Martial Arts Magazine Australia

by Sensei Don Godwin

Sensei Kimura’s first course was like an earthquake in the club. In a good way!Sensei Kimura had trained with Sensei Tani and was encouraged under his leadership to explore the science of hitting. I’m sure in every Shukokai dojo, you will find impact pads. Sensei Kimura wanted something that felt like hitting a body and found it in a high-density foam. The pads protect the holder from the true force generated by the technique, but give an indication of what it would feel like to be hit without the pad.Good impact is felt in a small but deeper area than the accompanying “push”, which shoves the person back. To put in another way, pure impact would punch out a fist size hole in a sheet of paper, while leaving the rest of the sheet intact and unmoved.

We embraced the new way of punching and copied it to other techniques. The grading had seen some promotions, Sandy, Graham and everyone else had gone up a level. Mokesh, my Indian mentor, was now a green belt. A few guys, including some seniors from school, had joined. We had a new white belt in Piet Serfontein. He was super dedicated, and an excellent technician,always training before class, while the rest of us chatted.

In due course, Sensei Kimura returned. We had another influx of South African black belts. Among them was a very attractive blond lady, the first female karateka I had ever seen. She was not treated any differently with one exception.

Sensei Kimura had worked on Sanchin kata and told us to remove our gi jackets to show the muscle and breathing movement fundamental to the kata. As she began to remove her belt, Sensei quickly said, “No! not you,” with a chuckle.

If I’m not mistaken, Sensei Kimura moved the goal posts again. We had adapted to the double hip twist, but he now eliminated one half of the technique. Looking back over years of training with Sensei, he was always tinkering, always moving forward towards his ultimate objective – perfect impact. For us mortals, it was not easy to adapt, and for someone like me, who was happy with continuity, highly challenging.

So, from the double hip twist (and the occasional accidental triple twist), we had to relearn a different way. Of course, there was no going back. If I guess correctly, Sensei had assessed that taking the hip back was adding time and the technique would work faster if the torque was there in the first place. He eliminated the initial movement by having the hip forward, and the elbow fully pulled back before release. This created the necessary torque as the chest muscles acted against the hip with an effect like a stretched rubber band.
Another grading loomed, but I was more confident this time and passed. There had been a change in the grading system. We now went White, Yellow, Orange, Green, Blue & three grades of Brown. I graded to Orange.

Some of the black belts who had come to Sensei Kimura’s course had joined permanently. They were most likely local from other styles, but some of the South Africans may well have stayed. I was astounded to see quiet Piet Serfontein,wearing a black belt. I thought at the time that his dedication had paid off, but more probably he was a black belt in another style and had chosen to don a white belt until he had been assessed. He remained humble; once watching him practice before class, and secretly admiring his ability, he remarked, “I think I’m just getting the hang of oizuki”. The same could not be said of some of the new black belts.

Sandy had emigrated and Graham was now the senior student, but one of the new ones, Brian, appointed himself the discipline enforcer, once hitting my friend Rob with a mawashi for talking in line. We learnt to keep quiet when Sensei Des was talking!

That was the last time I would train with Sensei Kimura for some years.
I would have been a blue belt when Enter the Dragon, starring Bruce Lee, hit the screens. Sensei Des got a group booking,and we all went along, keen to see this master. I did not know that Bruce Lee practiced Kung Fu and that no doubt influenced me and the others, but we were unimpressed. “Rubbish” was the consensus. No matter what we thought, he was to have a major impact on the martial arts world.

Don Godwin (5th Dan Shukokai) instructs in Karrinyup. He has been training with Shukokai for over 50 years and teaching for 40. Shukokai is a fast,practical style and female friendly.
Contact Don on 0450 772 846 to arrange 2 weeks free training.