Shoto Budo Articles & Writings

Kuusamo Camp, Finland 2009

It was a first time trip for Dave McDicken, Douglas Steele and Tristan McLean to the winter wonderland that is Kuusamo. The workout this year started a little earlier than planned when a mix up with boarding passes meant that the seven-strong Scottish contingent had to sprint, like Roger Bannister, almost a mile across Helsinki Vantaa airport to get their connection from a departure gate which was already closed! We arrived ever so slightly warm and sweaty at the gate, where the Finnair staff got busy making the phone calls necessary to organise another airport bus to transfer us to the waiting plane. As we stood awaiting our fate, I found myself laughing at the thought of Kimmo and Mika standing at the luggage carousel in Kuusamo Airport watching all of our bags going round but no sign of any of us in contrast to the more usual drama where we all stand round and there is no sign of our bags!

Saved by the gracious efforts of the Finnair official, we were soon on a bus driving us to our next plane, which turned out to be sitting just 20 yards behind the one we had just got off and been transported from to the terminal building! A packed plane of delayed passengers awaited us with seven scattered seats unoccupied but to avoid taking any of the flack, we pushed Big Dave onto the plane first, just in case. As it happens we waited another twenty minutes before actually taking to the sky and I found it hard to resist turning to Graeme and Billy and gesturing for them to get up to the cockpit, tap annoyingly on their watches and tell the pilot to, "Get a shifty on!" The hilarity came to an abrupt end, however when the seven of us were left standing around the empty luggage carousel without even one of our bags to be seen!

And so began the fun?..

The first practise saw several of the Scottish contingent having to train in the same clothes they had been wearing since as early as 3am the previous day.
By way of a history lesson, we trained routines which were common 20-30 years ago and which, have subsequently been replaced by practises, which through rigorous testing and modelling currently achieve the same results in a tiny fraction of the time. Nonetheless the experience was of interest to many and required a lot of energy with significant good feeling derived from endorphin release. Billy, Dave and Graeme became more and more concerned that their cases wouldn't turn up at all leaving them in clothes that were by now verging on the transparent with sweat! Thanks to my good friend Mika Mankinen, who lent me his spare Gi, (much to the obvious jealousy and chagrin of Graeme and Dave), I was spared this particular unpleasant experience. However, not to be daunted, and in the true spirit of the Warrior, Dave was overheard to comment that if his case didn't turn up before the start of the second practise, he would be able to instruct his boxer shorts to "fight on their own!"

Fortunately for all, the cases arrived and the second practise continued the historic theme looking at how we generated explosive energy and trained for this many years ago. The visual and physical expressions in this practise were a photographer's dream!

At one point a student named Giles Remko questioned openly about the sense of the practise and quizzed Billy as to whether it was really our mind or our body we were training through these extreme practises as he noted that his experience derived limited value even though he was actually "kind of" enjoying himself! It was an excellent point driving at the heart of the practise and to have been made openly by a kyu grade Fin, (who are typically reserved in their commentary and questions), was even more rare. (Later, however, I discovered that Giles is in fact Dutch!)

The accommodation was again laid on by Kimmo in the Ruka Safari Complex and with the giant smoke sauna and outdoors dipping pool just above freezing point, the Finnish experience was, as always, enhanced. The relaxation offered by these saunas and the occasional beer offers a perfect counter- effect to the exercises of the day.

Day two of the course started with the Finnish grading or graduation as it is named there. It provided a test, which, occasionally verged on the extreme but all rose to the challenge with great skill and determination.

The standard of the young 1st Kyu's like Antti Korva and Henri Maikku as well as the appropriately nicknamed, "Piranha Sisters", Riikka Leskelä and Sussu Rivinen amongst others were truly inspiring and a well prepared demonstration of kata by Marko, Jani and Jari Ronkainen in their impressive third and fourth dan gradings reset the bar in terms of high quality at this level.

Billy led the course to a close with Kimmo, as always, in exuberant translation mode by encouraging the black belts to address practise and coaching sessions whilst working from a clear principle.

He furthermore restricted Graeme, Dave and myself to an assistant role ONLY, where we were NOT permitted to lead or teach or coach more than the black belt in charge permitted.

Of course our frustrations were immense. Graeme was getting dogs abuse from Billy for coaching and Dave suffered similarly.

As for my group, our instructor, Ville Luukkonen, an intelligent and cunning chap knew there was a strategic game afoot and did his best to eke out more information from me as time passed. As soon as I let even a little slip out, Mr Haggerty, pulled me metaphorically by the "lug" and in no uncertain terms requested that I remain silent! Our frustrations were immense as we watched our instructors get tied up in detail losing sight of the principle or getting confused how to move their students from the procedural part of training in to the processing part of practise. Afterwards of course the fact that we even slightly understood ourselves what these stages are could not only have been music to Billy's weary ears but actually, for me anyway, represented a bit of a modelling awakening!

Some powerful siege and protection style games brought the course to an energetic ending which saw a plethora of martial arts skills being practised almost sub consciously under physically stressful scenarios. The commentary that followed definitely recognised an increased understanding of the modelling process unique to Shoto Budo and the weekend complete with all its wonderful elements typical of Kuusamo Camp left many, including my two students Douglas and Tristan and me buzzing with enthusiasm for the next trip.

I can't help but wonder though if Kimmo was trying to send us a subliminal message by showing us a rather unusually shaped piece of wood in his garden!

By Richard Price