This year was the first year that the IFKKA organised a training camp, and in order to help us with the exercise, we got a bit of help from our Kempo Ryu Karate friends, with whom we organised it as a joint camp. The camp was held at the Scout camp at Heathcote, just south of Sydney, and it appears to be quite a popular karate camp location as we were told that another Kyokushin organisation would be holding its camp there too the very next weekend!

We all arrived on Friday afternoon, and had a formal bow-in. On Saturday, the day started with a bit of a run at 7:30 am (up and down the hills in the area) where we woke all the local residents by competing who could chant the name of their organisation louder, Kempo Ryu or Kyokushin!

The rest of the day was taken up with various training exercises, some joint, some separate with the Kempo Ryu people, and in the evening, after dinner, the older participants enjoyed a camp fire. Meals were planned ahead and prepared through the very able assistance of the parents and spouses of the camp participants, and we were never short of food and no one had cause to complain about the quality either, which was certainly equivalent to a good restaurant.

On Sunday, after the obligatory run, there were a couple of morning training sessions, and after lunch, we held the mock mini-tournament. This is where the Shihan's matched competitors against each other as unevenly as possible - high ranks against lower ranks, the tallest against the shortest - and then proceeded to have them compete, with penalties and points awarded for the most dubious infringements or scores e.g. being too tall, laughing too hard, using both hands (against a weaker opponent) etc... and their antics had everyone in stitches! But I guess you had to be there. This was then followed by another round, where the opponents were matched against each other more evenly, and they were then required to compete for points properly this time.

After that, we had the formal bow out ceremonies, one for each organisation, and then it was time to pack up and go home.