Over the weekend of the 3rd – 5th August, I was lucky enough to attend a Budosai to commemorate 50 years of English Karate. The event took place at the Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre in Buckinghamshire, which provided an ideal setting for training.
Teachers from Okinawa, Japan, China and Europe were invited to teach at the event, with top class teaching being provided by Higaonna Morio Sensei, Gushi Sensei (Uechi Ryu), and a team of White Crane masters from Fuzhou China.
Throughout the weekend I made a point of trying to spend as much time training with Higaonna Sensei as I could, and spent time training in Sanchin kata, body conditioning, kakie techniques and bunkai. The highlight for me was training in a small group on the banks of the river Thames, recieving in depth tuition about Tensho kata.
I love training with Higaonna Sensei, and he never fails to inspire me to try harder.
Over the course of the weekend I also got a chance to train in the Uechi Ryu version of Sanchin, and the Fuzhou White Crane version of Sanchin, and was able compare the differences, and many similarities between the three versions.
On the evening of the 4th August, there was a demonstration by the various teachers, with all three schools of Goju, Uechi and White Crane performing their versions of Sanchin at the same time, alongside each other.
There was also a wonderful demonstration of kakie by Eric Higaonna, whom I was also fortunate enough to spend some time practicing body conditioning and bunkai with.
The event was organised by Terry Wingrove Sensei who promises even better things next year!
The official site for this event can be found at http://www.cyberbudo.com - which is scheduled to be updated with a full report, and photographs from the event over the next few days.
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