Sensei Can Learn Too
By Lee Firestone

I have said many times to my students in my Fullerton College Kaito Gakko Kids Class “I learn more from you than you do from me.” Usually, I am met with the blank stares of “What is Sensei Lee talking about now?” The Shoshin Ryu Reunion Kata Competition is a great example of what I proclaim.
I knew I would have a challenge getting a team together for the competition. Our semester ended on 8/6/08, and doesn’t start again until October. The competition was held August 30th. Clare Keech, my most consistent student, was fired up about this event.

One challenge was finding a place to practice. The school was in transition of moving from the church building we worked out in to the newly refurbished education center we will now be using as our permanent dojo. Randy Carrasco came to the rescue and graciously allowed me to use a couple of mats at his newly opened school at the Lincoln Avenue Baptist Church in Orange, CA. one week before the competition. Clare received one hour of kata training, but she was still without a partner. Randy suggested that I teach a kata class at his school and see if any of his students would volunteer to be Clare’s partner.

During that class Brandon Iligan stepped up for the challenge. Clare and Brandon had not yet worked out together. We decided to train them during the one hour lunch break between clinics at the reunion that Saturday. It was at this time I had learned that they would be competing in the intermediate division, not the beginners. Now I had to come up with a combat scene for them to perform the next day without any practice!

That night I devised a combat scene that used the elements of Danzan Ryu and Kaito Gakko that I could recall teaching them in the past, and a couple I didn’t teach them. The next morning I was able to get them together twenty minutes before the competition to practice the scene I came up with. They were very nervous and I had my doubts about them pulling this off.

Not only did they pull it off, but they won third place in the largest, most competitive division in the children’s competition! I would have been happy if they just didn’t fall flat on their faces. They exceeded my expectations.

Congratulations Clare and Brandon!

They taught me a few very important lessons. 1) When the basics of our art are successfully taught to our students, it makes the rest of the art much easier to comprehend and learn. 2) It is the experience of competition where the sensei has the greatest opportunity to teach his students the most in the shortest given time. 3) Do not underestimate the potential of a young student.