Our 19th Annual Rocky Mountain Gasshuku held this past weekend in beautiful Keystone, Colorado was a huge success and barrels of fun. Participants came from several dojos in Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California, Missouri, Texas, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Florida. On Friday and Saturday, students worked hard on learning kata and new sparring techniques and strategies. The delicious buffet dinner on Saturday night filled our stomachs and the company of all the karate-ka and their families filled our hearts. The evening entertainment was an emotional mixture of touching speeches, lovely musical performances, hilarious skits that brought some to tears, and a wonderful slide show to celebrate Hanshi’s 60th birthday. All of this was followed by everyone letting their hair down and dancing the night away. It was a magical, memorable and fun evening for everyone. On Sunday morning, our family-friendly kumite competition gave the students an opportunity to try out the new techniques they learned and the privileged experience of being coached by the visiting USA team coaches.
IMA would like to extend a sincere, heartfelt thank you to all the students, parents, out-of-state Senseis and participants as well as USA National Karate Team coaches Dustin Baldis, Tommy Hood and Akira Fukuda, internationally decorated athlete Tom Scott, special guests Jake Lease and Brody Burns and IMA’s very own Hanshi Madani, Sensei Madani and Shihan Richoux for their efforts in making this the best camp ever.
If you missed this year’s camp, remember to mark your calendars for next year so you don’t miss all the fun!
Next year’s camp will be held the last weekend of September, 2014.