Nishido Summer Camp 2011
Friday evening promised a rainy, wet arrival at Debden campsite and for those who made it and braved the elements, it didn't disappoint!
Thanks to Brian and his log burner, several of us managed to stay up later than was sensible.
Due to the weather, Saturday training started later than usual, but we still managed three sessions before lunch covering all the basic elements of our syllabus.
By now the sun was out and warming things up. The ground was drying and we were almost all barefoot (some of us since the start!)
Later in the afternoon, the arrival of Sensei's Keith, Ron and David set us up for the final session of the day, learning jyu-jitsu techniques and watching them demonstrated on Sensei Dave (they hurt, but I like it.... really!)
The traditional evening rounders match followed whilst Sensei Dave built the fire.... and what a fire it was! the biggest ever thanks to the numerous wood contributions. Many thanks to David M, Graham, Alan, Jon and Keith for adding to the wood stock. The barbeque around the fire was a great get together, further proving what a fantastic karate family we have. Many thanks to Twig for his rendition of jokes late around the camp fire.
After the late finish on Saturday and many tired bodies, Sunday was a glorious sunny morning and the kata session flew past until it was time to get our old gear on for the mud run.... and after all that rain it was surely going to be a proper mud run!
There are lots of pictures in the gallery, hopefully everybody appears at least once in some state of mud covering. The final mud crawl was fun, some students wanted to be covered head to foot (Michael, Anand, John) but every student went along with it. The younger students showed a lot of spirit in the mud, obviously some of you like getting your clothes covered in mud for your Mum and Dad to wash....
The temperature soared in the afternoon - it was very hot! and as there is no shade out on the field, a grading was not possible, so after a final short Karate session in Gi's the course finished.... for almost everybody......
............apart from two Dan grade (black belt) candidates, Anthony and Anand.
Dan grade students have to be made of strong stuff (so do the grading panel, staying out there in the sun!) so that went ahead as planned.
After a very strong performance from both students, I was proud to promote both Anthony and Anand to 1st Dan.
Finally I would like to thank everybody who came along and made it such a good weekend, with a special mention for the parents who are just as much a part of the camp as the students.
After all, without all of you there would be no camp.
I have already been asked if there will be a repeat next year, so of course there will!
Thanks again,
Sensei Dave