What I Did at Karate Camp

I practice Shotokan karate, an Okinawan martial arts style founded by Gichin Funakoshi. I've been practicing for about three years on this most recent stint. I started way back in ancient times when I was in college, took a break and now I'm back. Last weekend I attended my dojo's semiannual karate camp. It's like going car camping - days of strenuous activity, eating, no showers, sleeping and rising with the sun.


Our karate camp is held at the dojo. We sleep on the hardwood dojo floor. The rhythm for the weekend is practice-eat-sleep starting Friday evening and going until mid-day on Sunday. Typically, Sensei picks out an advanced kata (training form) and breaks it down in detail so that we better understand each move. This is usually through application or "bunkai". Every move can be used as a block or counterstrike against a particular attack. I find this also helps me remember the kata sequence. The advanced katas tend to be long and short sequences of movements may be similar to other pieces of katas, so memorizing the sequences can be tricky. And I typically don't do these longer katas in my everyday training (I tend to work on a particular kata in preparation for my next belt test). Trainings also range from breaking down a particular advanced move to pure endurance/cardio tests to oblique activities that may not, at first blush, be directly applicable. But of course, Sensei doesn't make us do anything that's irrelevant.

This time, I learned 2 advanced katas, Hangetsu and Jion. We only practiced Jion the first day and worked on Hangetsu for the rest of the weekend. The bunkai for Hangetsu was probably the most complicated I'd tried so far. But I did work with a couple of our black belts so that helped me understand. Even though Sensei changed it up as we were still trying to practice the original application.

We also worked on moving around blindfolded so that we could develop sensing our environment without relying so much on sight. We practiced moving around the dojo around obstacles as well as trying to sense when others were near and their relative location. I wasn't very good at finding other people, but I did try and employ the sense you feel when someone is reading over your shoulder. I think that was effective a handful of times.

There's also a philosophical aspect of camp. That's one of the precepts I like about this practice - I'm working on mind, body and spirit instead of just body. Since Sensei is Sufi, which I understand to be a mystical study Islam, he views Funakoshi's teachings of karate through that lens. Which is a bonus because I learn about Sufism and karate teachings all at once. Most camps, the philosophical segment is primarily done through our after meal talks where Sensei will talk about his past, the meanings of his faith, karate teachings and how it applies to living life outside the dojo. This time, the philosophy segment was augmented by a movie we watched called Bab'Aziz. It's an allegorical movie set in Iran about a dervish wandering the desert with his granddaughter in search of a gathering of dervishes. It was only later, when I had access to the internet again that I understood that a dervish is a Sufi Muslim mendicant ascetic, known for extreme poverty and austerity (Thanks Wikipedia!). I had thought dervishes were weather phenomena in the desert like mini tornadoes. It's a beautiful film with a beautiful score but I'll need multiple viewings to fully understand what's going on. The dervish meets other travelers along is journey and we find out about their goals and search as well.

One of the two things I took away from this viewing was in the opening screen. It was a quote that said, "There are as many paths to God as there are souls on Earth." The other concept I liked was when Bab'Aziz, contemplating his death, explained that it was his wedding night to eternity and there's every reason not to fear it.

Our final practice on Sunday morning is Qigong. It's not nearly as energetic as our regular practices but in some ways it's actually more physically difficult. Holding poses for minutes at a time takes its toll on my muscles. But the fascinating thing for me is feeling the chi energy that we're focusing on. I'm not enough of a qigong student to really sense the power of it, but Sensei says that you can defeat enemies simply with chi. I suppose for the time being, I'll just have to take his word for it. My engineering brain can't visualize how that could possibly work and believe it.

Before I started going to karate camps, I used to dread it. But as I've attended several now, I find myself looking forward to the whole experience, especially the learning part.