by Farkas Balintby Réka Sipos
At the jōdō camp held annually at the end of May in Greece, four of us participated this year from Hungary. With this number, we made up half of the total participants who came to practice and learn, so once again, the focused attention given to the small group of attendees was guaranteed. For three days, we took part in a longer morning and a shorter afternoon training session each day, adapting to the local conditions with sun visors, footwear, and plenty of sunscreen. Training under the blazing sun really drains one’s energy and makes sustained concentration more difficult. To counterbalance this, we cooled ourselves off in the sea during the breaks between sessions.
Over the course of six training sessions, we practiced kihon exercises in tandoku dōsa and sōtai dōsa formats, and worked on the kata sequences required for the participants’ upcoming exams. During one of our morning sessions, we had the chance to see twelve kenjutsu kata demonstrated by René sensei, which we also tried to learn. As the closing highlight of the camp, we presented the kihon routines and the exam kata sequences one after another. This intense three-day training wore each of us out in different ways, but we returned home from the Halkidiki Peninsula with a wealth of experience.
Once again, many thanks to Konstantinos Matzaras sensei and René Van Amersfoort sensei for the organization and execution. Gambatte kudasai!
