Sensei Marshall McDonagh (Kyoshi and President Taikiken Europe) and Sensei Åke Wall (Kyoshi Taikiken) were invited to the celebration of ACBB's 50th anniversary. Unfortunately, Sensei Marshall could not participate for health reasons, so Sensei Åke Wall represented Sweden and Yoshinken. Other invitees from Europe were Sensei Hans Bakker Holland (Kyoshi Taikiken and vice president Taikiken Europa), Sensei Wiert Postema (Renshi Taikiken) Holland and Laurent Rouzeau (Renshi Taikiken) France.

I landed in Paris on Friday afternoon and was picked up from the airport by Sensei Romain Anselmo who drove me to the hotel where I met up with Hans Bakker, Wiert Postema and Julian Portier.

Saturday morning, we watched all the children train together with the advanced adults and were after training offered cookies and soft drinks. Once at ACBB, we had a happy reunion with Shihan Jacques Legree (Founder of ACBB Karate).
After lunch there were workshops for both Taikiken and Kyokushinkai Karate. I instructed one of the sessions with both advanced and beginners in Taikiken.

When the training was finished and we were changed, there was a beautiful speech to all ACBB members, but of course especially to Shihan Jacques Legree.

Speaker list:
Pierre Philippe HEIZER (President ACBB karate).
Julian Portier (Head Coach Shihan ACBB karate and Kyoshi Taikiken)
Pierre Lapebie (Sifu Tai Chi Chuan)
Åke Wall (Kyoshi Yoshinken Sweden)
Armelle Gendarme (Vice-Mayor of Paris)

After my speech, I presented a gift to Shihan Jaques from Yoshinken. A wooden plaque I cut from a tree in our Dojo in Hagaparken with the calligraphy for Yoshinken, it was from the same tree that the plaque Shin-ShinBuKen Amsterdam got last year at their 50-year anniversary and this to tie together TEF dojos in Europe.

After beautiful speeches, there were drinks with mingling and snacks in the French manner. In the evening we were invited to a very nice restaurant with Shihan Legree and parts of ACBB's Budokas.

On Sunday, there was Taiki training led by Sensei Hans Bakker. Very good training in a nice park in Paris (Parc de Saint-Cloud) and in sunshine.

After the training, a picnic was offered, also in the French way, with wine (if you wanted) to go with lots of very nice French dishes. Then I had some coffee in a nice garden at one ACBBs student and then I was driven to the airport.

A big thank you for a nice weekend and to everyone in ACBB who in a nice way helped us and guided us during the weekend. All weekend we were well looked after by Budokas from ACBB. Especially then by Shihan Julian Portier but also many others.

And once again, congratulations Shihan Legree and ACBB to 50 years.

Åke Wall

Kyoshi Yoshinken