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Erik wrote:
That was the distinction I was wondering about. The first ASU book I saw was very explicit that you had to go to Summer (Colorado) or Winter (Washington, maybe Florida now?) camp. Then I noticed a fair amount of people getting promoted in these parts and I figured that wasn't exactly the case. I was happy to hear that. It's not a trivial thing to have to go half way across the country for a week to be promoted to shodan.
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Well, that still begs the question because it is required at Nidan. In my experience the camps are required in order to do a couple of things. Give the Senseis a chance to see the next generation of up and coming students, and to forge some unity between the instructors of the organization. I believe that these are important goals.
There is a tendency to be a big fish in a small pond. You get your Black Belt in your dojo and become someone important. In many dojos you will be teaching classes at times. For folks for whom the status is really more important than the training itself there is little incentive to get out of the dojo and see what's out there.
I have been attending camps for a good twenty years or so. I've gotten a bit blase about going although it's always fun. Butthis year a couple of my junior students went to DC Summer Camp. It was great to hear about the experience from their point of view, how much there was to learn, how many really good people there were to train with. It was a transforming experience for them.
Doing a camp simply requires planning. If you set aside around $80 / month for one year you could gp to just about any camp. When most people say that they can't afford camp they simply mean that it isn't as important to them as the other things they are spending their money on.