Gekkan Karatedo Magazine article about Oliva Sensei!

Richard here...

The late Shotokan Master Hidetaka Nishiyama on the cover.

The latest edition of Gekkan (monthly) Karatedo magazine came out on December 27th, with a very nice four page write-up about Antonio Oliva Sensei's kumite seminar. The magazine writer wrote about the seminar in great detail, very similar to our own earlier posts about it.

Finalization! The theme of Oliva Sensei's Kumite Seminar

Richard here, with my take on the Oliva Seminar!

l-r David (Seiritsu foreign student), myself, Oliva Sensei, Lawrence, Wessel (Seiritsu student)

These are the 5 steps to executing a precise technique written in Japanese - explained below the pictures.

When an attacker comes in, one single technique to score. When they stay still, double techniques. When they move back, multiple techniques, the best being 3 point skills.

This picture Carl has explained about all the things a fighter needs to take into account.

I won't repeat what Carl has written, but I want to point out the main theme of the seminar.

Scoring a point. Properly. With finalization. Of which there are 5 stages and 7 distances possible.

For every technique thrown, it needs 5 stages to be scored.

1. Observation. From a safe distance, the fighter observes the opponent and all the other aspects of the match (time, score, refs, coach, etc) and makes a choice.

2. Preparation. the technique with an approach, including a feint, a misdirection, an irregular tempo, all to throw off the opponent of the incoming attack.

3. Execution. Good execution of the attack without damage.

4. Retraction. Quick retraction of the technique to cleanly demonstrate control.

5. Finalization. Return to a safe distance or push foward to a safe position, both from which the fighter can attack again.

The morning session was divided up into 3 one-hour segments. 1) Reviewing what is a scoring point. 2) Defensive tactics. 3) Combination tactics.

The most interesting part was watching one person stand up still in hachiji daichi and their partner throw a full speed gyaku tsuki at their stomach with the level of control needed for a jodan head punch (uniform touch only, no actual body contact) and see Sensei decide if the technique could have scored or not. For most people, especially Japanese fighters used to just diving forward, steps 4 and 5 were weak. Either the students were hitting too hard meaning too much contact from not controlling their technique. Or they were over extended. Or they didn't complete - finalize! - properly with a clean retraction and back to a place of safety. Or they didn't use their whole body torquing in and out of the technique.

Torimasen. No point. It amazed me at the seminar how many techniques he said would not score in the WKF system, so much I was skeptical at first of this one part of his teaching. But when I spent the full 4 days at the WKF Worlds, I felt a moment of enlightment, wow, I think I get what he meant, because for me the thing that stands out the most at the tournament was how much torimasen was given by judges. Soooo many techniques did not score because the fighter did not use their complete body and follow the 5 steps above. It was perfect to have the tournament right after the seminar to really see what he was talking about.

Fully precise techniques adapted to the WKF rules.

The best defense is using both arms, one rising the other dropping, while twisting the torso and sliding out of the way but in a position to counter. The drills Carl wrote about standing at the wall were designed around this.

Brain. Heart. Body. Different fighters utilizes different aspects to fight, none are better than the other, but each are good to know as to whom you face and how to change one's own behaviour.

Sensei defined distance was defined as one full zenkutsu dachi length or longer between fighters was long, a little less than was medium, and half or less was short.
There are 7 distances: very short, short, short medium, medium, long medium, long, very long.

A fighter who mainly fights with his heart uses his muscles next and brain last. They like to score in the first 30secs of the match always at a short distance. They only go forward and they have little control. Their rhythm is the same and they want to push to the other side of the mat. They don't listen to their coach. According to Oliva Sensei, a typical Japanese or Asian fighter.

A fighter who mainly fights with his body, then brain and then heart likes to score in the middle 1 min or so of the match. They like a medium distance, very good with leg skills, their tempo is smoother, up and down, good foot work and they like the center of the ring. Oliva Sensei said he sees type of fighter most often in African countries.

A fighter who uses their brain first followed by heart and lastly body likes to score in the last 3osecs of the match, they use a long distance, they can move in various directions, their tempo is irregular, and they like to fight in their side of the ring, if not moving all around it. Oliva Sensei said he sees this type of fighter mainly in Europe.

(I had this goofy thought about why there were there so many Europeans in the finals at the WKF champs. Maybe it's because of the stereotype white people can't dance, they're movements are all quirky and irregular! While not good for the dance floor, this is maybe great for kumite as no one can time their rhythm hence expect their attack, perhaps maybe even getting frustrated and a headache from watching them move all herky-jerky...)

Now these are just his observations and of course there was a variety of types he said.

