With an excellent mood and good weather, the third training day of the 16th International Kyokushin Summer Camp in Kamchia, organized by the Bulgarian Karate Kyokushin Federation and the World Kyokushin Union, began. Shihan Ivo Kamenov, who is the chairman of the National Association of Combat Sports in Bulgaria, gave a lot of great advices during the whole day.
This is how it all started – under the expert guidance of Shihan Alexander Pichkunov, Sensei Zahari Damyanov and Sensei Petar Martynov, the fighters started with a tiring jog in the morning. The run continued along the entire long beach of the resort in both directions.
After a good warm-up, the karatekas were rewarded with fun beach games that help improve their fitness, but also test their skills, coordination, acceleration and sense of strength. The fighters did not just have fun, but not a small part of them and seriously got involved in the performance.
In the evening training , the instructors again emphasized technique, tactics and execution more than conditioning. All coaches had a major focus on detail and monitored individual participants very closely on how they were performing, with adjustments being made immediately. The large number of instructors at the camp in Kamchia allowed this time again a lot of individual work with the fighters and coaches.
Shihan Andrzej Drewniak chose defense and blocks in a sparring situation, and Shihan Antonio Pinero, who worked with the coaches, focused on body movement and position during attack. His recommendation was to use the whole body rather than individual limbs, the latter leading to inefficient performance.
The youngest participants in the camp continued with the performance of the basic techniques, requiring more concentration, stability and balance from the children. For teenagers, the instructions are to move more and continuously.
Shihan Ivo Kamenov visited each of the groups and, according to the age group and directions, gave his recommendations and advice. With teenagers and athletes, he paid a lot of individual attention with demonstrations of correct and incorrect execution, correct and accurate position of the body and limbs, what and the movement in the execution of combinations.
At the end of the training, Shihan Kamenov gathered the group of instructors from the Bulgarian Karate Kyokushin Federation and shared his fresh observations and analyzes of what he saw earlier with the children, teenagers and young people. In a nearly 20-minute conversation with the coaches, he made important recommendations for the work in the clubs.
One of the most basic was that one should not underestimate the kihon in teaching, and the direction was to have continuous training by the instructors, not just at the camps. He reminded that karate is one of the few sports in which children expect the coaches to show them the performances and do them on par with them.
“The coaching job requires an eye. It is necessary to pay attention to the details. What is the basis? If you tell a child, he will listen. If you show it to him, he will see it. By doing it, you will learn it. But the point is to do it right. To be shown right and to be seen doing it wrong. Because acquired habits are the worst thing in training,” pointed out Shihan Kamenov.
Another piece of advice was that physical ex should not be forgotten, especially for teenagers, because it also helps with their endurance.
