The Spring Gasshuku was a great weekend of training in Goju ryu. The term Gasshuku is usually interpreted as a training camp. It also means boarding house and lodging together. The usually accepted idea is that we are training together “under one roof”. We spend time training but social as well. We eat and drink after training and generally get to know each other, perhaps even meeting each others families.
The weekend of training began with some preparation exercises then we began with Sanchin… Sanchin is where it all begins, the framework for the remainder of our development. We worked to refine Kata, doing each multiple times in various cadences and directions. This has the opportunity to become confusing but it serves to keep us present. We worked countless drills to further our understanding of the concepts contained within the deep style. Some of these drills were basics, meant to build our ability to do deeper bunkai (analysis of our kata). We then worked on basic bunkai of many of our kata in a couple ways, kihon and rensoku (continuous). We then went deeper into the oyo rensoku, or Taira Sensei’s versions of kata bunkai. This is often confusing and is ever changing. However he shows us the road map and gives us the tools to unpack the information that is contained with in the kata. Ganbatte kudasai!