What he did stress, much of this over dinner at night, was that most people forget parts of the 5 steps of scoring a point, so it is like trying to drive a car with one wheel. All the wheels of course need to be working together.

A long attack requires a short defense turning the body and slipping to the side.

A short attack requires a long defense slipping to the side to gain distance.

Attacking is done pushing off the back leg and defending it done pushing off the lead leg as one twists off the linear line.

A beginner fighter needs to work on the 5 steps straight through from one of the 7 distances.

An intermediate fighter makes their tempo irregular, provides false information to the opponent to cause them to make a mistake like dropping a guard or throwing an attack, and then the fighter executes their own precise attack, with their recovery normally setting up the next technique.

Another way to look at this is first training the 5 steps, then developing irregular movements in the 5 steps to throw off the opponent, then finally being able to alter the 5 steps for winning the championships, but he didn't talk much about this stage. He said of the 5 steps he really only taught 3 (execution) and 4 (retraction) as to learn his whole system would take 2 weeks of study 2x a year for 3 years if we did the homework he leaves us.

It sort of reminds me of the long term athlete development 'LTAD' of training to train, training to complete and then training to win.

Well, Gekkan Karatedo, one of the 2 most popular karate magazines in Japan (the other being JKfan magazine) sent a reporter to the seminar who stayed for the afternoon and took many photos, lots of notes and interviewed Sensei, then more pictures of him punching me!

What we plan to do is organize a seminar series between Shiramizu in the Kanto area (Tokyo) then have some friends in other dojos around Japan host seminars so that we can bring Sensei over for 1 to 2 weeks next year.

He also kindly gave me his huge kumite system textbook, written in Spanish! After listening to Mr. Estevan Perez spewing off Spanish instructions to the many Spanish speakers at the worlds, I feel like I need to learn Spanish, in a hurry.

More soon!

Richard

Oliva Sensei's Kumite Seminar, Carl's report

Carl here...

Last Sunday the Shiramizu dojo hosted an international champion seminar with Antonio Oliva Seba Sensei, 8th dan WKF International coach. The venue for the seminar was the budo dojo in the Asukaru gymnasium in Satte City. This place is the site of the Monday night Shiramizu branch class and Arakawa Sensei often uses the large sport's arena adjacent to the dojo for competitions.

Oliva Sensei was assisted in the morning by Latvia Coach Andris Vasiljevs and his athlete WKF Junior Silver medlaist Kalvis Kalnins, who was too young to compete in the WKF World championships last weekend and so he here in Japan to observe. In the afternoon Adam Kovacs and other athletes and coaches of the Hungarian National Team helped out as well.



Oliva Sensei himself has got a significant CV, which has already been mentioned in this blog, so I won't repeat it here. Translation from English to Japanese was provided by Haneda Sensei (Kashiwa High School Karate Club Head Coach) and Richard Sensei.

Latvia Coach Andris Vasiljevs working out with a Shiramizu student.

The day was split into two different courses; the morning session was for kids and ran from 09:30 to 12:45. This session covered defensive kumite techniques. The afternoon session was for cadets and seniors, it ran from 14:30 until 17:30, and it served as an introduction to kumite tactics.

Each session started off with a group photo (so that everyone could get a copy at the end after someone ran of to the local photo shop to make several dozens!) and then a long warm up designed to get the body and mind and heart working – a theme of the second session! Oliva Sensei was quick to say that he doesn't have all the answers, and that there were many different ideas and training methods to achieve the same results. Also, his was is not the 'European Way of Kumite' as there are many different coaches with different ideas, but that his is a scientific system unique to his observations and experiences from around the world.

What follows is a few of his theories and ideas:

Kumite Defensive System
I was surprised to see Oliva Sensei using a white board to teach to kids, but the system seemed to work well. He drew a number of simple pictures of the board, which at first meant nothing to the spectators. However, after he spent a little time explaining the process, it all made sense and was very easy to follow.

Sensei explained when to use a single technique, double techniques and multiple techniques in defence. He also explained that attacking and defending in kumite are completely different animals, from the way you move, the techniques you use, even the way you think! For example, to attack a person uses linear movements but to defend, a person uses circular movements.

Let's play a game
Then he set everyone away working on various ‘games’ that got the body and mind moving. Some of the games were as simple as playing tag in pairs (trying to tag the opponent's shoulder or knee, known as 'karate tag' in Shiramizu). In this game you learn to move the body in circular and linear movements and flex and reach – just as you do in a real bout. Sensei also had the students organised into groups of 4, each person would take a turn defending against all three of the other teammates whilst being backup up to a wall. This simulates being in the corner / edge of the mat in a bout, so you learn circular movements.

