Saturday saw me partaking in our dojo year-end fundraiser, a karate-themed marathon that took place on the old Navy rugby fields here in Gordon’s Bay. The idea was simple enough. Split the dojo down the middle into two teams, appoint a team leader for each team and then put them alongside one another to battle it out in a 3 hour long karate marathon which saw each team continuously rotate through units consisting of six karateka who would have to perform five minutes of sparring, five minutes of grading forms and five minutes of katas.
So with music blaring from the clubhouse and the fire already lit for boerwors rolls, we kicked things off at half past twelve and continued on to just after half past three in the afternoon, with each team resigned to their little demarcated square. It was actually loads of fun, despite the sun that baked down upon us and the rather dry grass beneath our feet. Because we were rotating through units and the sessions were only fifteen minutes long, one seldomly got too tired, but it was a continous day of karate in the sun and by the end of the final group kata, everyone was pretty much drenched in sweat and itching to get out of the rather unforgiving dogis.
I tell you, the ice-cold beer that we received after making our way back to the clubhouse was the best beer I’ve tasted in a very long time! :)
The karate itself was good, I spent a lot of the time busy working my head around the new kata and grading form I need to learn for green belt and I must admit, as per usual I thoroughly enjoyed the sparring, even if my damn knee did eventually pop right at the end of proceedings while battling it out against Chris.
The event was well attending and we must have at least had around 40 or so karateka taking part, so the day was a big success and a great team-building effort for the Gordon’s Bay dojo as a whole.
Of course, this technically was the last karate function outside of normal training for 2009, but you can bet your bottom dollar that no one can wait for the upcoming January 8th training camp in Betty’s Bay 2010. That’s going to be even more karate in the sun, on the grass and most likely, in the sand! :)