By Jokokan Honbu
With 125 active participants on the floor and approximately the same number of supporters on the benches, it was planned to be a blast of a summer camp in the lovely sunny weather.
For 10 instructors, this was also the end of a longer graduation process, which had started on 7 June 2007. Totally exhausted, they now had to mobilize the last cancer reserves and distribute for teaching purposes their non-existent profits, to all the expectant Jokocans aged 6 to 63 years of age and of both sexes with an equal distribution.
As usual, Kimu Sensei had planned the whole process in the smallest detail, coordinated and passed on the whole process to the activity committee and the instructors, so that all the cogs were ready and well-oiled to make a worthy and spectacular end to the season. A season which offered a tally with now 550 Jokokaners in the Jokokan organization, divided by 350 in JDK (Confederation) and 200 in JHo (Honbu), as well as students with degrees from 10.kyu to 9.dan, who would now like to be crowned with new higher degrees after summer camp and graduation course.
The summer camp and the graduation course are separate from each other. First, all the participants must go through targeted curriculum training precisely for their next degree, where all degree teams rotate every half hour to a new curriculum part selected in advance by Kimu Sensei with input from all Jokokan's chief instructors. The content is also closely related to the subsequent "Sign off" or part-graduations in the curriculum from 5.kyu and up, where all participating students from 5.kyu can get their "part graduation hack" towards the next belt during a graduation course, together with fully committed students.
In this way, everyone is trained and used to standing in the "spotlight" and performing, - exercising their best skills without the worst nerves and the famous clap that goes down. The intention of this is also that Jokokaners can actively use this experience and adaptation outside Jokokan, be it working life, socially or other relevant contexts.
In Jokokan, it is important that there IS an existing connection inside and outside the dojo (training hall) – the full circle.
After all the rotation courses in the curriculum had been completed, preparations were made for the traditional joint photo shoot with all participants at the summer camp. An image that has a good chance of ending up in the world's leading Budo and Bujutsu magazine, the Japanese but worldwide "HIDEN magazine" in the near future.
As something new, Kimu Sensei had redistributed the roles during the graduation process.
First, the entire summer camp was a long graduation process, with Kimu Sensei going around among all the grade groups and making his notes. From normal 4.kyu along with some comments, however, two 10.kyu, a 7.kyu and a 5.kyu caught his attention, which meant that these were subsequently graduated even though these were not recommended by their chief instructor due to lack of teaching hours.
But under these circumstances, Kimu Sensei has the privilege of overriding normal graduation processes if students meet the curriculum requirements, which he sometimes does according to the motto "Either you are good enough or you are not - You will be graduated when you meet the requirements".
The graduation judge during the graduation process was the normal graduation leader, Jens Kyoshi, 5th dan Sr. with a new graduation manager on the floor, Søren Greve Shíshú, 2nd dan. The graduation judge had received Kimu Sensei's notes and evaluations, which were worked on during the entire graduation process with approx. 110 selected graduates in spe. The well-planned graduation course had to be completed within 1½ hours.
Meanwhile, the instructors went through their final pass/fail and full evaluation process together with Kimu Sensei. First with the entire graduation process since June 7, then their thesis and finally the final "grade".
The final graduation was one long celebration, as Jokokan received both new students in the 10.kyu – 4.kyu and 3-1.kyu group, as well as new 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 6th dan black belts .
Another fabulous cannon year for Jokokan in Scandinavia – The land of the Vikings!.
To all of our now average 25,000-30,000 monthly website visitors worldwide, we say a BIG thank you for following and supporting us on our website, and to all of you who have loyally and actively supported Jokokan's members, a big THANK YOU - finally WELCOME BACK TO YOU ALL AND ANOTHER SPECTACULAR SEASON!