Attack or defend?
Oliva sensei explained that there is a fine line between defending and attacking, and that once you have successfully defended against an attack, you should immediately become the aggressor.

The last exercise that we did was another simulated combat drill, this time in pairs with the ‘defender’ initiating the exercise by attacking and then counter punching.

At every stage of the seminar, Oliva Sensei effectively used the white board and Adam and Kalvis to demonstrate each particular point. This system worked very well throughout both seminars.



The morning session finished with a summary from Oliva Sensei, again using the white board and a question and answer session from the kids. There was a variety of techniques from ‘what technique is more effective, a body or head mawashigeri?’ to ‘what Japanese food do you like?’. Sensei gave a short closing speech and to finish, all the students lined up and shook the hands of all the coaches and were presented with a copy of the group photo that was taken in the morning backed onto card explaining who the coaches were.

Kumite tactics
There was a one hour lunch break before the second session started. This session covered kumite tactics. As with the morning session, we started off with a group photo with the usual poses and a few introductory speeches from Arakawa Sensei, Oliva Sensei and Norma Foster Sensei (Canada Wadokai and a WKF referee).

Oliva Sensei defined tactics as ‘the ability to use your intelligence in a match’. He therefore started with a lecture on what makes a successful fighter, a balance of techniques/conditioning; mind and heart. Sensei explained what a fighter needed to understand in order to be successful. Some of those things are:

• Rules – the competition rules must be known and understood
o Also, different competitions / regions / countries have a different emphasis and interpretation of the rules. A fighter must therefore know what the referees are looking for.

• Points – throughout a bout, a fighter must know how many points both fighters have and what to do / how to act if he gains points or loses points.

• Coach - a fighter must listen to their coach, they have a better perspective during the fight and more experience to guide the fighter. A coach will also advise the fighter as to what type of fighter their opponent is.

• Time - A fighter must know how long the bout is, and how to act during each stage of the fight. Oliva sensei broke down a bout into quarters when explaining this.

• Rhythm/Tempo - of the fight, a fighter should control the tempo of the bout so they can rest and fight at the appropriate time. Also, a fighter should attack when the opponent is trying to rest.

• Distance - an understanding of distance is important in attacking and defending, misjudging this can lead to contact violations, stepping out of the area or losing points.

• Control / Contact - sensei explained that most of the time a fighter needs excellent control, however, there are occasions when a fighter needs to make contact.

• Opponent - Is the opponent well known? Is (s)he tall / short / fast / slow etc... What techniques do they favour etc...

• Attack/Defend - a fighter must have a good balance of attacking and defending to win. Also, if a fighter prefers counterpunching then they need to make the opponent attack.

• Ring craft - this is how you use the Tatami, where and how you fight. If for example you prefer fighting in the corner, then that where you need to take your opponent.

• Referees/Officials - all referees and officials are different; they have all had different experiences in karate and so look for different things in fights.
o Also, at a competition, every tatami may be run slightly different depending upon the officials. One area may allow contact or give points easily whilst another won’t
o Fighters need to be aware of what round they are fighting in. Usually the inexperience referee’s and officials judge the early round. As the rounds increase in importance, so do the officials. Until the event final where you have the ‘popes’ of the referees judging aka the best officials at the event. A fighter must act accordingly in each round.
o Also, ‘some’ referee’s automatically favour the top fighters of their country, so if you’re drawn against one of them, you should expect some bias in the judging. It’s therefore more important not to make any mistakes. (Or the referees will know who is stronger and some tend to be waiting to give that stronger fighter points since they're waiting for them to score.)

• Self - a fighter must know themselves, how they like to fight, what techniques they like to use, fighting style etc... A fighter must also have a ‘game plan’ during a match and aim to fight within the plan at all times.

After this lecture, everyone was cold and stiff so we were all treated to a very thorough and exhausting warm up led by Latvia Coach Andris Vasiljevs. He had some really good warm up techniques and drills, a lot of these have already been incorporated into the Shiramizu classes. After this warm up, we had a short break and then another shorter lecture on specific tactics.

Sensei explained that it was best to use a single technique against a multiple attack. A double attack would be best used against a stationary opponent, and a multiple attack is best used against an opponent who is rapidly moving away. Sensei concentrated on what to do against a superior fighter.

Fighting a superior opponent
The underdog should concentrate on defence, making sure they don’t make any mistakes. The underdog will face bias from the officials because they automatically, even subconsciously, favour the ‘superior’ fighter. However, by working on defence 100% the opponent will get tired and start to make mistakes, when they do you attack and win the point. Also, Sensei emphasised that the defender has many escape routes from a linear attack by moving off the linear line and many opportunities to counter attack, but he stressed that you cannot make mistakes.

