It was a pleasure to welcome Martin Phillips Shihan , Sandra Phillips Shihan and members of the Sunshine Coast Chito-Ryu Karate dojo to the Gold Coast for a Brown & Black Belt training seminar. There was lots of great energy and sharing as the senior instructors shared their understandings and experience to help everyone better understand Chito-Ryu Karate technique.
For an outsider looking in it is often the question of what advanced techniques do senior karateka do at these special seminars? But for the serious karateka it is not so much about learning new advanced techniques, but more a matter of developing the basic techniques to an advanced level of understanding so that they can be applied in a broader range of applications.
The session started with kihon with Sandra Philips Sensei leading the way helping students understand how to develop more explosive effective techniques. The repetition building muscle memory and spirit as everyone pushed each other to go further and further. This was followed by a focus on kata and trying to incorporate any insights that had arisen from the kihon practice with the senior instructors observing and passing on advice were required.
The next session was led by Adam Higgins Sensei exploring applying the basic principals of seichusen (centreline) and being able to move to a strong position to attack the opponents centreline without over committing. From this position of strength the next stage was to be in an alert ready state to take advantage of the opponents next movement. The use of training knives was added for a bit more fun.
The final part of the training covered Chito-Ryu bunkai with detailed explanation of Niseishi Bunkai and Henshuho 1-28 by Martin Phillips Shihan. Each technique was expertly demonstrated in the most correct form, then with different size partners and finally some variations where hinted at for future study.
A fantastic day of training that left all attendees with a few more pieces of the karate puzzle to continue to explore. Everyone is looking forward to the next Queensland Brown & Black Belt seminar on the Sunshine Coast on June 6.
** More photos can be found on the QLD Chito-Ryu Karate Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/QLDChitoRyu
