against website trends to provide as little information as possible. Already there are more than 200+ A4 pages of relevant information on everything in Shindenkan and Yakami Shinsei-ryu. An innovative "Gokenin Samurai Officer" training forum, which provides a relevant foretaste of the traditional multi-track training for noble samurai officers. And service-friendly, there are also Executive Summaries 🙂 . Visually, it is incredibly beautiful and very user-friendly, so there is really something to look forward to when it is soon released before the new year 2019/2020. It was also clear that there is an incredibly large amount of work behind new information and creating a website that also takes the "old" over so that it all fits together. It has been 10-12 months in the making.

Kimu Sensei subsequently reviewed the enormous success that OBC has become.

OBC is a support structure for maintaining and developing competences over time. OBC is also a safety net if life plays tricks on you with illness, injury, divorce, death, etc. It is logical and clear that if you do not maintain and develop your multi-track skills, you will not meet the curriculum handbook for minimum requirements and the next degrees . If it is development and progression you want, as well as maintaining the value of your investment in yourself or your child, in the multi-track system of competence courses.

There is no doubt at all that OBC and the teaching directly from Kimu Sensei has been a source of inspiration of enormous dimensions and it has raised the level several belt degrees up. This can also be felt all the way out in all local schools, where the atmosphere and high spirits have risen several degrees. It has created stability and security and the intake of new students shows the same. OBC 5 and 6 have been completed this autumn and EVERYONE got an insight into something completely fantastic – namely their own center and how much you can use it for if you really want to – it doesn't get better and it is very interesting to see and feel how it is connected with powers and principles in martial arts 🙂

Many have asked for the rules and principles for OBC and Kimu Sensei also went through the whole thing with a focus on which steps you can go up and down when you either choose or opt out of OBC. All choices in life have consequences that are connected to the choice you have made. What you as people also have to think about is that a consequence does not always only apply to you, but can also affect others.

Just think if no one wanted to study medicine and no doctors were trained - then who would help all the sick? This is also the case with OBC, where an optional option helps you, but to a great extent also others, as you are thus a role model from whom other students can get advice and help - see, it is both in the spirit of Christmas and Shindenkan 🙂

For the many who have asked about the rules and principles for OBC, as an addendum to this article, a little ChristmasOBCguf has been attached - namely OBC rules and principles for a good review at Christmas so that everything is completely clear in the new year when the OBC train moves on with OBC 1-4. Look, it's a Christmas present "The Shindenkan Way".

In Shindenkan there is mutual acceptance and respect for each other, which also means that all students are looked after. That is why we also have an event doctor for each event who is 100% ready and prepared for all kinds of situations. In fact, at Shindenkan we have a medical staff that would like to contribute to almost all types of treatment and at this convention a new one was introduced to training with the heart and humility in the right place, as TEAM convention doctor (Probation) to our chief convention doctor Christian (Rheumatology, ultrasound and sports doctor) from Jokokan Copenhagen. The new specialist was Janus from Jokokan Ballerup, who is a neurophysiologist at Rigshospitalet, who would very much like to join Shindenkan's medical staff and thereby contribute his specialty to the medical world. There are several other medical specialties associated with the Shindenkan DoctorTEAM, but it is the first time in more than 8 years that a new permanent member has been admitted to the team on a trial basis.

It cannot be repeated enough, but it is completely unique that as a martial arts organization we have so many areas at our disposal in our medical staff – luckily it is extremely rare that they need their skills, but it is better to be at the forefront than at the back. This also means that everyone, without exception, feels that they are training in a safe and secure environment both locally and nationally.

The X-mas convention 2019 went through thick and thin and all lessons were connected by a thick common thread. They fought tooth and nail and no one left the event without having been pushed, inspired and completely motivated in a way that got their thoughts and mood in top gear. It was clear to feel that the participants had come to give it gas and to show who they were in a good way. Even though there is a wide spread in the belt grades at a convention, there is camaraderie and togetherness to a degree that has not been seen for many years.

A meeting is also graduation time and the floor was several times full of students from 10th kyu up to 6th kyu who all showed how good they had become. It was Shindenkan's future that showed here that where there is a will there is a way and if the way is lit by its own light, then it is completely free and ready for the future.

The first graduation skill that was on the floor was the team that had completed Ken-jutsu 1 in autumn 2019. The team consisted of both adults, JokoTeens and JokoKidz, and there was no doubt that they had really practiced. In fact, one of the participants had practiced so much and down to the smallest detail that Kimu Sensei was very impressed. He himself says that it takes a lot to impress him, but here there really was a student who came through. Evidence also shows that it only happens every 3-6 years, so he is probably right 🙂

It was Christine from Jokokan Ballerup who graduated 8th kyu at the summer meeting 2019 who had practiced to that extent and who had grasped a great many details about Ken-jutsu. Christine was not set for graduation, but because her Ken-jutsu competence during the competence graduation was so good, she was graduated 7th kyu directly on stage during this X-mas convention.

