The fifth day of the ongoing SENSHI Summer training camp was as intense as it gets.
Once again there were two training sessions on Friday, as the afternoon session produced some of the hardest and most useful sparrings in recent history. The SENSHI instructors divided the fighters into smaller groups and after a 15-minute stretching and warm-up, fighters and coaches were ready to put the effort in.
The legends in the house were observing closely what was going on while the fighters were putting on their gloves, protectors and mouthpieces.
The 2001 Japan K-1 Grand Prix champion Nicholas Pettas gave the basic instructions to the participants. The Danish Kyokushin karateka and former kickboxer in the heavyweight division said the first three rounds will be solely on body punches and kicks, the second three rounds will be just boxing combinations and the last four rounds were all about kickboxing.
Peter Aerts, the three-time K-1 WGP heavyweight king, was going hard on his students and was correcting all the inaccuracies he saw. The six-time world muay thai champion demonstrated various combinations, emphasizing the importance of setting the low kick.
The four-time K-1 WGP heavyweight champ Ernesto Hoost was major on the faster and explosive combinations. The European and world muay thai champion was monitoring everybody and was giving instructions and tips to the pairs.
The other four-time K-1 WGP heavyweight ruler Semmy Schilt was also very active and was closely watching and guiding the fighters on the details. The former GLORY heavyweight champion was demanding from his fighters to try more unorthodox strikes and moves.
Sam Greco wanted to see aggression in his fighters, but he was constantly reminding them to think. The former full-contact karate fighter and 1994 Karate World Cup winner showcased top-notch skills and knowledge on the inside and the outside game. Greco mentioned several times to the participants the importance of a good transition from defense to offense and backward.
The first K-1 MAX champion and former SUPERKOMBAT champion Albert Kraus was also active in monitoring and observing the fighters. “The Hurricane” was highly demanding of his students to spar freely, but hard. Kraus put the pedal to the metal and was handing out instructions on how to be more pro-attacking in the ring and how to use the feet movement in order to control the fight and the movement of their opponents.
The SENSHI open workout took place during the afternoon session. All the elite fighters that are set to take part in SENSHI 12 demonstrated a glimpse of their fight arsenal hours before their hit the scales at the official weigh-ins.
SENSHI is organized with the special support of Armeec Insurance Company, MAX Sport, Bulgaria Air and M Car Group – BMW dealer.
SENSHI’s media partners are Boec.BG and Boec.COM, the national television Bulgaria ON AIR, the American online martial arts television FITE, Gol.bg, Topsport.bg, the information portal Kyokushin Karate News, Fighto.News and Novinata.bg.
