Ryusei Canada Summer Camp 2024

From July 12 to 13, Canada held its annual Ryusei Summer Camp in the beautiful resort area near Barry’s Bay, Ontario. The camp was special because it brought together long-time members from Ontario and Quebec with new ones, including people from Atlantic Canada and Whitby.
Our long-time friends from Pittsburgh and Florida also joined us, the Koshin-ha Chito-ryu members led by Terry Valentino-Sensei. Karateka from Yoshukan and Chito-Ryu Canada also attended.
The 30 people attending the Friday night and all-day Saturday clinics worked hard and showed great camaraderie and spirit.

On Friday night, we worked on kata. The new members showed they had been practicing hard, demonstrating their knowledge of katas such as Sochin and Tenshin. Later, many black belts were introduced to Koryu kata, either Tensho or Unsu, showing them what they are working towards.
On Saturday morning, I led the group. The session’s goal was to show how the same body structure and principles governed all Ryusei techniques, whether strikes, blocks, throws, or joint locks.

In this session, we focused mainly on joint breaks, working on using the right spiral down and body connection to make the techniques work. The theory is that joint locks are often hard to apply to aggressive attackers. But joint breaks can be effective and devastating combat techniques.
In the afternoon, Terry Valentino led a session on self-defense applications of kata technique. Valentino-Sensei is guided by the belief that all the techniques that make Chito-ryu a dangerous fighting art can be found in its kata. His session proved his belief.

In the afternoon, other senior teachers closed the day, leading sessions on different aspects of Chito-ryu and Ryusei karate. The teachers included Art Bellhouse, Peter Zehr, Matt Mannerow, Rick Going and Brian Buirge. Their sessions demonstrated the depth of their knowledge and the strength of their training.

It should be noted that Art Bellhouse-Sensei is my senior. We first started practicing together in the 1960s at Higashi School of Karate. Ed Docherty, the teacher of the ICKF dojo in Whitby, Ontario, accompanied him to the seminar.
After the Saturday workout, most of us gathered at a beautiful cottage overlooking the water for a barbecue and a long evening of talk, drink and swimming.

Thank you to everyone who attended, including our long-time senior Ontario members (Peter Zehr, Rick and Matt); the Quebec Ryusei students of Chantal LePage, this time led by Anik Desrosiers; the Prince Edward Island students led by Mike and Dawn Brown; Art and Ed from Whitby; the U.S. Koshin-ha group led by Terry Valentino; students from my dojo, including Carminha and Nandy; surprise attendees such as Eric Peters and Miki Nishida; and any others who I have inadvertently forgot.
I look forward to next year’s training.
—Peter Giffen