After a demonstration by Adam and Kalvis sparring, we all divided into pairs and practised this point. We took turns acting as the underdog, concentrating on defence. Every few minutes we changed partners, after 6 or 7 partner changes sensei stopped us for the next point.

Fighting an inferior opponent
If you are the superior fighter, then the referee’s and officials want you to win. So it’s important that you win the bout very quickly and don’t make any mistakes. If you take too long, the opponent will settle their nerves and gain confidence. Sensei insisted that you should aim to get as many points as possible in a very short space of time before the opponent gets comfortable. He used Adam and Kalvis to simulate this point, Adam took the role of the superior fighter and Kalvis the inferior one. Then Adam gained 8 points in quick succession against Kalvis with 8 techniques. Oliva sensei reinforced the demonstration by explaining that a technique that does not score is a waste of energy, every technique that you score must have a purpose.

Again we divided into pairs and took turns to act like the superior fighter only throwing techniques which were good enough to score.

Fighting an equal opponent
In a fight between equal fighters, the referee’s have less bias. However, Oliva sensei stated that they could still be influenced because the referee tends to favour the first person to score or the person who dominates the centre of area because they look stronger and more in control. Again after a short demonstration we divided into pairs and practised.



After a while it was time to call it a day, we lined up for the closing speeches and again we were all presented with a group photo.

Summary
The seminar was really well attended, over 100 people trained including the Hungarian team. It was truly an international seminar with people from England; Canada; Japan; Germany; Holland; Latvia; Spain and Hungary. This was great because you could fight people of all shapes, sizes and fighting styles. This is particularly important when learning how to fight, the greater variety in opponents, the better your fighting will become.

I think the morning session was more successful and more fun being tailored primarily for kids. The drills were really simple but effective and can easily be used in the dojo. I think the second seminar was a little too intensive so it felt rushed; also at times things had to be translated three times before the masses were told. At times like this there’s always a risk that things get lost in translation. Despite this, the content of the seminar was great and as an active fighter I found it to be a great refresher course. I will keep my eyes open for the next Oliva Sensei seminar.

European-style kumite seminar with Oliva Sensei!

Richard here!

The Oliva Sensei kumite seminar on Sunday, November 9 is all set to go now! Shiramizu is calling it the 'Second Champion Seminar', the first having taken place last year with other instructors.

ANTONIO OLIVA SEBA, 8th. Dan WKF International Coach

The following is from his bio;

Oliva Sensei created the Sports Karate Coaching System which followed the world over. He has been teaching a total of 57 different countries: 27 in Europe, 8 in Asia, 8 in Africa, 11 in America and 3 in Oceania. In the last two Karate World Championships held in Tampere (Finland) and Istambul (Turkey) most of the medalist countries have competed using his technical and tactical approaches.

For the seminar, 2 European kumite champions will also be assisting Oliva Sensei. They are participating on their national teams in the upcoming WKF World Championships in Tokyo Nov 13-16. (See their names, photos and tournament resumes below.)

The location has been chosen as the Satte City's Cultural Gymnasium, called 'Asukaru Satte', in Satte City, Saitama. This is the same location used for Monday night's Shiramizu branch class, as the budo dojo there is quite large and it can hold over 100 people.

The closest station Satte Eki, on the Tobu Nikko line. It's a 30min walk east from the station, but less than a 10min taxi ride. If several people share a taxi, it's cheap.

Seminar class times:

9:30am-1pm

2-5:30pm

Price:

1500yen for junior high school and younger

2000yen for high school and older

Seminar plans (from Oliva Sensei)
セミナーのプラン
In accordance with my experience, my suggested topics for our seminar would be:
私の経験に基づいて、お薦めするセミナーの内容は下記の通りです。

1. Tactics, the intelligent movement, that is to say, tactical behaviours. Japanese Karate is good in technique and weak in tactics (advanced students).
１）戦法（賢い動き）いわゆる戦術です。日本の空手家は技術に長けていますが、（上級者の生徒は特に）戦術がいまいちです。

2. Defensive Technical System, how to control and make unsuccessful any attack of your opponents. Japanese are also not very good on that issue (beginners and kids).２）防御技術システム：相手の攻撃を制御し失敗に終わらせる。日本人の空手家はこの点もあまり得意としていません（特に初心者と子供)

3. A brief introduction to "Sports Karate" from the European point of view. Methodology of "Shiai-Kumite" in accordance with the personality of the athletes (only for instructors).
３）ヨーロッパ視点のスポーツ空手の紹介：スポーツ選手の特性に基づいた「スポーツ組手」の手法（インストラクターにのみ紹介)

