Then the 2018-2019 season started with a bang. The season started in continuation of where last season ended, namely with OBC 5 and the upcoming OBC 6. That is. the cycle was turned 180 degrees and the reason for this is i.a. that the content of OBC 5 and 6 must be the basis for the rest of the season.

OBC is a success in several ways. The participants now see the connection between the various skills and the entirety of Yakami Shinsei-ryu being created. At the same time, there are also links to the next steps in the Yakami-ryu Taijutsu system. That is a spiral has been created that goes upwards and that everyone can follow if they want. The OBC courses are also a success in creating a link between the participants and all the instructors, not least Kimu Sensei.

There will now be an opportunity for Kimu Sensei to get to know the participants and the participants to get to know Kimu Sensei as a martial art grandmaster. There is also the fantastic opportunity in OBC, namely to get to know Kimu Sensei as the person he is and not as the person he is not - i.e. you see and learn reality as it is instead of living with an assumption or prejudice. Kimu Sensei is one of the world's most skilled and well-educated martial arts grandmasters, and in that is also the fact that he is a human being like the rest of us. You cannot become a martial arts grandmaster if you are not a human being with everything that goes with it 🙂

The content of OBC 5 is the skills Ken-jutsu 3, Iai-jutsu 1 and not least Jo-jutsu 1. All weapon skills which are part of the core skills in Yakami Shinsei-ryu Karate and not least Yakami-ryu Taijutsu. Kimu Sensei set the stage for OBC 5 by reviewing the presentation from the Jo-jutsu course. "From what you have experience with now, to what you will have experience with in the future". The Jo-jutsu course is the unifying one for Yakami Shinsei-ryu Karate-do and all the multi-track skills up to the Jo-jutsu course and it is also the preparatory course for the other two skills in OBC 5, namely Ken-jutsu 3 and Iai-jutsu 1. The reason for this is that Jo-jutsu reveals and improves your basis, clarifies the things that we have not yet understood and prepares us for new courses.

Kimu Sensei opened the Ryuha session in the dojo by telling the participants that he had set the ambition level sky high for the season. We will start with 100%! If we start with 50% or 80%, we do not have the optimal starting point or if we are physically out of balance, we also lose the balance in mind and spirit. So the focal point of this OBC season is therefore the Etiquette.

Kimu Sensei said that when he graduates the higher master and grandmaster degrees in the Far East, he only needs to see the Etiquette, then he can immediately see what degree they have, what they have understood and what they have not understood. At that time, the participants could well figure out that etiquette was not just something that had to be overcome. Now the focus came on something that everyone thought "just" was something that had to be done with - but it is not etiquette at all.

Etiquette is essential training in being ready from the first moment - THEREFORE, training etiquette is something that must be taken VERY seriously. You may have to ask yourself if you want to be maximally prepared before you have to fight for your life - the answer is probably simple - YES - of course you want to! The purpose of the Label is precisely to get 100% ready, i.e. to do everything possible to align one's body, mind and spirit - Create union of chi-power, will-power and jugement-power - and connect to Ten (Heaven - divine - the great computer), connect to Chi (Earth - Grounding) and collect it in Jin (Human - Chi power) so that through this collection you become your own "power center" or work of art.

Wow, what a word that was - work of art. Shouldn't we eat some bread now? Yes, if it tastes good, but all people are works of art; it is simply up to the individual person to become their very own work of art by utilizing their full potential. This is also why the OBC is a success, because here all the participants have the opportunity to see a work of art that has just been created by utilizing its full potential to martial arts grandmaster level. And as Kimu Sensei repeated several times during OBC 5, it is something that everyone can do if they want and dare, even if the statistics say 1 out of 1,000,000 practitioners 🙂 . But it could be you!.

As mentioned, the content of OBC 5 is the competencies Ken-jutsu 3, Iai-jutsu 1 and Jo-jutsu 1 where etiquette is a very important part. It was therefore also the etiquette that was reviewed during the entire 4.5 hour course. You would think that etiquette was simple, and it can be when you know exactly how it is done, because then it is integrated in you as a person - what makes it difficult is ourselves as people - this has also been made clear during the POMW courses and in the performance of KataFit. To that extent, it is about attitude and how you use your attitude to create your own work of art.

OBC 5 was the start of the season and will be followed by OBC 6 where reality comes closer. Now it will be exciting to see if our own works of art are shaped and made more beautiful or if they remain in their current form - it is entirely up to the individual and their instructors - art can be a matter of taste and you can discuss what is good taste and what is bad taste.

But art is also a matter of attitude and in Shindenkan it is the attitude that is decisive for whether you want to be a martial art or a martial art. Both works of art are good, it's just up to the individual whether you want to see the work of art from the outside in or if you want to see it from the inside out - or does the art actually go both ways - you can see the answer to that through the OBC courses, so on revisiting OBC 6 and the subsequent OBC 4-1.