15th Würzburg Gasshuku
June, 30th to July, 1st 2012
As every year, our already traditional Gasshuku could again be organized in Würzburg. Due to other Gasshuku that took place simultaneously there were less participants this year, however, this allowed us to work more intensively with both Michel.
This year's Gasshuku was even more international than usually, for besides participants coming from Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic we had the pleasure to welcome Luca Boschian from Italy. He belongs to Maria Rosa's group and lives now in Kiel, a city in the Northern part of Germany where he cannot practice Jodo. Despite the fact that Germany had lost against Italy in the European Football Championship the day before, he was welcomed by the German group :-) !
And as usual, we started training on Saturday morning at 6 a.m. with warming-up exercises (this is, however, not the good expression, because we sweated already before doing the first movements) as well as basic movements.
At the request of the majority of the participants, we focused on the handling of the sword. And what's more, two hours of Iaido with Michel were reserved for those who wanted to practice while the others continued Jo with Coco. This was well received by everybody and we will certainly include this in our future Gasshukus.
Otherwise, Michel and Coco made us work above all the advanced Kata. Quite often, basic techniques and the first Kata series are emphasized during a Gasshuku (which is certainly a good thing), but the problem is that finally not much time is left to study the advanced Kata more in detail. We were, therefore, very satisfied with this program.
Because it was extremely hot we had the chance to train outdoor where we were welcomed with great pleasure by the mosquitos. A few of us had some painful souvenirs on the skin.
And as usually on Saturday evening, we went again to the restaurant up the hill overlooking the city with a marvelous view of Würzburg. And as for celebrating the 15th Gasshuku, we were surprised on the terrace of the restaurant by showers and thunderstorms. Fortunately, we were sitting under a big sunshade that held back a great amount of rain and hail. However, we had the pleasure to find a few hailstones in our dishes, but this was not really welcomed! Only the tough guys stayed on the terrace until the end while some "mollycoddles" preferred to go into the restaurant. Well, I won't mention their names here!
When we came back the gym, Michel, Coco and Jean-Jérôme opened the bar serving some excellent wines from the Valais canton together with regional finger food. A very congenial evening. Which has to be repeated next year!
The next morning, we had a few difficulties getting up to start at 6 a.m. During the night, rain didn't stop at all. That's why we stayed in a very big gym during the whole day where we started training with Kihon Sotai followed again by studying the advanced Kata as well as an Iaido session and finally the Tanjo series.
I would like to express my thanks to Franz Scheiner who - as every year - organizes this Gasshuku. And of course many thanks to the two persons who, for 15 years now, prepare our breakfast on Saturday and Sunday morning.
I would be pleased to repeat this next year. And maybe with some more participants.
Matthias Wenderoth
Fédération Européenne de Jodo / European Jodo Federation