TO REGISTER: SEND AN EMAIL TO ARAKAWA SENSEI WITH YOUR NAME!
IN ENGLISH IS FINE.

arakawa.takamasa@nifty.com

Assistant Seminar Coaches:

Adam Kovacs (Hungry)
アダム　コヴァックス　(ハンガリー)
Member of the Hungarian National Karate team since 1997
Best Results (-65kg division)
WKF Junior Karate World Championships: Winner - Athens- 2001
WKF University World Championships fourth place - Mexico- 2002
WKF World Karate Championships: fourth place - Madrid- 2002
WKF World Karate Championships: second place - Mexico- 2004

1997年以来のハンガリーのナショナル空手チームのメンバー
最も良い結果(-65kg)
WKF　ジュニア世空手世界選手権: 勝者　2001回のアテネ
WKF　大学世界選手権: 4位　2002年のメキシコ
WKF 世界大会空手選手権: 4位　2002年のマドリード
WKF 世界大会空手選手権: 2位　メキシコ2004
Kalvis Kalnins (Latvia)
カラビス　カルインズ　(ラトビア)

Birthday: February 16th 1991, Jelgava, Latvia
1st dan by WKF
Champion of Latvia 6 times in kata and 7 times in kumite.
Best results:
2007 - 2nd place (-55kg cadet) WKF World Championship in Istanbul, Turkey;
2008 - 3rd place (-60kg cadet) WKF European Championship in Trieste, Italy;
2008 - 3rd place (-60kg senior) Azerbaijan President's Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan.

誕生日: 1991年2月16日出生地: エルガワ、ラトビア
WKFによる初段
型と6回に組手と7回のラトビアのチャンピオン。
最も良い結果:
2007--2番目に(-55kgのカデト)WKF世界選手権大会をイスタンブール(トルコ)
2008--トリエステ(イタリア)の３位(-60kgのカデト)WKF欧州選手権
2008--3位(-60kg年)のアゼルバイジャンのCup社長はバクー、アゼルバイジャンにいます。

Antonio Oliva Seba Seminar Nov 9th in Tokyo!!!

Through an introduction from the British Columbia Team Coach Kraig Devlin in Canada, I have been in contact with Oliva Sensei and he has agreed to teach a one-day seminar here in Tokyo on Nov 9th when he comes to Japan for the WKF World Championships (Nov 16-19)!

Arakawa Sensei and I still have to work out all the details - probably we will coordinate with a university club in Tokyo that has a very large dojo space - and we plan to ask the local karate magazines if they would like to interview Oliva Sensei before & after he arrives.

I've heard only amazing things about Oliva Sensei's seminars - his effective system of approach to winning kumite matches - that I'm really looking forward to hosting him for what I believe is his first ever seminar in Japan! Any high level competitor I have ever met who has studied from Oliva Sensei raves about him as being the ultimate master coach. Just the simple fact he has attended every single WUKO then WKF World Championships since the first one in 1970, starting out as a competitor and then later as a coach, is pretty amazing by itself!

Below is his CV. As soon as details start to be confirmed I will post them here.
Richard

ANTONIO OLIVA SEBA, 8th. Dan WKF - International Coach

Antonio Oliva is one of the pioneers of European Martial Arts and a world leader in the study and teaching of Tactics. Mr. Oliva is a Founding Member of the CICAC (Centre for Scientific Research on Martial Arts and Combat Sports). He is the author of: “Formalisation of Sports Karate”, 1982; “Martial Arts Practical Encyclopedia”, 1985 and “Supreme Combat”, 2002.

He was born on 16 February 1948 in Lloret de Mar, Gerona-Spain. He won the first five Spanish National Karate Championships (1970-1975) and was runner up in the lightweight division of the European Championships held in Cristal Palace, London, in May 1974. His technical and coaching talents took the Spanish National Team from complete anonymity to astonish the Karate world by winning the team event and also 10 individual medals at the World Championships in 1980.

Today, his Sports Karate Coaching System is respected and followed the world over. He has been teaching a total of 57 different countries: 27 in Europe, 8 in Asia, 8 in Africa, 11 in America and 3 in Oceania. In the last two Karate World Championships held in Tampere (Finland) and Istambul (Turkey) most of the medalist countries have competed using his technical and tactical approaches.

Actually his major concern is the "Formation of Formators". Transfering a deep Formation to Karate Instructors we contribute to pass to the new generation a better Karate, Education and World. Antonio Oliva is a deep believer; for him Karate-Do is a Way of Life and Life is a Way of Love.