To rise in degrees like that happens very rarely and ONLY Kimu Sensei can do it - the last time was during Ken-jutsu 3 in 2014 where Adam, also from Jokokan Ballerup, was graduated 3rd kyu during the course. Adam's graduation gave him a self-esteem boost of life-changing dimensions and a belief in himself. Adam's path has gone from a problematic but fun 🙂 high school years, responsibility for the consequences of that, which has now led to him entering CBS in Copenhagen, where he now studies HA general and wants to continue with a master's degree as cand.merc.

There should be no doubt that when such a graduation happens, it happens because there is a reason for it and it is something that both Adam and Christine can be really proud of because it is a very rare event. Christine will undoubtedly also get a boost in her self-esteem and what her belief in herself will lead to, the future will show - but we are all looking forward to seeing it.

REMEMBER "You can do much more than you and others tell you!".

2019 has been a POMW year and over the summer of 2019, the instructors from Shindenkan's shooting association SDK Skyt have been preparing for POMW 2019. The POMW 2019 team is the fifth team to come through the POMW process and at the same time, POMW has also been admitted into the OBC structure . So the entire POMW 2019 course consisted of new POMW shooters as well as a group of experienced POMW shooters who all went through POMW OBC - it was pure "Living POMW" for a period of over 3 months.

The results are also then how many of the participants, both the new and the experienced, found that when you are in the center with yourself, it is much easier to stick to the process and thus also create the right results. This POMW process was of course also marked at the X-mas convention 2019, where new incredibly beautiful POMW I-III badges and POMW OBC badges were awarded to those who had completed. A POMW course is completely unique and everyone who has been through can wear their marks with pride, because it shows that they have been through something that is reserved for the few.

On Shindenkan's website you can read much more about the shooters' experiences in POMW, as everyone has contributed to passing on knowledge to the next in line through a series of articles which are peppered with pictures from the POMW courses 2019. Shindenkan has an open communication policy.

A convention in Shindenkan is where contributions are made in several ways. There is a practical theme that really makes it all work - there is a completely clear plan and common thread from Kimu Sensei which is converted into plans from the teaching team and a party and atmosphere is created from Shindenkan's Friends who bake cakes in incredibly beautiful and really good qualities. And when all this is put together, there is a guaranteed party on the very big blade 🙂

In the time after each X-mas convention, there are Christmas parties in all local schools and here there has been a lot of talk about the X-mas convention 2019. Many have noticed that the convention contained a strong calm and an incredibly strong positive energy. Many of the students who have been involved for many years thought that the X-mas event in 2019 was in the top 3 of the best events ever. Pupils who have been participating for a few years believe that it has been the best convention they have ever participated in and all without exception say that the content and atmosphere have become uniquely positive in a way that inspires and motivates. It also shows that Shindenkan has got a strong group of members who are here to train and to become fantastic. They have become a solid unit that stands together through thick and thin.

But many have also wondered what has happened and why there are no more factions. The explanation probably lies in the fact that when you are part of a multi-track martial arts system that includes armed and unarmed skills as well as personal development, you cannot be content with working with just one of several tracks. You have to go through all the tracks as they are connected.

Unfortunately, it turns out time and time again that the most difficult track is personal development, which means that you have to look at yourself and your attitude. When you then discover that your attitude is not the most conducive to others than yourself, reality emerges and you have to deal with it. There are just some people who don't want to deal with that and they fight against it with everything they have, which creates unrest and factions. Those who in the period 2015-2018 have fought the most against their own reality, resulting in unrest and negative atmosphere, are no longer in Shindenkan as a result of Strat23, which was adopted by the general assemblies locally and nationally in 2015. They have instead chosen to follow their own wishes, dreams and needs, and they must be allowed to do that in a democratic organisation. However, it should be noted that all the brown and black belts of degrees from 3.kyu to 1.dan who have chosen to leave Shindenkan, - without exception and thought-provoking ONLY from one region of Denmark, have chosen to construct and create their own local martial arts systems. Here they and their followers have chosen to reward themselves by graduating themselves and their new Grandmaster Sokér to degrees such as "Ninja Menkyo" or 7-8. dan, and where they can now act as paid instructors according to a performance pay scale.

This kind of reaction and action is very far from what Shindenkan stands for and extremely far from the spirit that is and always has been in our organization. For Shindenkan, mutual acceptance and respect for others is an important part of our values. But unfortunately it is not like that for others and it is also part of the reality that we have to deal with.

So basically you can say that with the right attitude you can make a huge difference to others and that is exactly what is felt in Shindenkan now and on the way into 2020. There is no doubt at all that 2020 will be absolutely fantastic, because with the attitude of the current members is all in the right spirit.

