Saturday

Off we set for Torbay for another year of fun and training. In true Tekki tradition it was a somewhat prolonged journey, with several service station camping sessions.  We arrived to beautiful sunshine and things where looking good.  As usual everybody went shopping; always amusing to see the very high grades looking lost and confused about how supermarkets work, and begging for help from those with more stuff in their trolleys, who clearly know what they’re doing.

After waiting to see “Sammy the Sea Horse” in the club house, something everybody was excited about, the seniors went down to Torquay for the annual getting-over-excited-and-forgetting-about-the-effort-required-for-the-week-ahead night out.  A good night was had by all, and some amazing dancing was undertaken by the Dan grades in a couple of Torquay night clubs. Well that’s the way we’ll tell the story….

Sunday

After a very late start due to tiredness from partying (I don’t know, that Gloria!), a trip to Plymouth was organised for some Ice Skating and Swimming.

Ice skating looked very difficult but everybody seemed to cope very well, and by the end were demonstrating some frightening levels of speed. Deliberate? I wonder. The highlight of the day must have been Tomos sweeping Gloria off her feet, literally, and then to add insult to injury, as soon as she managed to get to her feet, she made a quick return to the floor. Just like Bambi. This was just the icing on the cake.

The swimming pool was some what riotous, what with inflatable slides and a large inflatable octopus that required some sneaky kumite moves to get onto.  The water slides saw the seniors acting like kids, with only moderate damage inflicted, and the kids acting with much more grace and style than the adults.

Monday

Monday morning at 8AM, the first training session was finally here.  As usual we arrived a good half an hour early so we could stand around, waiting and getting nervous.  The first session saw all the black belts training together under Sensei Sherry, who took the class through a series of difficult empi combinations and the kata Makieo.

The usual group photo was organised for after the 1st session.  As usual this took ages, and seemed to be somewhat overly complicated.  Sensei O’Neil appeared just in time for the photo, Sensei is very well known for his unique time keeping…

The 2nd session was with Sensei O’Neil and proved to be a very enjoyable action-packed session, with Sensei getting very involved, in his own inimitable way.

The clubhouse entertainment in the evening was a whaling cabaret performance, very much enhanced by Gloria’s vocal additions.  If Gloria ever wants to join a performing circus I’ll always be happy to give her a reference.

Sensei Terry O'Neil at Torbay 2005

Tuesday

Today was the ‘Sensei Bobs’ day.  First with Sensei Bob Poynton, who reminded all the senior grades about the importance and difference between the various punching combinations, and the relevance and importance of key issues when teaching.  The chosen kata was Sochin, which was a little hard on the legs.

The notepad and pen I had hidden in my Gi proved very useful for Sensei Bob Rhodes session, which as-usual involved combinations containing tens of moves.  One of Sensei’s strength is his ability to teach the bunkai to any move in any kata; the bunkai for the complete middle section of Sochin was very enlightening.

Tuesday night was ‘Tekki goes to the cinema’ night. This usually brings back nightmares of watching “Eight Legged Freaks”, with John & Philip commentating, combined with screaming from Sophie and Victoria.  But this year the movie was to be “Meet the Fockers”, an amusing title but an awful film, although better than the other choice of “Miss Congeniality 2”.  Obviously we raced back to be in time for Sammy the sea horse.

Wednesday

Wednesday morning, the worst day of the week: After two days of hard training the normal human is tired and aches everywhere.  Sensei Billy Higgins started with some interesting combinations and followed onto sweeps, which is fine, but getting up from the floor when everything hurts can only be described as character building.  A very uplifting session that broke the pain barrier nicely.

In-between the training sessions, the annual lecture took place. This year Sensei McClaren gave an overview of our kata’s origin, and some of the similarities between our kata’s and other styles.  Sensei Burch completed the 2nd half of the lecture by covering the cause and affect of injuries, with plenty of gruesome photos to liven up the presentation.

Sensei Frank Brennan’s session is the one that I most eagerly await, and at the same time am most apprehensive about.  This year, after some advanced hand and leg work, Sensei moved onto the hardest of all the kata’s: Unsu. It was interesting to see everybody looking so tired, it’s obviously not just me then.

There is always a sense of euphoria after the Sensei Brennan session, mainly due to the fact that you have trained with everybody, and not even Sensei Brennan was able to kill you! – anything is now possible.  With this new found super-hero enthusiasm for life, the club went to Torquay for our annual, very competitive bowling trip.  This year I managed to use brute force and aggression against the bowling alley, to narrowly beat Euros (at some point I might have rubbed in!!).  Although Marrissa, despite only being 4 foot tall, managed to beat my score and took the place as the overall winner across all lanes!

The training is starting to pay off

Thursday

Sensei Sherry gave use all an inspirational session on Thursday morning. The shear technical excellence of Sensei Sherry never ceases to amaze me.  The KUGB is very fortunate to have such an excellent karateka at its helm.  

Sensei took us through the kata Jiin. The most enjoyable aspect of Sensei’s sessions is that he always teaches with his own megaphone in the form or Sensei Brennan, who booms the instruction out to the class a couple of seconds after Sensei Sherry speaks. It’s rather like an echo.  Oh, and then there’s the demonstration of the techniques, which always looks painful, as Sensei Sherry thunders into Sensei Brennan. It’s almost tempting to make out you didn’t quite understand the move, just to see Sensei Sherry match the incredible speed of Sensei Brennan a second time (although too risky in-case you get some personal attention!).

Thursday’s second session was an interesting session from Sensei O’Neil, involving many stories, most of which weren’t exactly politically correct. But the energy and passion with which Sensei O’Neil delivers his point is admirable.  It’s good to have a real-world perspective in the DoJo, and it’s important that we senior grades are reminded that just because we have trained hard in karate for 15 years or more, it does not mean that we are truly aware of the potential dangers that might be faced in a self defence scenario.  Every year the seniors have a small bet on what new tangent Sensei O’Neil will come out with. This year I think nobody came close to guessing correctly; Sensei’s heart-felt plea for everybody to visit the toilet for a number two before every training session, must be a first.

Every year in Torbay the course includes a small kata competition, always held on the Thursday when everybody but the kids are some what too stiff to move.

Click for larger version

Congratulations to Kaori and Sarah !

Thursday night’s outing to the clubhouse was very much heightened by the humour of George, and the amazing Bingo-playing skills of Sophie, who despite getting a full score card, didn’t realise the fact that she had won until it was too late, and the £140 was taken by some holidaymaker!  Muppet.

Friday

The final session for the senior grades was taken by Sensei Poynton. This involved a full recap of the entire week, covering all the important teaching points and kata’s from the weeks training. At the end I was at the point of collapse, it’s a good job that it’s only a week long course! 

Next year I will get fit and train harder before Torbay !!!!