By Claus Hansen, Member until 2017
It was time for the last camp in 2012, this year's Christmas camp. For many, this is probably a very special camp, also for me, as it is in the "dark" and cold time.
The Christmas camp is something special because it takes place during the busy time of year when everyone is preparing for Christmas.
This year, there were again over 220 registered for this party day. We instructors and assistant instructors at Honbu had to make sure that everyone had a fantastic day with a focus on learning optimally from the start. As always, Kimu sensei has outlined the framework and it is up to the honbu instructors to fill in the framework.
However, before the camp could start, we who were invited and who had chosen to participate in this year's SBTLUS camp had to go through this training.
SBTLUS stands for Black Belt Training Leader Development Seminar. This seminar typically extends from Friday afternoon to Saturday evening, when the Christmas camp ends. In total approx. 26 hours of training, only interrupted by a few hours of sleep between Friday and Saturday. At this camp, 14 brown and black belts were to participate. Whoa wasn't that a black belt camp?. After all, all brown belts with the 2nd kyu degree and above are invited to participate in SBTLUS, as in single track systems these would have a black belt.
So what does SBTLUS aim for? Yes, it is leadership development. After all, Shindenkan is about empowerment. This means that you must be able to lead yourself before you can lead others. And this is what SBTLUS is all about. Like all other years, it also focuses on actual training. This year sensei had chosen to focus on koryu naihanchi. He had planned for us to learn the first 2. In the "old days" it was the first katas that were learned. Everyone had of course seen and practiced the 2 katas before the camp. However, it is one thing to know the movements in a kata, which many students will probably nod to recognize. It is quite another thing to understand it and to execute it. I also had to recognize this with the koryu kata. I knew the moves, or I thought I did.
It was therefore really cool that we were led through the movements and participants of the kata under expert guidance and supervision. The essence of these katas is "one stroke, one kill". The movements must be fluid and powerful. And it is not easy when you are well advanced in years, which some of us were at this training. Since I wasn't the oldest, I couldn't really use this excuse, so there was nothing to do but squeeze the balls myself and learn it. Which also succeeded very well at times and it is the successes that you have to build on and the mistakes that you have to learn from.
Since Sensei could see that several of us had difficulty loosening up and were afraid of losing control, he chose to do some exercises with us to get us to loosen up. Without going into details, you can say that sensei has a good sense of humor and it may well be that we looked pretty "crazy" to someone who didn't understand, but it was pretty funny and the participants had a good laugh. And there's nothing like laughter to loosen things up.
Loosened like this, we continued with training and after a few hours we were about to have caught it. Now it was also time for the next part of the camp.
An SBTLUS camp also consists of Ryha (practical) and Ryugi (theory) training. The kata was the practical training, now it was time for ryugi training.
For ryugi training, sensei had prepared a task for him. For this task we were divided into groups and each group had to discuss and decide on their task, as well as make a presentation on a slide with the result of their discussion. For this and to eat, we had a few hours before this had to be delivered. After this we had free time. However, no one drove before time, as everyone wanted to make the most of the time. As honbu assistant instructor, I and my team colleagues had to go through Saturday's teaching of the participants at the Christmas camp.
When the evening had passed, everyone went home or to colleagues to get some sleep and be fresh for Saturday's camp. Fortunately, I didn't have to drive that far this year, as I had been given accommodation not too far from the training site. Unfortunately, the 2 colleagues I spent the night with were very talkative. It was therefore rather late before we went to bed. We were therefore slightly sleep-drunk early Saturday morning when we arrived for today's training. However, no more than that it could be cured with a few cups of coffee :-).
The day started with ryugi training. Sensei had previously asked people to send him questions they were burning with. The morning's ryugi training consisted of answering, explaining and elaborating on these questions. Where is the shindenkan going, where will we be in 10 years, What do I have to do to become a menkyo, etc.
After this ryugi training we went down to the dojo to continue training from Friday. After about an hour it was time to prepare the camp.
Chairs had to be set up for spectators and relatives as well as a podium and a number of other details had to be prepared before the students arrived. Fortunately, everyone is well within the routines so it was done within an hour.
When we were ready to receive 220+ students for this year's Christmas camp, we could sit down. Sit down but don't relax. As honbu instructors and assistant instructors, the last details must be ironed out at the instructor meeting before the camp. Repetition of who does what and when. Finally, a little pep talk from sensei and the camp can start.
And we had our hands full with 220+ participants and 7 instructors and assistant instructors plus sensei makes it almost 30 students each.
With high spirits and a good atmosphere, almost 3 hours of training was carried out for 220 students so that they were ready for the subsequent graduation. There were lots of challenges along the way, all camps have their challenges. Someone puts you to the test as an instructor, it's part of the training. For the students it is a camp, for the instructors it is also a learning process, training and teaching. You have to be on all the time, that's why it's called SBTLUS lasts 26 hours.
When the training and joint picture were over, the graduation had to start. This is the time many students look forward to, so do instructors.
I look forward to this time, perhaps more than my students do. This is where what you as an instructor have taught and tried to teach your students will show. I am happy for them when things are going well and think there is something to work on if students do poorly.
Fortunately, this camp went very well and many students got what they were looking for. Some got more because they did really well and because they reflected the value set that we try to promote in Shindenkan. All in all, it had been a good camp with a good atmosphere, which must be said to be worthy of the shindenkan.
