On the 3rd and 4th of November OGKN attended the annual Sensei Bakkies Laubscher Black Belt Gasshuku in the beautiful winelands of Stellenbosch, South Africa. The highly anticipated Gasshuku has always been a permanent fixture on OGKNs year calendar but due to covid restrictions the past years events were only attended virtually.

Sensei’s Carl van der Merwe, Stefan van der Merwe and Rene Bader departed on Friday morning and arrived shortly before lunch. Upon arrival for the first session on Friday afternoon it was announced that Sensei Bakkies had unfortunately severely injured himself with a bad cut to his right leg on Friday morning and was struggling to control the bleeding. In his absence, Sensei Vincent February, one of Sensei Bakkies most senior Yudansha, continued to present Friday afternoons general black belt session.

Despite his injury, Sensei Bakkies was back on the floor on Saturday morning to present the remainder of the Gasshuku and the black belt grading which took place that afternoon. “As always, the gasshuku was of an exceptionally high caliber, covering many intricacies of both traditional Goju-Ryu kata and kumite. It was great to once again train alongside many of our old friends and to make new ones. We look forward to going back to the dojo and passing on what was learnt to our students back at home! OGKN would like to thank Sensei Bakkies, his wife Denise, and the entire TOGKF South Africa for once again welcoming us with open arms. We look forward to having you join us next year for our 45th Anniversary event in Namibia.” – Sensei Carl van der Merwe