Gibraltar represented at gasshaku

Recently the Japan Karate Association held a gasshaku (training camp) in the K2 sports facility Crawley, literally 5 miles from Gatwick airport. Organised by JKA (England) the three day seminar was attended by almost 300 students (karate-ka) from around the world.
The three instructors, Sensei’s Yoshi Ohta 7th dan based in London, Kazuaki Kurihara 6th dan a former world champion and Ryosuke Shimizu 6th dan both instructors at the JKA HQ in Tokyo.
Gibraltar was represented by Frankie Hatton and Paul Crudgington along with regular Gibraltar visitor/businessman Norman Benn from London.
The rest of the world was also in attendance with students from the UK, Japan, Spain, Uruguay, France, Germany, Holland, Portugal, Italy and Finland to name just a few. Most students are from one particular style shotokan karate but there are others who also attend for the cross training to improve and develop their overall skills.
Each lesson was 3 hours long divided into two 90 minutes sessions this was a formidable ask for anyone but no one has to attend the full sessions and there are water breaks. Although on day one the senior class didn’t get one until the end of the first session which is the old way. The instructors moved after each session teaching each group at least twice overall. Beginners and children, then young students and adults up to 1st dan and finally 2nd dan and above. All three groups were then given a choice of which lesson they wanted for the second session as the classes focussed on kata (forms) and kumite (sparring) both of which are equally tiring and complicated especially to older memories when it comes to remembering the kata.
Three days and 9 hours later there were some people needing a hot bath and a beer or water or both. As always on these courses you meet friends from other courses attended and new ones too. The training is done with a smile, respect and an apology especially if you hit someone a little too hard. But hey, that’s training and none of us lost a tooth!