The fourth KSW camp ended a few days ago. For the second time it was held in the Sports and Recreation Resort in Jakubowo. The attendance was huge, the moods were great, so the trainings under KSW Team fighters could commence in full swing.

EUROPEAN STYLE

The opportunity to train with the best mixed martial artists attracted to Mazury many MMA students from all over Europe. There were people from Britain (from Glasgow, Nottingham, Manchester and London), Geneva and Germany. For some it took only a few-hours drive to Jakubowo, while others spent more than twenty hours in trains, buses and cars to be in there on time. Eventually all the participants make it to the camp and the whole group was present on the first day.
The first encounter with coaches (Krzysztof Kulak and Antoni Chmielewski) was scheduled for the first day of the camp. Camp coordinator Michal Garnys divided sixty participants into two groups: adults and under-age. After some organizational stuff, we could all start the training on the mat.
Daniel from Warsaw was the first victim of misfortune. During the casual rolling on the mat he injured his ribs and had to be checked out in hospital. Unfortunately it wasn’t the end of his bad luck. The next day he twisted his ankle while leaving the mat. The injury was so severe (damaged articular capsule) that he wasn’t able to participate in any trainings till the end of the camp.

WARM-UP – THE PART OF THE TRAINING DAY MOST DISLIKED BY THE CAMPERS

Each day of the KSW camp commenced with an early warm-up. At 7:30 am the whole group had to be ready in front of the hotel. Every coach had their own “waking-up methods”. Krzysztof Kulak preferred running and lake swimming. Antoni Chmielewski liked to take all the guys to the mat to do some stretching. Jan Blachowicz’s warm-up consisted of three five-minute rounds of shadow boxing. However, the harshest wake-up awaited the campers from Maciej Gorski. Known for his extraordinary conditioning “Highlander” prepared a special running routine for the participants. The six-kilometer jog woke up even the most drowsy ones. – Everyone did really great. If I had revealed the length of the jog before the warm-up, most of them would have quitted before the start. Fortunately everyone kept the pace and made it to the finish – Gorski said.

TECHNIQUE, SPARRINGS WITH JUDO PLAYERS AND OUTDOOR TRAININGS

- Guys and gals, we’re doing technique now, so don’t be overly aggressive – the coaches repeated before each training. Nobody came to Jakubowo to battle it out on the mat, they came to learn new skills and upgrade their MMA technique. However, there were obviously some guys with too much testosterone and they didn’t understand what it means to take it lightly. Fortunately, the coaches were alert and were able to calm them down the wild guys when it was needed by defeating their psychical strength with experience and cleverness.
On the fourth day of the KSW camp the participants were able to test their grappling skills against Judo players from Wisla Cracow preparing for the World Cup. The man of Cracow were overly self-confident before the sparrings, but they couldn’t be more wrong. They lost every match giving up their backs. One rear-naked choke after another. I don’t think anyone has ever seen so many submissions with the same technique in an hour. – We had the advantage as our guys fought without gis and that was really difficult for Judo players. They didn’t have anything to grab – Antoni Chmielewski, who is a former Judoka, explained.
Wisla Cracow’s loss was undisputed and they couldn’t really deal with this fact. To rebuild their egos they decided to brag about their skills to resort’s cooks. The women had to listen to their claims how unbeatable they are and how much we still need to learn to match their skills. Well, the talk is cheap indeed.
Beside the training on the mat, there were also the outdoor activities. Once again we set up a familiar triathlon – swimming, canoeing and a two-kilometer run as well as a special conditioning training consisting of fifteen different stations (i.e. Fedor’s hammer or log lifting). Krzysztof Kulak turned out to be the best in triathlon, which is not a surprise because he used to be a lifeguard so he can both swim and run really fast. We didn’t measure the time during the second part of the workout so it’s hard to determine who was the best.

EXCUSE ME, WHICH WAY IS JAKUBOWO?

Every camp brings unforgettable experiences – good and bad, as well as a lot of laughter and funny incidents. We won’t mention those bad ones, because it would take too much time and we would need to use words related to excrements. However, I wrote down one funny incident. It happened during our triathlon workout. Janek Blachowicz who did outstandingly well in canoeing, would rather forget about the running part of the exercise. After he had come out of the water, almost everyone was sure that his combined time would be great. They couldn’t be more wrong. After ten minutes Janek was nowhere to be found. Ten minutes later he was still missing, even though all of the other participants finished their run. When he finally crossed the finish line, everybody asked what happened. - I took the wrong turn and I had to ask some peasant how to return to the resort– Blachowicz said with a smile on his face. One other camper made a similar mistake. Just like Blachowicz he took the wrong turn, he went straight instead of turning left. He would have probably run farther, but he spotted a board with neighboring city’s name. His sense of direction was so bad that he was completely lost. Thankfully one of the locals drove him back to the resort.
Besides the above mentioned there were many other funny incidents. No one is going to forget Wojciech Orlowski’s “derby”. However, we’re not going to explain the meaning of the word. If you want to learn about it you have to attend the next KSW camp.

I CAME TO THE KSW CAMP TO BECOME A FIGHTER!

The penultimate night, 2:10 am. All campers are already asleep. All besides the KSW Team fighters, who prepared a special baptism of fire for the participants. Twenty minutes later with a “we’re entering” signal it all started. Loud knocking on the doors and an order: “take your mouth guard, sweatshirt, shoes and go outside”. For some it was a surprise, for others a complete shock, they were leaving their rooms forgetting about the equipment. After a few brief moments the whole group was serried and ready before the hotel building. The drill was led by Waldemar “Wall-E” Kasta, who was also present at the camp. As befits the true corporal (that’s Kasta’s military rank) he started the typical military warm-up. Push-ups! He ordered and everyone without hesitation was doing the exercise. After a few series of push-ups, the campers head out running for the place of destination. The group was accompanied by coaches Gorski and Wojciech Orlowski. The latter one prepared even a special song for this occasion, which was sung during the run.
The place of destination was at the nearby beach. Once they get there they saw a stream of light from a few cars and a lake, where they were set to battle. Campers were divided into two groups, one in shirts, one without. Both teams had to enter the water and take down all the guys from the opposite team. After a short battle the winners were decided, but it wasn’t the end of the competition. Now they had to battle against the team which was baptized earlier. The task was easy, they had to capture the pirate flag of the opposing team. Ready? Steady? Go! The team who was just baptized won another showdown, but the rematch was necessary because they lost their flag during the battle. The next clash was even more tight, but the same team was victorious again.

BONFIRE BURNS

It was the last day of the camp. A light training, a lunch, a dinner and a bonfire, which ended the fourth KSW camp. We had a delicious grilled sausages, some MMA talks and a modest ceremony of awarding certificates for completing the camp. The atmosphere was really nice and it showed how tight the campers became after all this time. However, everyone had it in the back of their heads, that tomorrow they would leave home and the next meeting with all new friends would be possible not before the next KSW camp in winter or at the KSW 14 show.
Even after liters of sweat, early wake-up calls, viruses, mosquitoes most of the campers whished it hadn’t been the last day of the camp. Many, though weary, wanted to stay in Jakubowo for another few days. We couldn’t do anything about it other than invite everyone for the next KSW camp!