2016 Seminar and Grading

We got the kids out of bed, into clothes and into the car early Saturday morning and were off to Melbourne for the 2016 Hokushin Victoria annual grading and seminar. What was originally planned as a single day of training turned into a two day fiesta of swordsmanship, but at the end of it I think everyone was exhausted and happy.



Saturday morning Shihan Tao flew in from Adelaide, and classes kicked off with him at 10am. It was a big group, so we split up teaching duties amoungst a few of us - I was looking after a couple of kids from Karate who had wanted to try it out. We broke for lunch (a fundraising BBQ organised by Melbourne) and then returned for a special Instructors session with Tao while one of the other students taught everybody else. This event was the main reason (for me) to take part in the seminar - it was 3 hours with just three other students and I working with Tao, so we learned a lot. We also Skyped the session to a couple of instructors in New Zealand.

Classes finished up at 3:45pm, followed by photos and then a short break before a big group dinner at 5:30. We headed back to a hotel pretty early on that evening in preparation for Sunday (and Tao flew back home to Adelaide).

Sunday morning (after a Maccas breakfast nearby where I saw 3 other students who were staying at the same hotel) classes kicked off at 9am. I really like this photo, because it shows how tired we all look pre-9am before getting focussed and back into it.


We trained for 3 hours, then broke for lunch (pizza this time) before returning at 1pm to continue training while students were called over one by one to grade. Around 3:30 everyone was getting pretty tired so we started to wind things up, and finished with certificate presentation, photos and the like. This photo was from Sunday - it was a massive class


After the training we also had a quick AGM for Hokushin Victoria, where I was reelected into the role of President. I even nominated someone else! I'd like to rotate people through the roles a bit more, but I'm happy to do another year. Oh, I was also awarded the title "Chief Instructor", I guess to put me above the "Senior Instructors", "Instructors" and "Assistant Instructors".. it's pretty much a meaningless title (kind of like Vic President) but it's nice of Sei Shihan to try to assign a hierarchy I suppose.

You can see all the photos here.

Monday we planned on having a day shopping in Melbourne, but Ossie was feeling nauseous and my legs were getting pretty tired (especially after carrying Lily) so we basically did a big loop through the mall and then headed home. I bought a massive TMNT hardcover comic so I'm not complaining ;)

While I was doing all this, of course, Cheryl and the kids had their own adventure. They'll have to tell you all about it - suffice to say it involves DINOSAURS and so is much more interesting than anything I did ;)