SENSEI BAKKIES AT O.T.G.K.A. HONBU DOJO

Contributed by Rik Carpenter
It was six thirty Saturday morning when Sensei Chris and five students from Norton Dojo headed down the motorway to London.Sensei Chris was in front with Glenn a class 1 police driver (rember this) with the rest of us in the back, Carl, Dave, Ian and myself. The journey was full of good natured banter interspersed with Historical and topical trivia about most things discussed, from Norton Dojo's resident quiz master Carl, who's constant running commentary about everything we passed only stopped (thankfully.ed) when he had something to eat or drink, but I must say he made the journey down very entertaining.We reached London at about 8-45am and Sensei Chris and Glenn seemed to know exactly where we were, (well, they had been to the Honbu Dojo many times before) and as Sensei Chris would be training at 10am with Nidan and above in the first training session, we seemed to have plenty of time to reach the Dojo.
Sensei Chris knew the route well and calmly directed Glenn through the streets, Carl was giving us all a tour guided commentary on all the landmark buildings and statues, and Ian slept soundly in the spare seat at the back.Ok, so we're in London, we've got two people who know where their going and one's a class 1 police driver, we've got plenty of time to spare so there's no need to panic and everythings fine, but then we come to a diversion sign "Not to worry," says Sensei, "We'll soon be diverted back onto the right road, just follow the diversion signs Glenn." However, after about fifteen minutes we realised that we were somehow heading in the wrong direction, so Glenn now switches on the Hyundai's secret weapon, no, not the latest in Sat Nav technology, but a compass that's built into the rear view mirror, (brilliant).With the use of the compass we start heading South, but after a few miles Dave suddenly remarks, "The compass reads North, shouldn't we be heading South" Ok, so we're in London, we're lost, there's no time to spare and Sensei's getting worried,… ( time to panic?).

Sensei announces, "This is my worst nightmare, getting lost in London," Well, that was the gist of what he said.
Glenn's doing his best to keep the Jeep heading South, Dave produces a route planner (great ), but the directions are from London to Sheffield not vice versa (not so great ), but it has a small map of London printed on it ( great ), but we don't know where we are ( not so great ), as a car heads straight towards us Glenn ( class 1 police driver ), realises that he is on the wrong side of the road ( oops! ), which fortunately for us he quickly rectifies, and all the time that this is going on Carl continues to point out the theatres the show and the cast, Ian's still fast asleep in the back, it was hilarious.We eventually found the Dojo andSensei Chris made his class with fifteen minutes to spare, ( big sigh of relief all round ) .
The all Grades class began at 11-30am and as we lined up I looked around, there was one White Belt, one Yellow ....me, two Orange the rest predominantly Black- Belts, as a Yellow Belt did I find it intimidating? (when you train with Sensei Chris at his Sheffield Norton Dojo, nothing intimidates you ), no I didn't really, Sensei Chris teaches us to see all things as just another challenge , ( got to say that, gradings coming up soon ). Sensei George introduced Bakkies Sensei as the " Best Western practitioner of Goju-Ryu Karate Do",and then Bakkies Sensei began the class.
After the warm up Bakkies Sensei focused on Kata Gekisei Dai Ichi, we used basic applications to begin with, and then introduced subtle twists and variations to the applications, designed to make us think a little differently about the moves we knew so well, it left me and quite a few other students scratching our heads.I recognized Bakkies Sensei's Uke ( receiver of technique), it was Sensei Andy Barker from the Sheffield Hallam Dojo, we trained together in the early eighties in Chesterfield, I was White Belt- Two black tags and he was a Green Belt, and during the lunch break we reminisced about the old days and how he had gone on to be a 5th Dan Black Belt, ( and how I hadn't ). He was a determined and dedicated student all those years ago and has since been rewarded for his efforts, well done Sensei Andy.

After lunch Bakkies Sensei introduced Renzoku Bunkai, again, with a subtle twist, and it was great to see Glen and Carl ( yes that's right Norton Dojo's class 1 police driver with our quiz master come tour guide), 1st Kyu and 2nd Kyu showing how it should be done, and made me realise how good a Sensei we have at Norton Dojo in Sensei Chris (creep creep), and how professional and dedicated the Sensei's really are
It goes with out saying that it was a tremendous thrill and honour to train with Bakkies Sensei and he left us with the knowledge that, hidden inside Gekisai and its applications is a complete fighting system, and that if you can truly master it,… you can really fight, and he assured us that there are no short cuts in Karate, if there were he'd have found them.It was a fantastic experience not just for the Karate but for the journey in a Hyundai Jeep with a great bunch of guys.
I must just add a big thank-you to Sensei Chris for organising the trip, to Carl for providing the entertainment, to Dave and Ian for their pleasant company and a really big thank-you to Glenn for getting us there and back safely. (cheers guys). (Back to "ARTICLES" )