July 2007

AKF Victorian Karate Open Championships

ASSK had 35 competing at this years annual Vic Open. The tournament was highlighted with the extremely talented Indonesian team. All ASSK competitors are recognised for their commitment and effort they showed on the weekend. We appreciate that some competitors are not as familiar with tournaments surroundings, however, all coaches were delighted with their efforts and competitive spirit. I’m sure with more tournament and training experience a podium finish is not far away.  Hannah Fosbrooke is a perfect example winning her division with three sanbons!

Some recognisable achievements on the weekend were; Aleksandra Letunica. She and only one other competitor at the Open took Gold in both the Individual Open Kata & Individual Open Kumite.

Sergey Mykhaylenko won the 18-20yrs Under 70kgs and the Men’s Under 70kgs divisions. He had to defeat an Indonesian international and Leon Romary (Number 7 in the world) for his gold medals. For his efforts he was awarded the Pasta di Casa Award by the AKF Victorian Executive.  

It was great to see Sasa Ristic back into the tournament scene. It was Sasa’s first tournament this year, and to only be beaten by and Australian International in the final to earn a Silver medal is a fine effort. Finally, we can’t go without mentioning our youngest competitor, Karl Citadini. He was the stand out in the kumite, not loosing a fight.

 May 2007

      Shotokan Karate Cup

The Shotokan Cup is the biggest invitational tournament. For those people who are not aware, we are directly responsible for this tournament. Any volunteers (parents or students) are always appreciated.

The tournament was held on Sunday 20^th May. We had as many as eight rings operating and had over 300 competitors.  The tournament was completed by 2.30pm and is widely known as the best running tournament.

ASSK had 50 competitors, some of them being their first tournament. Our senior members were officiating and not coaching therefore many of our students never had any coaches on the day.  Typically of the ASSK spirit, they all soldered on and put in commendable efforts. We will address this and ensure there will be coaches at next years Shotokan Cup.

 

Antonio Oliva Sensei

ASSK was fortunate to run a kumite seminar with the world renowned Sensei Antonio Oliva. Surprisingly for a kumite seminar, he entirely focused on defence, an area that Sensei Oliva felt many fighters are underdeveloped preferring to focus on attacking. The Defence seminar began with the philosophy of not meeting an attack with the same defence. For example, a long attack can be met with a short stance and a slight body twist to deflect, a linear attack can be evaded by a change of line, a distance attack can be defended by altering the distance either forward or back, and a power attack can be arrested by simply cramming.

Sensei then went on to explain his definition of the 3 different types of defence. Firstly is the defence on *Action*. All the above exercises we went through to demonstrate the above philosophy were examples of this first type of defence. Secondly is the defence on *Intention*.
Obviously, your opponent’s intention is to score on you; however, by constantly moving/changing line you’re never allowing them to follow through on that intent. Conversely, by inviting that intent, allowing yourself to be at a good distance for an attack, you can anticipate and arrest the attack momentum. The third type was defence on *Emotion*, which was more an idea/perception than a practical application.
Essentially it involves the perception of you controlling the fight by the referee. By being ‘successful’ in your defence you can be perceived as dictating the fight. Only when *you* want to score will the score be made. Also, by not allowing your opponent to score it lessens their confidence, mistakes will be made which should then let you capitalise and score yourself.

A highly enjoyable seminar focusing on an area not often demonstrated at length.
 

February 2007

 

AKF Victorian State Karate Championships: 

ASSK is proud to announce that we took more medals than any other organisation at this years State Championship. ASSK members took 6 Gold medals, 6 Silver medals and 15 Bronze medals. Podium finishes included kata and kumite, plus the medals were shared by both dojo’s.  Congratulations to all competitors who competed on the day.

 

October 2006

 

2006 Finland WKF World Championships October 12-15

The WKF world championships were recently held in Tampere, Finland. ASSK
had one of our members Riste Mladenovski competing in the tournament.
Unfortunately Riste was defeated in the first round to an Indonesian competitor.
The Indonesian eventually got a Bronze medal. Even though Riste didn’t place,
 just going to the world championships is a great achievement. This should be
good experience for his future competitions. ASSK congratulate him for going
to Finland to represent Australia.

 

 

 

 

 

Arie Farkash Seminar – October 13^th & 14^th

The session on Friday evening, introduced us to Junro Shodan. There are five Junro
 kata. Each emphasise a specific concept for study. Junro Shodan is primarily a study
 in tai sabaki (body shifting), particularly turning, spinning, side to side shifting,
front-back shifting, and stepping. The Junro kata’s are a way of practising higher level
biomechanics that has developed in shotokan karate over these many years, furthermore,
 these kata’s make a way of bridging the gap between lower and advanced kata.  

For the Adults class many of us were introduced to Ato baya, the concept of ‘after
contact’. Ato baya is also used in punches and other strikes, but for the purposes of
Friday night’s session it was to illustrate how all blocks can also be an attack. Ato baya
 is used to immobilise an opponent to arrest their attack, which then sets you up for
further moves. Technically, if Ato baya is used correctly, no further moves should be
needed, making the application Ato baya particularly relevant in the practice of ippon
kumite. The combinations taught on Friday evening simulated realism, and sought to
sharpen our fluency and kime of movement in preparation and attack.  

Further exploring the Shorei discipline, Saturday’s class was about making the body move
 as one unit, the only way to ensure maximum speed and power in techniques. To
illustrate this component we went through a form called Ten No Kata, a sequence of basic
 Shotokan kihon that requires maximum commitment. The instruction on Saturday
emphasised having a strong grounding, a solid base that’s the foundation of power and
commitment. Performance of a good Ten No Kata means that the body moves as one, with strong kime. Ten No Kata quickly shows whether the performer has good fundamental karate moves, so therefore should be worked on consistently to improve/sharpen the basic building blocks of good karate. 

The Shorei way of practising karate seems to me to be about realism. Probably in contemporary karate we tend to pull back from making contact so as not to cause opponents injuries, however this means we’re reinforcing a less effective style of defence. The training we had with Sensei Arie Farkash was a return to the traditional concept of using karate to neutralise. By using the body in the Shorei way it can be a weapon, powerful and fast.

 Enjoyment was across the board for all attendees, though it seems Saturday’s class was favoured. This may have been due to the lack of bruising element! Friday’s class dealt with a more complex set of moves, which can be frustrating at times to remember the moves, practise fluently with kime while also incorporating new concepts. I’m sure many of the elements introduced will become part of our general class regime. Thank you Sensei Arie Farkash, and hope to see you next year again!