By Cody Schott
Three students and one alumna were among the members of the Los Angeles area martial artists that convened at Hamilton Gym Saturday. Bobby Kazimiroff â09, Joshua Oreman â09 and Gavin Cook â10, all members of the ju-jitsu team, and Edward Ji â07 attended Camp Budoshinâs, a ju-jitsu camp.It was the 40th annual event to promote not only ju-jitsu, but a multitude of other martial arts. Kazimiroff found the new styles, which included tae-kwon-doe, tai-chi and judo, relatively similar, but difficult to succeed in.
âThere are a lot of similarities between the martial arts here, so theyâre easy to learn, but complex to master,â he said.
The schoolâs ju-jitsu coach, sensei Mark Gordon, helped supervise the camp for his 16th year. He offered the school as a venue for the camp. The fifth-degree black belt said it was a good way for his students to learn and experience not only different styles of fighting, but different points of view.
âIt is good experience to see from a lot of different perspectives,â Gordon said.
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The main attractions were aikito and even more specifically, chanbara. Participants were drawn to chanbara because it embodied real life situations. In this event, one martial artist uses foam weapons to attack another, who defends himself.
In all sessions, students were able to work with more experienced martial artists in order to improve their skills or learn new ones.