Saturday morning came too soon. Getting up at 3:30 am is definitely not an easy task for anyone, no matter how disciplined they may be. Taking a quick shower to wake up, I grabbed the rest of my gear for my short trek to Appleton to meet up with Sensei for 4:30 am. Today we will drive through 3 states to get to Indiana for the International Shuri Ryu Association Kobudo Training in Fort Wayne which was hosted by Hanshi Robert Bowles, 10th Dan in the Shuri Ryu System.
Sensei and I had 6 hours to get to know each other, for anyone who knows me, I can be quite the conversationalist, I’m pretty confident Sensei was not bored for our 6 hours there and back. We laughed and we joked, we talked about life, our children, his work, my family, martial arts, pretty much everything under the sun. He even took a small detour into Chicago to Ontario Street just to let me say I’ve been in Chicago. We continued our trek and finally reached our destination with only a few minutes to spare, time to dawn our gi and get into the ball room for our 5 hours of training.
We worked the Ecru, which looks much like a paddle. Traditionally this was used as a paddle for the fishermen of Okinawa. If you can envision post world war, where all weapons were taken from the countrymen, they used whatever they used in their typical lives and turned it into a weapon. This paddle was a common sight for the little Ryu Kyu Islands since many of the men fished to add food to their tables. Looking at my fellow students holding onto these paddles I was actually able to imagine our Kobudo forefathers as they set out for their days on the ocean finding food. The Kata we were taught had a very long Japanese name, which I will get Sensei to tell me after. We worked it in segments, Hanshi teaching us, us performing, starting over, adding more, and starting over, we did this over and over and over, until the kata was completed. Definitely gives me so much respect for all Kobudo martial artists. We worked this kata for an hour and a half. Over and over, technique after technique being applied. Once we had it completed. Hanshi wanted all of us to perform it with his count, and letting us know that we were about to make history. He was shooting footage for his 2nd DVD coming out on Kobudo kata. So all in unison on his count, we executed the precision moves he had just taught us, knowing we had to perform as perfect as we could because we would be in his video.
After a short break, we started working the sai, the three pronged sword. Hanshi Bowles was consulting with his two assistant Chief Instructors, Glenn Wallace and Mr. Sheraton (these two individuals are wearing the white and red belts in the pictures and have trained along side Hanshi for well over 25 years) in the meantime, we did our practice drills, Tae Kyo Kyu No Sai with low blocks, mid blocks and high blocks, over and over and over. We also did some practice with the sai, on the four levels, which are standing, kneeling, sitting and laying down on the floor, having to keep the sai moving and executing blocks and strikes and continuously moving as if you were defending against an attacker… I wish I had video taped this section because to the observer must have seemed comical. All seminar participants executing blocks and strikes and as Hanshi hit his sai together to make a tinging sound we moved to the next level. Always blocking, evading, and striking. TING.. next level, to our knees, moving from knee to knee, then TING… sitting on our butts, moving and still striking with our sai, then TING, laying on our backs, squirming away from our imaginary opponents, always defending, then TING, back to our butts maneuvering away from our opponents, hitting and striking, blocking, always manipulating our sai to make it look good for Hanshi, TING, back to our knees, crawl walking and executing blocks, and then finally TING back to our feet… walking, evading and dodging, always working our sai. At this point, we were exhausted. Then we sat as Hanshi illustrated the kata we were to learn. I will get the exact spelling of this ancient form from Sensei. After demonstrating the kata for us, we all stared with mouths agape. That was the longest sai form I’ve ever seen in my whole history in the martial arts. Very overwhelmed we all started the first segments, Over and over we practiced just like the ecru, teaching us a segment, practicing the segment, adding more, starting from the beginning putting it all together, teaching, practicing, adding to beginning, this lasted for over an hour. During this hour my body was really rebelling, lack of sleep, sitting in a car for 6 hours, not eating anything, my blood sugar dropped drastically. The floor started to pulsate in my eyes. I was experiencing ringing in my ears, and on the verge of fainting from the heat that was generated in the ball room. In the martial arts you always want to work to your very peak, always striving for perfection, always trying to prove your endurance, but many martial artists lose touch with that and don’t listen to their bodies and hurt themselves in the process. I’m a very proud person, always wanting to appear stronger than what I am, but I knew that if I didn’t stop I would be face down on the floor going into diabetic shock. I bowed, walked around the ballroom on the outskirts, and headed for the corner, many of my fellow students had stopped their practice and whispered their concern to me, I said I was fine to carry on. Getting to the corner, Hanshi had apples and granola bars for our break time and I knew I had to get fast sugar in me, so I took an apple and watched the last ¼ of the kata being taught. My vision was clearing, and my fatigue was replaced with some energy from the energy bars and fluids. After this sai training was over, Hanshi called for another break and at this time, I walked over to him and apologized for stepping off the training floor. Letting him know of my blood sugar issues. He smiled and said that was fine and he was happy I was feeling better, He had also asked me if I was taking part in the bo training. I said, “Of course I am, I won’t miss it for the world.” He bowed to me and let me continue with my break. Sensei came over to ask how I was feeling and we talked, he was concerned but was happy I was sensitive to my limitations.
After a 10 minute break we were all set to do the bo, Hanshi started with some self defense real life applications, I worked with Sensei, disabling his attack by a hit, and moving my bo down into the crook of his arm, twisting and stepping and manipulating him into a take down. We did this with a few techniques. We were almost out of time, so Hanshi split us into three groups, he talked about the 3 kata bo forms he had wanted to teach and we were able to choose which one we wanted to learn. For the most part, my fellow classmates were black belts, so of course they didn’t want to learn a brown belt bo requirement form. I opted for that one, Sensei took a more complex bo form and went with that group of students. The young man who was left to teach us was Colin Brown, this 17 year old boy was phenomenal. He had just been promoted to Sho Dan (1st degree black belt in Kobudo, the previous evening) Very respectful, very disciplined and a student of Hanshi Bowles. He taught how he was taught, being trained under the Chief Instuctor of Shuri Ryu and the founder of the International Shuri Ryu Association definitely has it’s perks. Excellent teacher for such a young person. Extremely proud to have trained with this great person. We walked through this bo form and it was pretty much over.
We stood in line and waited for Hanshi to bow us out. We had the awards ceremony as we stood waiting to bow out. Each participant received a certificate signed and dated by Hanshi. Sensei Joe was called before I was, so I was prepared for my turn to walk up and accept my certificate and shake Hanshi’s hand. Hanshi then called for everyone’s attention and we all bowed out for the day.
Great Seminar, great feeling, definitely going back in the future. Hanshi Bowles is having a spring seminar similar to Hanshi Abele’s symposium, a buffet of martial arts knowledge to be taught and learned, a seminar where you can hand pick which aspects of the martial arts you would like to learn, from ancient Chinese herbs to pressure points, mixed with our physical elements of kata, weapons and discipline. Definitely something I would like to take part in.
