Blog (thoughts and news)

How-to (not to) nuke a uke

Unlike other martial arts (as judo, aikido or kendo), karate-do can be practiced in perfect loneliness.

Of course, for us karate is something pleasant, and pleasant things should be done (at least) in couple, thus today we talk about Uke!

Who’s that?! A Japanese grand-master?? Or a character from some anime?

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Acqua&Vento (4/3)… aftermath

A week has passed since Acqua&Vento seminar, and we’d like to make some cold reasoning.

Satisfaction was high, both from the technical side and the people side; the feedback we got from attendants generously paid back all the efforts for the organization.

A bit of chronicle…

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Acqua&Vento (3/3)

It was around the beginning of July that, after a brainstorming among the best (?) minds of the KCK, a perfect name for this seminar finally came out.

We believed it were important to provide a name to the event, because names are given to something you can care of. And us, we really care of Acqua&Vento. Even before it was born.

We’d also like it stayed a little longer in your hearts, in addition to your muscles (but there it’ll fade away soon, with lactic acid).

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Acqua&Vento (2/3)

Sensei Didier Lupo is an appreciated character here in Desio. The seminar Acqua&Vento 2021 will be his fifth appointment with us in six years.

During our last meeting in 2020 (there’d have been another lockdown within few days), sitting in front of an ice cream, he said:
«Even for us it ain’t been easy […] The whole Marseille was like a ghost city: you could hear the sirens, some delivery-trucks, but no more. None of my guys could come to the dojo, so for few weeks I was completely alone».

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Acqua&Vento (1/3)

«Sensei Kase was feeling ill, he’d got fever and it was pretty clear. But he was there, sitting on a chair somebody had brought for him… The day after, when they told us that Kase-sensei couldn’t come, resting in his bed, we all felt crestfallen. Well, after few minutes, among all those two hundreds and more people, one climbed on a table and, well visible, whistled to catch everybody’s attention. He subbed for Kase, literally carrying the whole seminar on his shoulders. That very day, my way to think about karate totally changed».

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Perfect & Imperfections

With elderl—ahem!, maturity, you find out that one of the crucial points of karate-do is the beauty of imperfection. When you’re taught a technique, it is shown the same for anyone. But when you truly understand it, make it yours, it enhances with personal details and hues, which make it, formally, imperfect.

Yet its beauty is there, in the niceties which keep it one of a kind; like as an artisanal product, always different.

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Takudai Seminar 2019 (the afterhour)

The good news is that all of us came back safely, nobody got lost in the Black Forest, or amidst the Swiss Alps (despite thick fog and heavy showers tried to make us lose our way). Even Marco came back to his cosy Swedish house, just in time to enjoy some fading sunlight, before sinking again in the deep darkness of northern winter.

The bad news is that the Takudai Seminar 2019 was… well, quite disappointing. Maybe because we had high expectations? Mmmh, maybe…

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