MBKA would like to thank all those people involved in the organization of Sensei Lee’s visit. The week-long training sessions which took place between the 12^th and the 18^th of May 2004 would not have been possible first and foremost without our chief instructor 5^th Dan Sensei Lee Williams for travelling to Malta taking care of the teaching for all sessions, including a three-day training camp.

Neither would this have have been possible, if not for the excellent organization of Sensei Lee’s lodging and venue for the training camp by Sensei Patrick and Sempai Josette Galea, as well as Sempai Graham Shciberras 3^rd , 2^nd and 1^st Dan respectively.

Last but surely not least we would like to thank all those people that somehow or another were involved in keeping everything according to plan at the training camp. These involved the people who were responsible for the cooking and cleaning of the flat for and after every function.

The Club would like to congratulate Robert Vella for his promotion as "Dojo Captain". This notice was given by Sensei Lee on the second day of our training camp in Gozo. One of the roles of a dojo captain is to ensure that all students abide by the right attitude and level of respect to all, most especially to their seniors.

The week of Sensei’s visit in Malta began on Tuesday 11^th May at 1530hrs where he was greeted by Sensei Patrick and Robert Vella who were waiting for him at the airport. Robert accompanied Sensei Lee to his hotel to settle in.

The first training session was held the next day for the senior black belts.

First session for all took place on Thursday 13^th May at the "Imriehel" dojo. The Session consisted of basically two self defense moves where the partner in front of the defender would attack Jodan(Chin level) whilst the other partner at the back would strike Chudan ( stomach level ). The defender had to block both attacks one after the other and force the attacker to the ground followed by counter attacks to finish off.

After the session we met with Sensei Lee and joined him for dinner at "Il-Koppla" restaurant in Mosta.

The next day all club members had to meet at Cirkewwa sea terminal at 1800 hrs in order to board the ferry to gozo were the training camp was to be held.

While students were getting on board the ship attendance was taken and double checked to make sure no one was loitering behind or left behind.

Care was taken especially during the 20 minute journey by sea to Gozo not to leave any children unattended by an adult at any time.

Some photos were also taken on the ship too of all members together.

We were hospitably greeted by the owner of the 2 connected flats we had hired for our training camp at a small village called "Xaghara". These flats were beautifully designed as well as spacious having a small swimming pool area and also enough land down stairs to be used for our training as a dojo.

The club members were allocated to the flats as follows:

Senior male adults were given flat 1. Women and junior grades were allocated to the other flat. Unfortunately the swimming pool was not in a state to be used, since it was empty!

Club members were split into groups and assigned to duties that had to be done throughout the weekend.

Afterwards sensei explained and demonstrated to the senior belts the techniques involved in "kankudai" a shodan (black belt kata)

Just before everyone went to sleep, Sensei Lee surprised us by pointing out that the first session the next day was going to be at 6am. On hearing this some of us panicked and quickly set the alarm before going to bed.

The next morning surprisingly enough everyone had got up by 5.30am and everything went smoothly as planned, with the exception of sempai Roderick’s slight incident when he overlooked the fact that the sliding door was closed and smashed right into the balcony’s glass door sending everyone in the scene to a roar of laughter

Sensei began on kion (Basic techniques) as the first training session which he intended to use further on while doing Kumite (free style).

The sequences of techniques were also shuffled around. The idea behind this was to make the person going through them think harder on what to do next and later on perform the techniques with strength when he or she got used to them.

After some toast and a brief rest we had to warm up again for the next session…

The two types of techniques were applied in free style were the defender had to fool the attacker thinking he was going to strike first and just after blocking the attacker’s counter attack the defender would place the final strike.

One important clue Sensei Lee emphasized on was the use of "sway" instead of the defender going forwards and retreating back to defend. One big advantage of evasion in comparison to the advancing and retreating tactic was that the defender keeps close to the attacker making it possible for him/her to deliver a counter attack much faster than having to advance again on the opponent.

Another important point which Sensei always emphasises on is the use of proper technique whilst making any combination first, then speeding the combination up before applying power on to the sequence

After some good pasta for lunch the next session commenced. The defender was surrounded by four attackers and applying the previous combinations accordingly, with the difference that the defender had to deal with more attackers simultaneously instead of only one. The session ended with wall sparring and target focusing.

A brief rest followed and once again we were off for the last training session of the day. It took place at "Ramla il hamra", a sandy bay. Once again Kumite was the order of the day consisting of combination training. Also included in the session was Semi free Kumite were the first party had to use only hands whilst the other had to use only the feet to spar with. Free style kumite followed, by which point I must admit I was utterly exhausted, after sparring with Sensei Patrick, Sempai Graham and Roderick. Some basics followed as the end of the session came near and some of us went out for a cold swim to chill out when the tough session was over.

In the evening a Barbeque was made at the ladies’ flat.

While dinner was being served all club members enthusiastically watched the "Eurovision song contest" which was taking place in turkey on TV ending with a disappointing 12^th place for Malta.

The next day some listened to the 8.30am mass before going to the morning training session which took place near the swimming pool area. At first the static beginners’ kata was performed before going downstairs to continue kata training which involved kihon and hihan shodan in reverse. In addition to this the katas were also made more challenging with the use of the reverse techniques for example in a kata having a punch we were asked to reverse the technique to a block and vice versa.

The session ended with the performance of different Hihan katas. Club photos were also taken before going to lunch.

Ravioli were served during lunch time followed by coffee and biscuits afterwards.

After an hour or so Sensei called out for the Senior kata training. Unlike other sessions this was a relaxed session physically which involved perfecting the competition kata. Mentally the session was very intense and sometimes a bit frustrating especially when trying to perform the kata in very little space and getting the techniques perfect at the same time. A lot was learnt though.

After the session a brief rest followed before everyone rushed for a quick shower. Packing all our stuff quickly, we took off in order to catch the 7pm ship back to Malta.

As everyone could notice by the time we arrived back to Malta, there were a lot of exhausted, yet happy faces satisfied from the weekends training especially from the youngsters.

Last training session took place the next day at the "Kordin" dojo involving free style self defense. The defender once again was surrounded by two attackers attacking one after the other to the chin and stomach area as well as using their feet this time. The defender had to block all the attacks and sweep or choke the opponent to the ground. Extra care was taken while performing the choke techniques.

After the training session we joined Sensei Lee to dinner and for our last meeting before he left the island. Once again Vanessa took care of escorting Sensei back home as well as to the Airport the next day.

This visit by Sensei Lee was particularly special for all of us students. We were all looking forward to his arrival, most especially because of the training camp.

Not only were all of our expectations met, but all comments passed by students young and old, junior or senior were all positive. All activities couldn’t have been better planned and executed. The Training given by Sensei Lee Williams was excellent, as usual.

Personally, I managed to conquer some of my fear during a freestyle session. I also learnt a lot especially on both of my grading katas "Bassaidai" and "Kankudai". During the sessions sensei helped me a lot in fine tuning some the basic and non basic techniques as well as changed my overall mentality on how training is performed emphasizing a lot more on technique before applying power. In this way I feel more mature about karate.

This week flew by for all of us, and gave us more time to focus on our weaknesses in our training. We got to spend more leisure time with each other than we probably do throughout our usual busy lifestyles. It was a great experience and went very well!

Here are some group photos taken at the camp.

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