Piotr Stępniak

Last week for the second time in my life I had the honor and pleasure to participate in Chi Ryu Aiki Jitsu and Okinawa Kobudo seminar with shihan Jhonny Bernaschewice at his dojo – the Chi Ryu Hombu Dojo. Although I’m back at home my thoughts and heart are still in Belgium. It is impossible to share all the things that come with such a journey but in few next lines I’ll try to do my best .

First the crew. This year we went in a group of 5: sensei Przemysław Wiśniewski from Oświęcim, sensei Rafał Tokarczyk from Nowy Targ/Zakopane, sensei Artur Czelny from Zabór, sensei Paweł Urbańczyk from Zabrze and myself representing both Zabór and Poznań.

The travel to Hechtel has been quite long – it took us 12 hours from Zabór after senseis Rafał, Przemek and Paweł joined us (sensei Rafał spent in the car about 22 hours…). Lots of pit stops and huge traffic jams did their part. Never the less we started monday trainings with full enthusiasm, and it just kept growing

The plan for the first three days was two trainings with shihan Jhonny a day -one Chi Ryu Aiki Jitsu and one Okinawa Kobudo plus time we spent practicing alone between and after the trainings. We worked on an idividual basis. Sensei Rafał and sensei Przemek had their last preparations before 2nd dan in Chi Ryu Aiki Jitsu examination and also as sensei Paweł worked on 2nd dan Okinawa Kobudo program. Sensei Artur and I both focused on 3rd kyu Chi Ryu program and Okinawa Kobudo Hojo Undo details.

The evenigs were our time to relax and discuss Chi Ryu school history and future development opportunities -it was very nice that shihan Jhonny joined us twice and we could listen to many of his stories . Being off the tatami we also managed to have a pleasent walks around Hechtel and visit shihan’s mother – mrs. Maria who is a one-of-a-kind person. It’s worth mentioning we had lots of fun thanks to Paweł and his mini-video productions

Wednesday started with sensei Rafał and Przemek’s exam for 2nd Dan Chi Ryu Aiki Jitsu (they did not realize it is the exam untill it was over!). Yet they passed which made shihan and all of us very proud and fond of them. A very very big congratulations Sensei! We had the second traning together with a group of Germans who visit Shihan’s dojo on a regular basis. We warmed up with jo and bokuto to go to Chi Ryu techniques and than finished with Kobudo.

Second part of our stay in Belgium was the international Chi Ryu instructors seminar. Masters and uke came from Germany, Denmark and even Hungary. After we said hello and have disscused the plan we started trainings. On the first training we focused on the detials of Chi Ryu Suwari Waza kata. In the afternoon we were happy to see sensei Józef Góra arrive with his uke – Staszek to join the seminar. Sensei Józef was the first person to bring Chi Ryu and invite shihan Jhonny to Poland over 15 years ago. Second training that day was devoted to hanbo and techniques of 2nd kyu Chi Ryu. A lot of hard work with shihan Jhonny made the dojo shake .

In the evening we had a lacture by shihan Andreas Baron about Goshin Jitsu form he worked on for the last few years and which also has been his last Chi Ryu examination core. He described his vision and what has been his goal as long as the principles that he’d put into each technique of the kata. And all that was just a taste of what we’d be seeing the next day…

Both Friday trainings were led by shihan Andreas and focused on Goshin Jitsu practise. We didn’t have enough time to go through all the techniques so we focused at tanto and hanbo dori kata. As usual we didn’t even notice the time as it went away and the trainings ended to our sadness. But there was something to really sweeten it up. Shihan Jhonny and shihan Andreas together gave the 2nd Dan Chi Ryu certificates to sensei Rafał and sensei Przemek Happy as we were we got an additional bonus of extra Kobudo hour in the evening by sensei Dirk Mazet – super-fast Hojo Undos of Bo, Sai and Tunqua were followed by Nunchaku basics and Nunchaku Kata.

Friday evening had one more great attraction – a grill party! Prepared by sensei Dirk and his wife Carola we had and awfull lot of delicious food combined with nice celebration of the two new second dans in Chi Ryu. It was a really nice integrational party too

In the Saturday morning we said our goodbyes and left the dojo. The instructors course lasted till Sunday morning but due to our duties and since we had that much of kilometers ahead we had to leave earlier. There’s a lot of that cannot be said or showed in the photos that will stay in my head and heart for a long time (hopefully forever) I can’t wait untill the next Hombu Dojo seminar. Luckily I’ll have chance to train Chi Ryu with shihan Jhonny this year on the summer camp in August, and then in October in Zabór! BTW, you have that chance too! Stay tuned for details @ www.piotrstepniak.com

For more photos from the seminar see the galleries: on this site and SWPW gallery.