Copyright Peter Morton Academy of Judo Jujitsu Karate
Annual National Seminar 2004
Batemans Bay, NSW - 1-3 October
This article appeared in the 2004 newsletter.
The seminar was held at the Coach House Marina Resort, Batemans Bay, NSW, and the program took place in a large marquis.
Friday. The afternoon and evening consisted of check-ins, find your own evening meal, an Executive Meeting and the Annual General Meeting.
Saturday. After a hearty breakfast in the resort restaurant, white and black figures swarmed like ants to a nest into the makeshift dojo that would be their hub of learning for the next two days.
They would not have consumed so much food if they had known what was about to be inflicted upon them after the opening ceremony.
The group performed some easy warm up exercises, then it was on. They were thrown into something called Body Combat with an extremely fit person that goes by the name of Jacob Halamei. This session was aptly named, as it was not body against body in combat but self against body in fitness and stamina. We were really combating our body and making it stretch and bend and pump and twist into areas never seen before. This was testing at its peak as heart rates were checked and repetitions were done to the maximum.
One thing that came out of this torture was that quite a few of the younger members collapsed before a lot of the more senior members. It really was fun pushing a body to its limits and back and the buzz afterwards, as the endorphins kicked in, beat any artificial substance one could ingest.
In case you're wondering, breakfast stayed where it was put, even though at one stage it did protest and become uncomfortable. Fortunately superior mental training overcame this and the feeling soon subsided.
After a bit of a drink break, it was back into things with a good session of boxing under the supervision of Renshi Ben Innes and Sensei Sean Noble. They showed how to train in a way that is fun and without beating each other up.
All of this physical activity had produced some very tired bodies and it was no surprise to find the odd body nodding off and nearly falling off their seat during a very interesting lecture by Alan Morton. This was about building fitness and the effect exercise has on the body, especially on an older body. Maybe the lecture should have been after lunch.
With lunch out of the way, Shihans Rowley and Scharrer ran through the dos and don'ts of selected techniques. This led into the two-man attack and basic steps competitions.
Follow this with cool down stretching and the world is ready to clean up and dine.
Saturday night. Dinner was all you could eat, live music, presentations and merriment, with lots of happy faces thrown in.
Somewhere near the bewitching hour, a small gathering happened outside and some people with happy-juice in hand began to transform into relaxed and very chatty individuals. This chatter grew steadily louder. The group drifted around the area of the resort aided by some very patient security people who slowly herded the group further from inhabited areas and almost out the front gate. Meanwhile, upstairs in the function room the band played on and happy couples were performing some wild dancing.
Midnight had come and gone and eyes were starting to feel the need for sleep so a few bodies headed back to the comfort of their cabins.
In one particular abode, a couple turned up and decided to relax and take over the spa. This was ok for a while but eventually the group decided that the happy couple should leave the spa so that the cabin occupants could go to bedafter all it was somewhere in the wee hours of Sunday.
The couple would not leave after repeated requests. This made a certain Renshi W a little bit upset, as he wanted to go to bed. So he got a jug of cold water from the fridge and went into the spa. Screams emanated from the bathroom as the water hit its targets. Still not successful, he ended up throwing about five jugs of water over the two. When this did not work, all stops were pulled out and the heavy weight was called in. Number One, who also wanted to sleep, went in and his martial arts expertise was used to evict the couple from the spa.
Those that witnessed his word technique were amazed. It went something like "ok you two, it's time to get out and go". No exclamation mark or raised voice; just cool, calm and collected. With such authority, order was restored. Why didn't this work for Renshi W? He had uttered these words quite a few times.
What else happened after hours? That remains at the seminar but who was the Renshi that read jokes from his mobile phone for hours and then proceeded to SMS them to Mrs Soke until she came into the cabin and told him in no uncertain terms to stop?
Sunday. Amazingly, most surfaced for breakfast on this morning and conversation was low key, which was good because this day's sessions were not going to be as physical as the previous day.
Things started with a taste of knowledge from Frog on his art of strapping sports injuries. Everybody watched him, truly engrossed and loaded with questions, they were keen to learn from the Master.
"Women in Sport" was the topic that long-time academy member Sonny Wombwell spoke about. She gave an insight into what it was like for a woman in the martial arts in the 1960s and some interesting anecdotes emerged as her story unfolded. She commented to Frog that after nearly 40 years she felt it was safe to tell him about a few things that went on while her group was training for their black belt. Things he knew nothing aboutlike instead of running from Canberra to Queanbeyan as part of her fitness training, she hitched a ride on the mudguard of a car. These days a person would be locked up for such a stunt.
After Sonny's informal and entertaining chat session it was back to business as Shihans Rowley and Scharrer highlighted the finer points of some techniques that needed attention.
Now that all the hard work had been done it was time for lunch, which led to everyone back around the mat for the official closing of the seminar. It was at this time that Frog thanked all concerned and went on record as to how pleased he was at the interest all showed in the academy.
He made special mention of the younger members and their interest in Sugita and his ways, and he added that he was very pleased with the respect that younger members had for the academy and its leaders.