What a fantastic weekend. After taking the short cruise through the mountains to Payson, Saturday morning, we were really glad to be up in cooler weather. Upon arriving at the gym, I was pleased to see that Sensei Hyder’s camp was filled with approximately 40-45 anxious and excited karateka. However, I noticed many of those were TAPING their feet! Oh, Oh, are my feet going to be in trouble?
Once training got started for “Session 3,” Sensei Field got us directly into some interesting combinations that led into using the techniques with a partner. Sensei Field stressed distance, how to develop powerful punching, and finishing each technique separately (Bark! Bark!). Interesting how it seems to work so good until you use a partner (Bark!)! After one and a half hours of good training, we went back to the hotel to prepare for some good relaxing and eating! Everyone met at the “El Rancho” restaurant later to have dinner together. It was really nice to dine with the whole camp in a casual and intimate setting and share in the congratulations of Sensei Hyder’s black belts as he presented them their dan certificates. We sat and reminisced and laughed with Sensei Field about some of the other camps we attended together and some of the antics we got into! It was a fun and nice evening for all.
“Session 4” on Sunday morning had Sensei Field asking the campers if they knew the difference between ‘listening’ and ‘hearing’. “Listening” as Sensei Field describes, is to understand it, absorb it and then apply it! “Hearing”, is just letting it flow from one ear to the other. H-m-m-m, maybe some of us had too much fun last night. We were able to work up some good sweat as he taught how to defend against sanbon-zuki (Bark! Bark! Bark!), then with a partner (Bark! Bark!). He then had us doing ippon kumite without using gyaku-zuki as a counter technique (Bark! Bark!). Along with everything else, he would not allow us to taking any steps BACK, only side to side or forward. Fun, fun, fun!
As I reflect on the past weekend, I will remember as we trained, you could hear at the back of the gym a soft BARK! A BARK? I will record as a first, Sensei Hyder’s dog, “Toni”, was brought to partake in the camp! 
Congratulation to Sensei Hyder, the camp was quite enjoyable and informative with the greatness of Sensei Field’s training, teaching us to listen, develop explosiveness with hip twisting and developing the feeling of punching through to the wall BEHIND your partner. Although as a finale to the camp, Sensei Field prepared us to perform tokui kata, yoi…then stated “MIRROR IMAGE!!” Yikes, hair-pulling!!
SKA Attendees: Cheryl Coburn, Fred Kess, Andre McWilliams, Fred Lien, and Sergei Sheydayi
OSS – Cheryl Coburn
