Last weekend my dojo hosted our style’s annual national gasshuku.
Now, most of you don’t know what a gasshuku is, so here’s the definition: Gasshuku – “special training.”
A gasshuku is a special training camp where students from all over the country get together to train, usually with the style head present if it is a national gasshuku.
To me personally a gasshuku is much more than just training. You should train every day anyway!
To me, a gasshuku is an opportunity to spend alone time (also called “face time”) with my Sensei. During this “face time” my Sensei will tell me where I make mistakes but also where I do well.
These sessions usually don’t take place on the training floor but rather in the comfort of my home (or his home, depending on where the gasshuku is held) where we will talk till the early hours of the next day.
During these sessions the conversation can range from technical aspects of karate to the latest gossip from Okinawa and needless to say, I make a lot of coffee then. My Sensei loves coffee!
Another fun aspect of a gasshuku is meeting up with old friends.
Over the years of sweating (and sometimes bleeding) together on the dojo floor, a certain bond, stronger than mere friendship, has developed between me and other members of our organization.
We are like brothers in karate.
The main purpose of a national gasshuku though is to ensure a uniform technical standard of karate between members of the same organization.
During these sessions the style head will make sure that all the dojo heads perform all aspects of the style in a certain prescribed manner. This will ensure uniformity in the teaching of that style.
We had a lot of fun training and also learned a lot. I also received a beautiful gift from Okinawa. All in all an awesome weekend!
