Tatsuya Naka – Chiclana 1-4th June 2017

The III Seminario with Naka organised by the JKASKTEspaña was held last weekend. Myself once again went for the whole weekend along with Paul C. Nick C was only able to make Thursday and Zyan managed the Fri/Sat/& Sunday. It is still a great effort to travel there and at least for three of us we made it into a small weekend escape with karate in between.

I won’t bore you with too many details but if you’ve ever trained with Naka Sensei you’ll know what he is like and how he works. His amiable style, clear ability and nod to details is refreshing from the early get go. His speed is exceptional. He has an eye for details too in my opinion  a new direction that the JKA are taking from the old, blood and thunder days when some of us started karate. Its all hips, breathing and relaxation. Things we were all taught but only some of us took in as we just marched forward like tanks towards that ultimate oi tzuki.

As well as that we covered the following katas over the 4 days of the seminar.

Haian Shodan, Haian Nidan, Haian Sandan, Haian Yondan, Tekki Shodan, Bassai Dai, Kanku Dai, Gankaku some in greater detail than others and all except Gankaku had some elements of bunkai demonstrated. He often as he does demonstrated the difference between techniques in kata and the same techniques used in ‘budo’. Mainly it was about movement, technique and knowing that as Master Nakayama said, 10 minutes of kata a day is all you need. If the techniques are applied correctly and with efficiency.

Feel free to email me at sensei@gibshot.com if you want a more detailed explanation or even want me at your local club I’m happy to pass on my experience and what I learn from Sensei Naka, it’s good to talk.

A huge thanks to the Associacion Shotokan Karate Tradicional de España for the invite and hopefully see you all in 2018.

Oss