Written by Jens Iversen, Federation Chairman Shindenkan Denmark.
After another fantastic Shindenkan Summer Convention 2024, where there were over 80 registered participants and more than 150 spectators in the stands, it is time for the traditional "State of the Nation", where we reflect on the season's big and small events. The more than 230 participants got plenty of that during the summer convention. At Shindenkan we have always had an open communication policy, we celebrate democracy in all our member associations and it is therefore a tradition that at the summer meeting we inform all our members, families and supporters about what has happened at the annual national general meetings - and together, with joy and fighting spirit, looking forward to the coming season - and we have a fantastic season ahead of us.
Another fantastic Shindenkan season is well over and it is with great pleasure that we look back on the year that has passed since GF 2023 and it is time to evaluate the results of the many different joint activities. Because we have had a fantastic season 2023-2024 in every way.
A fantastic training season.
During the season, Shindenkan Honbu Dojo has offered super cool SB/BB training once a month and there has been inspiring OBC training or 1 and 2 in November 2023 and OBC 3 and 4 in January 2024. Three great joint conventions and in addition all the season's Honbu competence courses 100% are adapted to the needs of the members to meet Strat26/27. Last but not least, Shindenkan Honbu Dojo created a new POMW competency team 😊 POMW stands for – Project Old Modern Warrior and is one of the unique competencies in Shindenkan Honbu-dojo's curriculum. The new POMW team started in January 2024 and is very well underway with great success and will be completed in autumn 2024, after which 163 Shindenkaners have completed two or more POMW competence courses.
A great effort has been made in the local training in all schools and the instructor team has been well helped by assistant instructors and this has meant that we, together with the members, have lifted ourselves together. There is generally a lot of support for the local training in all schools and I just have to say that we have a super good team spirit and a unity that gives great training pleasure, high attendance and profit. As a new initiative, we have, throughout the season, centralized OBC competence maintenance for all schools every 14 days in Shindenkan Taijutsu Ballerup – STB and this has created a fantastic togetherness and a super good atmosphere across the schools.
Our experience that in all teams, local and national, there has been a fantastic atmosphere and dynamism and we believe that we have rediscovered the ability to attract members with the right attitude and the positive life-affirming joy that makes it fantastic to be instructors and teachers.
There have been graduations at all our joint meetings during the year: the Xmas meeting in December, the Spring meeting in March and not least the summer meeting in June. I just have to emphasize that we have never been better and had such high multi-track and single-track competences as we have now, and I am very proud of that. Because this season we had more than 150 members for graduation. We have got another super cool female multi-track black belt in our amazing Yakami Shinsei-ryu Taijutsu & Karate-do and one of our senior instructors in the Honbu dojo has obtained the degree JODEN HIDEN - which is the third highest multi-track competence degree given in Denmark since 1965 -67.
They are both role models in Shindenkan, for attitude, commitment, endurance and diversity – because you can do much more than you and others tell you! It's just Mega beautiful and I wish you a huge congratulations with it.
The annual list of members in Shindenkan Denmark.
Shindenkan Denmark is a democratic organization that consists of voluntary and unpaid democratic associations that are approved under the Public Information Act in their respective domiciled municipalities and several are also members of DGI.
In both DGI and Shindenkan Denmark, the member associations must calculate their membership numbers for the previous year each year. In DGI, it is January 31 and Shindenkan Denmark's total member count takes place every year on Wednesday in week 6, when all Shindenkan Denmark's member schools, which follow the same national model, have already submitted their annual membership numbers to the national function at DGI - membership numbers .dk.
Status of members.
Historically speaking, Shindenkan Denmark has had four monumental strategic paradigm shifts which have affected the organisation, the members and not least the competence within the organisation. Originally we came from a very elitist attitude way back in 1965/67 training the single track system BKK Gensei-ryu Karate-do and the first paradigm shift happened in 1988 when Yamana-Itotani Sensei wrote to SST which led to an invitation to SST on a DK summer training camp which would prove to be totally decisive for Shindenkan's future 😊. For the introduction in 1988, it meant that the single-track BKK Gensei-ryu Karate-do from 1965-67 was replaced by the 1,000-year-old multi-track martial art system: Yakami Shinsei-ryu Taijutsu & Karate-do, as the primary competence system in the Shindenkan.
Since the introduction in 1988, Yamana-Itotani Sensei, with a huge financial investment and hard work, has managed to pass all graduations: from 1st dan to GGM – Great Grandmaster of all the Martial Arts – both in China and Japan and there is statistical only 1 in 1,000,000 martial artists achieve this. This has led to national and international recognition of the DGI National Chairman with almost DKK 2 million. members, where Shindenkan Honbu-dojo became a special association and international main competence organization. In 2020, the main system and the Jokokan International BKK organization received society's highest recognition from the Emperor and Prime Minister of Japan through the award of "crosses, ribbons and stars". This led to significant national and international recognition and results. The large financial investment and the very hard work is the reason why Shindenkan can today offer multi-track martial arts skills at the absolute highest recognized international level - in Denmark.
The second paradigm shift occurred in 2000, when the width was opened up, and thus two tracks; original track and track width. This led to an explosive increase in membership of 1,400 % in 9 years and 3,000 % in 15 years.
The third paradigm shift occurred in 2009 when the democratic general assembly in Shindenkan Denmark decided to make a paradigm shift towards a focus on more breadth than elite. The start of the fourth paradigm shift actually came already in 2015, together with the explosive increase in membership. The general meetings already recognized at the time that the continued explosive increase in membership - would cause the number of members to rise to between 2,500-3,000 members in 2018 and that this would not be without major consequences for both the level of competence and unity and would entail major managerial challenges in the voluntary and unpaid association work.
