Yann and Phinh Robert recently came to my dojo as renshusei. They are karateka from Paris, France, whom are both Nidan (2nd Dan): although they both voluntarily wore white belts for all of the trainings.Over three days they completed six hours of training with me, which covered critical aspects of Karate-Do (specific for their technical development and their personal requests). It was great to see them both practice diligently and, as a result, immensely improve their efficiency of movement.
Without going into details, here the techniques we `primarily' focused on: (1) choku-zuki; (2) zenkutsu-dachi; (3) gyaku-zuki; (4) oi-zuki; (5) uraken-uchi (yoko mawashi uchi); (6) enpi-uchi (shihou-enpi); (7) shuto sotomawashi uchi; (8) mae-geri keage; and last, but not least `kihon-wise, (9) key `unsoku' and the (transfer of weight in body shifts - in coordination with junansei). Finally, what was worked on in kihon was applied in kihon kumite and also kata: namely, one shitei-gata (Heian Shodan); one sentei-gata (Bassai Dai), and one non-syllabus kata.
Overall, it was a pleasure having Yann and Phinh in Oita. I am sure they have plenty of karate homework for some time to come! We wish them both the very best! Osu, André.
© André Bertel. Oita, Japan (2015).