PSV-Bericht

Where making mistakes is good

 

Anm. der Red.: Marc Stevens wird eine Kopie des Journals bekommen, also ist dieser Artikel auf Englisch, damit er ihn leichter lesen kann. Wer Probleme hat herauszufinden, was in diesem Training passiert ist, muss wohl sein Englisch verbessern, oder künftig selbst am Lehrgang teilnehmen, am besten beides!

News like Marc Stevens get around, it seems. What was planned to be an extra training for PSV karateka was mercilessly gatecrashed by karateka from other dojos, who also wished to train with Sensei Marc. It is clear that many karateka appreciate Sensei Marc’s good instruction and easy-going manner.

This doesn’t mean that Sensei Marc made things easy for us. It was only 5 minutes after the higher belts started their training, that we were told off for the first time: “You’re lazy!” What we assumed to be the warm-up – some first-dan-level techniques (!!) – turned out to be the instruction itself. We were informed that higher belts are supposed to warm up on their own, before the start of the training, so as not to waste valuable training time.

During two sessions we trained sanbon-zuki, uke and keri waza, first alone and also together with a partner, taking especially care of a good distance which helped both to deal with the attack and then allow a speedy counter-attack.

Again, we heard Marc’s “You’re lazy!”. Many karateka simply continued to do the techniques in the same manner as usual, not completely understanding or realizing Sensei Marc’s instructions. However, Marc told us that in order to improve, we must always work on our techniques and not do always the same. Also, we learned that it is OK to make mistakes, because this is part of the normal learning process.

Which was a consolation at least for the lesser belts when we trained bassai sho, a kata which is not so well-known to some, and the bunkai.

However, when the training was finished, we all felt greatly motivated by Sensei Marc’s explanations and ready to try during regular training what we have learned. Thank you Marc!