The fourth paradigm shift was officially finally decided in 2018, when we, the democratic general assembly in Shindenkan Denmark, decided to make a paradigm shift towards greater balance between the elite and the general public. Fortunately, democracy won at the general meetings, after some open and major exchanges and "battles". But Shindenkan's set of values, objectives, statutes, guidelines and not least the joint curriculum manual from 2009, which applies to everyone, we came out on the other side in the light. That decision emphasizes that Shindenkan IS value-based and the purpose from 1965-67 must be respected.
As can be clearly seen from the graphic above the membership numbers, the last two very different paradigms have a great influence on, not only how many members there are in Shindenkan Denmark - but just as much on our attitude as members, how much Shindenkan's value set means to us and how much we want to be in charge of our own lives 😊.
In the Shindenkan organisation, we have therefore started a process of change for the future - and change often starts with members leaving us, as has happened both during the clean-up which actually started in 2015, over the paradigm shift in 2018, and with all the adversity which the Corona pandemic created and only ended in 2022!
We are very proud of those who make up the core of Shindenkan right now, because we have just completed another fantastic summer convention, with both Kotachi competency graduations and with OBC certifications, Kyu graduations, brown belt graduations, black belt graduations and not least a high black belt Densho graduation level – Joden Hiden😊
The status in 2024 is that Shindenkan Denmark has stabilized the membership level after the strategic paradigm shift in 2018 and the subsequent clean-up. We are thus ready for a maximum membership increase of up to 10-20 %.
In Shindenkan Denmark's board, we are very grateful for the support that all our members have given to the operation of all our local Jokokan and Taijutsu schools throughout the season. We stand in 2024 with a very stable core and once again Shindenkan's Summer Meeting has proven that competence has never been as high in Shindenkan as it is right now and I am proud of what we have done - of all our initiatives, our fighting spirit and the reception and support we have and we will do it again and again.
Members in the coming season
Shindenkan Denmark wants all our member associations to be made up of wonderful people, children, teenagers and adults who want to be part of our fantastic training community and who embrace and spread our value set - Yes, that is our goal.
But in order to achieve a goal, we must work continuously and communicate over a common platform which is our system and what shows us off in the very best way, that is when we train and practice Yakami Shinsei-ryu Taijutsu and Karate-do 😊
We made a huge joint effort from the start of the season in August 2023 across all schools - but we have to admit that despite the excellent rates throughout the year, we have not got as many new members as we would have liked - but we are doing well way 😊
However, we have been challenged with the retention of teenagers, but the season is over now, but we can still manage to get more new members - there are still potential new members who have to go to trial lessons in all schools and it's really cool so late in the season 😊
The National General Assemblies.
We are proud that all local and national general meetings were again held on time, which thus became a victory for democracy and normality in Shindenkan.
This could be done because all members of the representative body were out collecting proxies in the respective local associations - so that all the formalities of the general meetings could be observed. We carried out all general meetings perfectly according to the applicable rules and guidelines, the budgets were adopted and all plans can and will be implemented / realized in 2024 / 2025.
The Shindenkan organization consists of Jokokan Honbu-dojo Lejre (SDCC – Shindenkan Development & Competence Center) and Shindenkan Denmark. The day-to-day operational management consists of SOPORG - which builds a bridge between system and policy.
The democracy in Shindenkan, the organization and the member schools' support for maintaining democracy means that we are a very harmonious and well-run organization - where cooperation and STRAT26/27 are the focus.
The purpose of Shindenkan Denmark's board is to create cooperation, a larger economy and the board positions have now been added so that all member schools are represented by locally rooted members and work is underway to create a more secure financial foundation for the future and this means that there is a joint plan for the coming season and create a foundation for the coming years.
The presentation of the accounts was carried out at the ordinary general meeting in June and thus, according to custom, after the completion of all local Shindenkan associations' annual general meetings in May, the national general meetings for respectively Shindenkan Danmark connected and Shindenkan Honbu (JHLE), could be run with input and election of delegates from the local schools, so that the work and knowledge that has been in the old season can lay the foundations for the new season.
New members 😊
We will of course have more new members in the coming year and we again need your help. So if you know someone who would like to try our fantastic training, pay attention to our newsletters. Because as soon as it is possible to train together again, we need your help! So feel free to spread the word that everyone who wants to is welcome - We are accepting new members from 14 August 2024.
Reach out to people both near and far! It takes so little - but it means so much to all of us that something is done. We need you all to help hold on to the old members - most just need a friendly gesture and to feel that we are thinking of them and want to train with them. Take care of each other.
The last seasons have shown that positive friendly recommendations from all our existing happy and whole members about our community and multi-track martial arts - attract many old members who have come back and strengthen the attraction of new members.
The word of mouth recommendation from our existing members is the strongest and most genuine attraction we have and we believe it will also help actively before, during and after the Corona pandemic.
It is a fantastic summer now in Denmark and the sun is shining from a cloudless blue sky, the days have become longer and my heart feels an increasing light of joy. I look forward to the upcoming season with ALL of you.
Spread the messages
- If you want to be strong for a single day - you can always buy a black belt 😊
- If you want to be strong for a single month - watch the martial arts video on YouTube 😊
- If you want to be strong for 6 months - train your Kumite for 6 months
- If you want to be strong for 1 year – train your technique through the schooled approach for a year.
- If you want to be strong all your life - then train based on values - so YOU know who YOU are!
Come and join the coolest leisure activity there is - exercise with your children, your partner, brother or sister
Shindenkan - Train the Good Values - It's Common Sense!
In Shindenkan, we train the Good values - because it is common sense! Because Yakami Shinsei-Ryu is a multi-track martial arts system that trains your body, mind and spirit with 1000 years of knowledge, experience and good values that are universal and will help you find out who you are!
