Nakasone Sensei's Suidi

(And one of the coolest Karate history tours ever)

Less than 24 hours before it began was when i decided.

A spontaneous last minute decision (with a little gentle persuasion from James).

Which probably became one of the best decisions I've made so far this year. Besides learning an incredible amount in both practical karate technique and karate history- I made some new (really cool) karate friends.

Nakasone sensei reminded me of myself somewhat. Maybe thats why i liked him so much. He is curious, always wanting to know why. He is enthusiastic and gets completely lost in karate. He speaks honestly about what he thinks of techniques and it's practicality. He researches and learns the history so that we can all learn from it. He is always smiling and he most definately has sparkly eyes.

Nakasone Sensei's Karate is Suidi (Shuri -Te)- Leading right back to Bushi Matsumura Sokon. Originally, he studied Shorin Ryu (which is still Shuri Te) but decided to research and travel further back to the roots in his quest to discover karate.
Most of what he does involves a relaxed and natural approach to defence- simple body movements that can happen quickly and naturally to give you the advantage.
He used joint locks (which can be used to both restrain or break) and the element of confusion and surprise.

I asked him, why do you break bats and boards when your karate involves being soft, fluid and natural? He said because you can't hit people and your training partners as hard as you can. It is important to practice at least once, what it is like and how it feels to hit something as hard as you possibly can. It really got me thinking, it is something i'd like to try.

After a couple of very intense training days, we had a karate history tour day where every place but one was new. This was really really cool to me because we also had James to translate the incredible wealth of knowledge that Nakasone Sensei has about it.
He did the tour perfectly- get to a place, tell the story, let people take pictures and move onto the next one. With this approach we made it to 8 or 9 different Karate sites around Naha, Shuri and Itoman in the day.

As the week went on, the visiting karateka started leaving the island. I had another opportunity to train with Nakasone sensei, of course, i took it. It was great to be able to continue on and refresh the things we had gone through in the seminar. I also had the chance to spend some time with him in the bar, where i got to listen to his stories and karate journey.

If i get the opportunity to train with Nakasone Sensei again, I will 100% take it.
I guess, the biggest lesson I've learnt from this whole experience is how much good can come from saying yes and taking the opportunities presented to you.