2017 Reports | SUMMER CAMP

2017 SUMMER camp

4-7 August, 2017

The 2017 Summer Camp took place from August 4-7 in the community of Ashton Creek, BC Canada. A great BIG congratulations goes to the event organizers and especially the members of the Armstrong dojo who year after year work so hard to bring this event to fruition.
Osu!

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This year the IKOKC Summer Camp was quite a bit more different than previous Summer Camps I had attended. There was a different structure to it compared to the other ones I had attended. This year it felt more organized and everyone understood where to go and what to do. So in my opinion, it was a very successful camp and I am looking forward to attending as many as I can in the future. This would be my second year that I had gone in sequence so in an almost direct comparison to last years Summer Camp, this one was indeed different. 
The fitness portion, for example, was changed. Last year it was simple because you just had to do as many pushups, sit-ups and squats I believe. This year was a bit more complicated. There were 5 different stages to it. Each was very different from the last, designed to test different part of your body. It provided a good variety to the camp, mostly because it was difficult for everyone. This fitness portion was designed by Sensei Anthony and I would agree he put a lot of thought in to it. 
This year, just like last year, I was grading for my kyu test. This was the last leg of that journey, as the first part was with Shihan Brad. Last year I was very nervous to test in front of Shihan Stuart because I had never graded in front of him before. I didn't know what to expect. But this year I was less nervous to grade in front of him because I knew what to expect and how to adapt. 
There were also many dan candidates this year! So many in fact that they had to do their fights in groups of 4! They did very, very well and congratulations to all of them as this was also their last leg of their journey. A special congratulations to Sensei Damon and Sensei Arthur for being promoted to 3rd Dan!
Summer Camp is a special time where students can train with many different instructors all of whom are very good in their instructing. I highly recommend this camp to anyone and everyone. I can guarantee every student will learn something from it. It's good fun for all ages!


Osu,
Raj Sundaram
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After attending my first summer camp last year, I wanted to always come back again for training. The atmosphere is always welcoming and you’re always encouraged to train as hard as you can. However, the heat causes the training to intensify on a level most people are not used to. Water is a must and cooling off in the river is always refreshing. Most people immediately jump into the river after training to cool your core and prepare for the next training session. 


Learning advanced self defence with Shihan Don was one of my favourite sessions. When you complete the movements successfully, you can almost instantaneously take down your opponent and have control over the situation. This self defence can be used in almost every situation. Working with higher belts is always a treat as they can help you to perfect the movements and dial in the effectiveness of the defence.


Another iconic aspect of summer camp is the black belt fighting. The black belt fights are the final steps of the grading process to receive your hard earned black belt. We watched people complete 10, 20 and 30 fights for Shodan, Nidan and Sandan respectively. Watching the black belt fights is very inspiring and drives me to work harder and harder to achieve my Shodan in the future. Each time a new fight started or someone received their belt, I was filled with a drive to eventually be the person standing up there to receive to one day receive my black belt. 


After completing all the training sessions at summer camp this year my love for karate has never been stronger. I most definitely want to come back next year to work hard, learn more and to be with my friends for another great camp. 

Osu!

Tyler Meckelborg
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