The X-mas convention 2019 was coming to an end and it is appropriate to express a huge thank you to Kimu Sensei for creating a season that really provides learning and inspiration on a new level. A huge thank you must also go out to all participants and spectators for turning the X-mas convention into a completely new future foundation with calmness and a really good attitude.

A very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all members and their families from the entire Shindenkan organization. The light is on, so let it show us all the way into a bright and positive future where the foundation becomes more and more solid and where the level rises to heavenly heights.

Annex 1:

What are the OBC Principles?

1. OBC is a support structure for you to maintain and develop your multi-track competences and follows the curriculum handbook for all minimum requirements for graduations from 6.kyu onwards. That is you don't have to participate in OBC under 6th kyu, but you absolutely want to! OBC makes the single-track competencies visible!
2. OBC is a support structure for you to get back to your belt degree's multi-track competence level if life has played tricks; Serious injuries and illness, divorce, death, working life and education, lost motivation, etc.
3. OBC 1-4 are the fundamental annual OBC courses which can lead to an annual certification to OBC KM1 (Shown) and OBC KM2 (Shown) visible OBC marks on his Gi. You meet the curriculum requirements up to 3rd kyu YSK and 2nd kyu BKK.
4. OBC 5 & 6, is "Elite bet for everyone, regardless of age, sex, status, pedigree and...", which can lead to an annual certification for OBC KM3 (Shown), OBC KM4 (Shown) and OBC KM5 (Shown) visible OBC marks on your Gi. You meet the curriculum requirements up to 2nd dan YSK and 4th dan BKK.
5. Regardless of the reason, if you choose to become a passive member, you retain the right to take all competence courses for 3 years with a 50 % discount. If you opt out of passive membership of Shindenkan, you are deregistered and therefore lose the right to the member discount schemes.
6. OBC is NOT an infinite support structure if you opt out of OBC for far too many years. It is logical that if you do not maintain and train a multi-track martial arts system, then you and your body forget what you once knew and your skills decline. And you don't fulfill the curriculum manual. The longer the time, the more they fall. It's all very logical.

Our recommendation – What are the advantages and disadvantages when you register or unregister from OBC?

It is clear that if you register for OBC every year, then the OBC support structure works most optimally, and you will have the opportunity for faster development, increased competence and graduation progression, if that is what you want.

But the OBC support structure is also developed to act as a support structure if life plays tricks; Serious injuries and illness, divorce, death, working life and education, lost motivation, etc. Statistically, such situations last a maximum of one year.

This means that if you deregister from OBC for a single year, the OBC support structure will ensure that you only lose this year and are not "punished unnecessarily" because life has played tricks. You lose your OBC KM mark, but can train OBC locally and regain your OBC KM mark the following season. It is a very human support system, and since you have the opportunity to train throughout your life, this opportunity can be renewed every three years.

But if you deregister OBC a second time within 3 years, you no longer meet the graduation conditions according to the curriculum handbook. The OBC support structure still works. However, since you have not received the OBC at national level, you no longer meet the national graduation and certain Honbu participation requirements according to the curriculum handbook.

You can now only train locally two OBC KM competence levels below the OBC KM you had. The reason for this is that Shindenkan looks after the members, so that you can once again meet the same minimum competence requirements that apply to everyone.

There is a very big difference between national standard and local standard and if you do not participate nationally, you will only have local standard level, which does not meet the national competence requirements and curriculum handbook.

Group OBC 1-4, The fundamentals - "Place for everyone, The elite as the exerciser in all life cycles";

Your degree is up to 3rd kyu YSK: You get one more chance. You had OBC KM3 (1 black line) and if you meet the conditions for that, you can reacquire your OBC KM3 again the following year. But if you opt out the third time, you lose two marks and the same rules apply to you as to TG4. This ONLY applies to one cycle of 3 years. Then as TG4.

Your degree is mine. 2nd kyu YSK: You had OBC KM3 (1 black line). which means that locally you are now only qualified to train OBC KM 1 to OBC KM 2, and must work your way up from there like everyone else. The first competency mark is OBC KM2 and the following year KM3 again. It can therefore affect your graduation progressions for up to 2 years!

Group OBC 5-6; "Elite betting for everyone, regardless of age, gender, status, pedigree and..."

You had OBC KM5, which means that locally you are now only qualified to train OBC KM 1 to OBC KM 3, and must work your way up from there like everyone else. This means that the first competence mark is OBC KM3. This means that you have therefore withdrawn from OBC KM4 and OBC KM5 for three years and therefore have not trained these to national competence level and therefore do not meet the conditions in the curriculum handbook for graduation progression. The only option is for you to take all the competence courses for OBC KM4 and KM5 again - at half price. As they are not offered every year, this can easily take 3-5 years.

So our advice is; Don't opt out of OBC twice!