Three
students; three days of training – three sore bodies:
Calgary’s Winter Camp 2007 delegation!
Winter
Camp 2007 was held at the Silver Lake Camp in Peachland, BC, March
16, 17 and 18. Three members from the Calgary dojo attended this
year, Magnus and Michele Murphy and Sensei Brad Gillespie. We made
up for lack of numbers with enthusiasm!
We
arrived at the camp totally surprised to see how much snow there
was. The camp is on the shore of a beautiful small lake, deep in
woods and at high elevation. As a result, there was about a meter
high snow bank between all the paths and roads. More than one
participant this year bemoaned not bringing waterproof boots or
shoes. Michele and I just had our athletic shoes, which were soaking
wet within minutes after arrival and never dried out again. Most
women were in one cabin, but Michele and I chose cabin number one,
which was originally not supposed to be part of the weekend and had
no working light. The kind camp supervisor fixed that quickly
however and with some initial difficulty we had the fire going and
never let it die the entire weekend. Since everybody else went to
the “appropriate” cabins, Michele and I had the entire cabin to
ourselves for the weekend. Sometimes mistakes work out in your favor
in the end! I’m sure however that the communal environment of the
other cabins was great as well, but Michele (it was her first winter
camp), was happy to be able to stay with me. The most senior members
stayed at the lodge, but I must be honest, I think they were much
more uncomfortable than the rest.
The
camp consists of one beautiful brand new lodge and about 10 cabins.
The cabins have one light, a fire stove and bunk beds with
surprisingly comfortable mattresses. The shower block was quite
adequate and had soothing warm water! The lodge has a large
training area on the main floor as well as large, open and empty
areas in the basement, allowing us to split into groups. This made
it possible for everyone to train to full potential without being
crowded, as has happened in some other venues in the past. The lodge
has a large industrial kitchen, which was fully staffed by camp
employees. All we had to do was wash dishes and even this was taken
care of by industrial dishwashers in minutes…..what luxury!
Friday
evening started off as usual with Kihon. Sheehan Stuart Corrigal led
the camp, with help from Sensei Larry and Terry.
Saturday morning found us ready for action at 06h00 as is usual for
camps, but in pitch darkness. As a result of all the snow and
slippery ice, running was out of the question for the entire
weekend, so both mornings saw us (trying to) train on the snow and
ice outside. It was interesting seeing people disappear halfway into
the snow just when the kick reached its highest trajectory (which,
as a result of the difficulty of the situation, was not too high).
During
the rest of the weekend (three sessions on Saturday and two on
Sunday), we did many interesting things including the three Bo katas.
These are being reintroduced into the syllabus so you all will get
exposure to them eventually. One of the most enjoyable aspects for
me personally was the advanced self defense we learnt under the
expert tutelage of Sheehan and the Senseis. Contrary to popular
expectation and to the surprise of many sore muscles, the very last
training session on Sunday was one of the toughest. We are Kyokushin
students remember!
For
Michele and myself, Winter camp 2007 was a great time to spend
together as father and daughter, meet again with our Kyokushin
family and train in beautiful, albeit difficult conditions. The
facilities were good; the food was fantastic and the company great.
What more can one want?
OSU
Magnus Murphy
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