Melbourne Victoria

The 2012 Australian training Camp was held on 26-28 October at the Oasis Camp in Melbourne Victoria. The camp was led by Shihan Uchida and all students and Instructors are grateful for his guidance and leadership.

Kei Shin Kan dojos around Australia. The attendees were from:

Sydney (NSW), Melbourne (Vic), Hobart & Launceston (Tas), Broken Hill (NSW) , Gold Coast (Qld)

Training commenced on Friday night with basic training and exercises. It was a vigorous session and a great preparation for the weekend. Saturday morning training started at 6am with 5 training sessions during the day and a seminar on Saturday night. The sessions covered combinations, kata, sparring and kobudo. A kata tournament was held during the day, and the winners were:

Black Belt

1st Velko Gavranich

2nd David Wilde

3rd John Gavranich

Kyu Grade

1st Stacey Synnott

2nd Joseph Oppendisano

3rd Doug Zollo

The seminar on Saturday night gave everyone an opportunity to ask any questions about our Art. The questions covered areas including history, breathing techniques, the importance of basic kata and karate-do in the future. Each State also gave a kobudo demonstration.

Sunday morning training again started at 6am. A kumite tournament was held during the morning, and the winners were:

Black Belt

1st Tatsu Sekiguchi

2nd Paul Sellars

3rd Jeremy Ollard

Kyu Grade

1st Endre Enross

2nd Dawn Uchida

3rd Stacey Synnott

Official training finished at 12.30pm Sunday with a presentation of Black Belt Grading Certificates from the last grading, and trophies to the tournament winners.

The weekend was a great opportunity for everyone to train and socialise together. It was also a chance for everyone to examine themselves and to strive for improvement physically and mentally.

We thank Shihan Uchida again for providing encouragement to all of us.

We are looking forward already to the 2013 camp to be held in Tasmania.