So the two week training intensive is at an end. I would highly recommend doing next year’s intensive to anyone looking to give their karate a turbo boost.

I would first like to thank and show my appreciation to Sensei Martin and Sensei Sandra for not only guiding and pushing me through the training intensive, but also sharing their immense knowledge and impeccable advice for the last few years. They have made karate enjoyable and personally rewarding for me, and I couldn’t imagine having a better pair to teach me.

My fellow scholarship compadres, Selina and Klaudia, you have impressed me both so much. When I heard Selina was going for the scholarship I was very happy to have her along for the ride. I feel we get along quite well and she is always eager to improve her karate, and I try to help her where I can. I believe Selina has gone above and beyond during her training intensive schedule, putting in a huge amount of effort I have not seen from her before. Keep up the awesome levels of dedication and you will go far.

Klaudia is a machine. I believe she attended every class available during the day and night, which can be up to five hours a day. When I would do the speed training during the evening class, Klaudia was beating me in speed by a fair margin and she had already done two hours of intense training. You cannot fault Klaudia’s attitude towards her karate. She is always engaged and ready to learn, thinking of ways to improve and leads by great example.

The three scholarship contenders; Klaudia, Selina and Sam.

To everyone that I trained with over the last two weeks, you are what gives me my drive and energy. I really believe we benefit from the people around us, we can share the energy to help push through whatever obstacle comes before us. Thank you to all that I have had the pleasure of training with, it is a great community we have in the dojo and I am very grateful for it.

You never stop learning from Karate. Something you have been doing for years can change quite dramatically from a relatively small lesson learned. I have taken a lot of small lessons from this two week intensive. One is such a small change, but has me changing my habit of years. When using the hips to generate the power of the punch I have always pushed with my front hip, now I need to concentrate on pulling back with my other hip. It seems like such a small change, but every small improvement and tweak carves out a better you. It is about refining and removing unnecessary parts that will make your karate better and ready for the next small adjustment.

The next step is working towards Soke Cup in Japan this August. This is the International Chito-ryu Championship Tournament held every three years. Unfortunately last year it was postponed due to some devastating earthquakes near Kumamoto where the tournament was taking place. If I qualify for the training scholarship I will head over to Japan for training at the Sohonbu a couple of weeks before the tournament to train with Soke Sensei. Everyone going for the scholarship is most deserving and the best of luck to Klaudia and Selina – great job guys!