Summer Camp is coming up on June 12, 2015, and we hope that you are all signed up and ready to go. The planning team (Josh McCullars, Erik Hofmeister, Chris Mattison, and Sherrie Hines) is busy at work finalizing the schedule, and we expect that it will be our biggest and most varied camp yet. Why does the WYKKO host camps and why should you attend them? To help answer these questions, we’ve prepared a series of articles about our camps and the planning process behind them.
This is the first of this series of three articles.
World Yoshukai has been planning and hosting Winter and Summer Camps for over three decades! The current camp philosophy is that Winter Camp will be the more traditional camp and that Summer Camp is time to step outside of the box a bit and practice things that might not usually be offered in class. This year we’re excited to present a large roster of classes related to sparring and knockdown fighting. This is also the first time that we’ll be offering intermediate classes in grappling and hapkido for students who’ve taken the introductory classes at previous camps. We’re also excited to continue offering classes for parents and guests, as well as other unique classes like sabaki, yoga, wrist locking techniques, and judo throws.
After 35 years of camps, there are many reasons why people continue to come back to each one. Part of it is the camaraderie of getting to train with other students from all over the nation and getting to socialize with them afterwards. We often form strong friendships with other practitioners, and these events are a great opportunity to meet up with each other. It’s also a great opportunity to work with high-quality and high-ranking instructors. It’s also exciting to have the opportunity to meet and socialize with some of the highest-ranking members of our organization. For some, it’s the desire to support our organization through participation, which also helps ensure that when we go to black belt testing, instructors won’t find themselves asking “Who is that person? Has he ever come to a camp before?” But we hope that one of the most important reasons you’ll attend our camps is the high quality of classes and instruction offered at each camp.
We hope that when you come to a camp that you’ll walk away having learned something new, whether that’s a new technique, a new drill, or even a new method of teaching something. One of the best things about our camps is that you learn material that you can then take back to your own dojo and share with those who were not able to attend. Some dojo even strategically discuss who is going to attend what class to ensure that they have as many people attending as many different classes as possible so that they can all report back about what they’ve learned later.
For 2015, we have instituted something relatively new in determining eligibility to take a course. From now on, kyu grade students may not attend kata classes (open hand or weapons) unless they know the kata well enough to walk through it. This allows the instructors to focus on refinement, rather than having to split the class into those who have and have not learned the kata. Trying to learn a new kata in a single class is tough!
The philosophy is to encourage students to focus on refining and polishing things they have already been practicing rather than on trying to learn something totally new in a rushed setting. We’re positive you’ll learn new things at all of the camps. Even if you take a class on something like basic blocks and striking or 27 movements, you’ll learn something new and fun.
Camps give us all a chance to come together and train and make sure that we’re all on the same page. This is why recent camps have held mandatory sessions for certified instructors to make sure that all of our teachers are up to date on any changes that may have been made to the curriculum. Similarly, if you learn something at camp that’s different from what your instructor has been teaching you, that is an opportunity to begin a discussion and consult the Yoshukai handbook with your instructor. Some schools teach things differently and some aspects of our training are stylistic or aesthetic where hard and fast rules may not apply, but others are determined by Soke or the Kaicho. Your instructor will be able to help you further understand our material and advise you as to any changes that you may or may not need to make. Overall, camps help us ensure that we are all practicing our art the way Soke and Kaicho intend us to, and we look forward to training with you soon.
Osu!
Sherrie Hines, on behalf of the WYKKO Camp Planning Team
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