Some of our teachers and senior students travelled recently to Cyprus for the International Kempo Association Busen Academy. This six-day training event is designed to level up our senior members, filling them with enthusiasm and new ideas to bring back to the dojo.
Our mornings were filled with techniques and concepts including special sessions on seiho, appo, kappo, and teiho by Sensei Maeda, our special guest from Japan. Sensei Maeda has made these topics his specialty and spent many years researching the science behind them.
(If you’re wondering, and very loosely translated, seiho is fixing people, appo is using pressure points to attack people, kappo is resuscitation, and teiho is strangling. For obvious reasons we don’t get to practice kappo very often, and teiho is only taught to senior members.)
Afternoons were slightly more relaxed but no less interesting. A selection of beaches were used to practice shakujo (6 foot staff) and nioi (short stick).
And swim, obviously.
And most of the beaches had good bars for afterwards.
The IKA Busen Academy featured not only BSKF members, but also students from Spain, Switzerland, Czech Republic, and Japan. It was amazing training with a variety of people, each with their own views on how things “should be done”. A reminder that different is not always bad!
I would highly recommend training in other countries if you get the chance. Fortunately as members of the IKA our students are welcome in any IKA dojo around the world, so the next time you’re on holiday in an IKA country, consider stopping in to say hi!
Looking very chilled there, Nic. Great reading about your adventures Best wishes, Liz. (aged: happy to hear, also thirty-something).