As many of you are aware this will be the 40th year I have taught a Summer Camp
1983 - First Summer Camp - mainly Karate, with some Judo, the first time I taught Grappling outdoors
1992 - 10th Camp - a lot of Ninjutsu incorporated, and outdoor Sword
2002 - 20th Camp - start of VT/MMA craze, so we did a lot of Koryo to balance
2012 - Tigers from the Caterham Dojo were there
2022 - will YOU be there ?
We started using STMA as a name in 2009, and that was the first Camp for the current Group, with the original Members - even Ice wasn't at that one, his first was 2010
Camp is usually 3 hours, we often do 1 to 4pm, and this is a week day in August - this is what we did last year, and in the most recent years
We are willing to do a longer Camp, 4 hours, or even 6 hours with a "lunch break", as we have done in the past, if Members are available and willing
As mentioned one of the things we will cover on the Grass is the Sangaku Jime Triangle Choke in it's original form
shirotoratiger.proboards.com/thread/1198/30-year-history-triangle-choke
Usual Camp info, as at website
www.shirotora.co.uk/stma-camp
Caterham Outdoor venue
Kempo Jujutsu
Newaza Ground series, grappling on grass, the original environment
Aiki Jutsu projections
Koryu and Ninjutsu systems
Koto Ryu
Gyokko Ryu
Dakentaijutsu and Jutaijutsu of Shinden Fudo Ryu
Kukkishinden Ryu
Takagi Yoshin Ryu
From Togakure Ryu NINJA School we will look at the “Four Treasures” including the use of Shuriken, Metsubushi, and Shuko
Unarmed Systems:
Kempo Form 5 – Striking Self Defence sets with Takedowns and finishes
Kempo Form 6 – Weapons defences – Stick and club, knife, gun
Aiki Jutsu – immobilisations and projections
Ninpo Taijutsu – sets from the different Ryuha, and Mutodori Sword Defence
Jiu Jitsu – Shoot and Clinch standing series, then Newaza Ground Fighting
Weapons to be covered:
Knife – both single and double
Kali sticks – single and double
Largo stick
Hanbo of the Kukkishin Ryu
Bo staff and Tonfa
Bokken sword and Jo staff
This Camp is open to all current members of STMA – we will also be inviting former members from the Caterham, Shirley and Sanderstead Dojos – Everyone will be welcome and everyone will have the chance to train in both old and new techniques and drill, with both old and new friends
As always our 3 objectives are the same:
Get a good workout
Learn something
Have fun!
The first "Summer Camp" I did was August 1983 where, as a young Karate Black Belt, I took some class mates and friends out to the grass for kata and kumite training
I had made friends at the dojo, and had friends who I took to the dojo, so had a tight group of training friends "under" me coming up through the coloured belts, when we went for our first weekend camp, before I ever formally taught at a dojo
This was a couple of years before the "Ninja craze" properly took off
Rocky 3 had been out for a year and we now had it on VHS, so that was being watched over the Summer - Eye Of The Tiger had been Number One a year earlier and was still being played everywhere - many of us went on to take up boxing properly at boxing gyms in the coming years, and there was a lot of early interest in boxing at that time.
Return Of The Jedi had been released at the cinema and we had a pirate copy of that
The A Team had just started being shown on ITV Friday night and everyone was watching that
Knight Rider was starting it's second series
So we primarily practiced Karate, the katas, and as well as kumite, the bunkai applications of the Kata out on the grass
I didn't teach any of the Judo throws on grass, though we did cover some Karate tds, and some Judo newaza, the pins and the Juji Gatame armlock - so in a way this was "Mixed Martial Arts" course (!)
Nobody knew anything about Ninja and swords yet, though there was a lot of interest in lightsabers, and many people had the plastic toy ones which lit up (which we did not bring out to the grass)
Other films that year included:
Flashdance
Sudden Impact - the fifth Dirty Harry
Octopussy - James Bond
Superman 3
Staying Alive
Twilight Zone movie
The Dead Zone, Christine and Cujo - three Stephen King
Krull
Psycho 2
Trading Places
War Games
National Lampoons Vacation
Revenge Of The Ninja
Scarface
Note the Grappling points - I taught Juji Gatame, the armbar from the Mount, at the 1983 Camp, I didn't teach the Triangle Choke from the Guard until 1988 Camp, 5 years later
And The Guard wasn't even called that back in those days, at least over here
As an Anniversary commemoration we have acquired some Ko Yawara, one for each current Member
The Ko Yawara is the smaller version of the standard Yawara
In Kali this is referred to as the palm stick or pocket stick
(We do not call it a "Kubotan")
The original idea was to hand them out at the Summer Camp where we would use them for the first time - as the Camp will be spread out over different sessions, not just the central one day, we will give them to Members at whichever session comes first and practice some moves
There is not a separate syllabus for Yawara, we use the existing Koppo and Kempo waza that are appropriate eg Delayed Sword, Five Swords - the Yawara can be used close range and also in Ground
The tool can be carried on a pocket or kept on your person at all times, should the need for it arise - we are requesting Members to at least keep it in their training bag so it would be at a session to be used at times
Summer 2022 is the Summer we introduce Yawara into STMA
A weapons post from 2009 with a photo of a young Chip, one of our early adverts
whitetigermartialarts.blogspot.com/2009/10/weapons-at-stma.html
Almost a year after, 2010, a post on weapons at STMA
whitetigermartialarts.blogspot.com/2010/08/weapons-at-shiro-tora.html
The Summer Camp, being mid to late August, summarises the Grass training for that year - we are already past the Solstice in mid July, the nights set getting shorter, and we only have 8 or 10 weeks where we can do Grass evenings, and the second half is already in the darker part
In terms of content, and what we covered, it was everything we intended it to be
NINPO
This years Ryhua has been KUKISHIN and we focussed on this
The four weapons, Bo, Jo, Hanbo, Sword include both the direct applications in use against each other
Dakentaijutsu, the Unarmed Combat of this school has four scrolls, one for each of the four levels, and we covered some of each, including how they fit into the weapons Gata
MUTODORI Unarmed Defence against the Sword
TACHI DORI Sword taking drills
KIHON HAPPO
Torite Kihon Goho
KEMPO
Brutal Street defences
Tackle
Bear hug
Headlock
Strikes and grass projections
JJ
Triangle choke as planned
Elevator sweep to arm bar
Fight Simulation
Shoot, clinch, leg hook, Upa, guard punch def 1, 3, 4, elevator sweep and armbar with henka
Sun went down behind the clouds, low ray's as we walked over, red sky as we walked back, only thing missing was the full moon that we had last time
Interesting point raised at the session
We did not do any KALI training, sticks or anything
We have been going back to KALI basics at Class due to the new member intake
With SWORD We did the usual BOKKEN 8 Step before working on the NINPO BIKEN Gata from the KUKISHIN densho
While doing KIRI AGE, we practiced both versions, the attack from Uke being the end of the 8 step bokken drill, the head strike Tenchi Kiri
As JOKER noted, there are two versions of the bokken attack, one being LOBTIK, one being WITIK
This is a great example of a fundamental principle in KALI, that you all know and practice each week, coming out in NINPO BIKEN - the terms are not called that in Japan, in fact there are no equivalent terms, however both concepts are there
The reponse depending on whether the cut is LOBTIK or WITIK determines whether we roll the sword and cut on the high line, or drop and cut on the low line
A KALI principle that appears generically in a NINJA SWORD Gata
