Domo Arigato Grunwald Sensei

Last nights karate session was a bit of a surprise. (I'm still excited!)
Not that our normal training sessions are anything but brilliant every time, but this time sensei Tony had a surprise up his sleeve. He had managed to get sensei David Hooper to come and visit us and give us a training session! Even though the session as such was less physical intense than our normal sessions and sensei Hooper telling us to "slow down" and "relax" over and over again, I think we all worked as hard as ever. It is interesting how someone can have you feel so utterly crap in your execution of the karate-do, just by showing you in a mild manner how things should be performed. And I am sure sensei Hooper have a similar feeling when he does his training at his "home dojo", the JKA world centre in Tokyo, where he can practise for some of the greatest (now living) Japanese masters of Shotokan karate.

For those of you not being familiar with sensei Hooper: He moved to Japan when he was 19 to study karate and have been there for most of his grown up life. Read more here: http://www.burleighskc.com/bywayofintroduction.html a rather fascinating story.

This "surprise treat" is way up there together with the sessions I had with Assai shihan and Kato shihan maybe twenty years ago...
This time around the Japanese visitor was nicer in his judgement. Assai was not so nice to the Nordic karate collective, he told us all how important hip movement and basic stances were and how utterly crap everybody there were on that. Hooper pointed out the importance of the very basics, but didn't tell us how bad we were. Maybe he was jut being polite? I am sure sensei Tony will have some more feedback from him for us on the next session. :-)
Quite interesting the way sensei Hooper explained how your back leg should be bent in zenkutzu dachi and the similarities between zenkutzu dachi hanmi and kiba dachi. Probably very basic knowledge, but a new one to me! Also the way to turn on your heels in certain positions. That one will take quite some practise to even starting to look (and feel) right. Another good point is the importance of using your reaction arm properly when performing a technique. (What's the Japanese term for "reaction arm"?) This is beeing told over and over again, but it is always good to see a demonstration of the difference. The demonstration reminded me a bit of Bruce Lee's legendary Kung Fu six inch punch. And even if I can understand what is said, it will take years and years of practise to get it even near right.

Again: Domo arigato Grunwald sensei! And Domo arigato Hooper sensei of course!
Thanks Tony for giving us this fantastic opportunity on a normal Wednesday session! (I'm running out of exclamation marks now)