“They call me Tai – Sabaki Bakkies”

Anyone who has trained with Bakkies Sensei will be more than aware of the truth behind this quote from Sensei himself. The recent OTGKA course with him was no exception. I am not a fan of articles going into details of ‘we slid to the left turned and blocked etc etc' as one has to be there to fully understand the intricacies of technique. Suffice to say there was lots of tai-sabaki!

Sensei Andrews hit the nail on the head when he introduced Bakkies Sensei by saying that in his opinion Bakkies Sensei is by far the best westerner in Goju Ryu Karate-Do.

I was privileged from the outset on Saturday to be Sensei's ‘Uke' (receiver of technique) This gave me a firm understanding not only of the technique but also the total control that Sensei exhibits over his opponents. It also gave my students on the course something to smile about. I remember ‘giving my body to science' as Bakkies Sensei calls it and seeing the wry smiles on my students faces on more that one occasion. I have a good memory for faces!

Sensei has a great way of twisting what you already know well and changing it subtly. He did this with a portion from Chokusen Gekisai Bunkai and suddenly senior and kyu grade alike were floundering. Sensei explained that one can get complacent and stop thinking because you know the moves so well. This echoes what I often say to my students during Junbi –Undo. We do the movements week in week out and the danger is that one stops thinking about the nature of the movement.

Sensei finished the course with a great analogy. He likened ones progress through the stages of karate-do to a video game. One finishes the first level and in the second you face more and faster monsters but you also get better weapons and armour. We can see these levels as our progression through the stages of karate-do. Better weapons and armour can be translated as mastery of a technique that leads to better kata and kumite and the next level………..

Andy Barker

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Photo of Andy Barker 'giving his body to science' courtesy of Tomasz Siewkowski, IOGKF Poland