How I met Ivar Hafskjold
Published: Thu, 07/09/15
Well, the day has arrived. Yesterday Venetia and I were getting tents out of the loft and collecting up other equipment we are going to need for Stav Camp. Ivar is arriving just before 5pm, I am meeting the lady who looks after the hall and collecting the keys at 3pm. People will be arriving from then onwards. Then we have to sort out the kitchen, put up tents and be ready to go first thing tomorrow morning.
The day will begin with staff exercises and stances before breakfast and then after breakfast four training sessions each day. There will be a balance between talking sessions and active physical training. We will ask Ivar to talk about the Volspa in particular and how his family made sense of the mythology central to Stav. I am not quite sure how it will work out yet, I know how to make a camp work but I am never quite sure what will come out of it. That is part of the fun of being there.
At this stage before a Stavcamp I find myself remembering how I first met Ivar. I was in my early 30s at the time and somehow I was ready for something new in my life. Ivar had just returned to Europe from Japan and had bought a house in Beverley, just a few miles from where lived at the time. Of course that does not mean that we would necessarily have met each other. The key factor was that Ivar was interviewed for a Martial arts magazine and a four page article resulted. I was in a newsagents at the Bransholm centre in North Hull and found myself scanning the magazine stand. I had not bought a martial arts magazine in a long time. However, for some reason I still don’t fully understand, I found myself purchasing a copy of Martial Arts International. Inside was the article about Ivar, so I wrote to him and was invited to meet up. Ivar’s experience was very different to mine, I had done quite a lot of martial arts at that
point in my life but Ivar had trained for 14 years in Japan and before that grown up with Stav in Norway. He had a lot of other interesting experiences too, one thing we did have in common was an on/off relationship with the military, Ivar having been in the Norwegian special forces, I was active in the TA at the time.
I honestly did not understand a lot of what Ivar was telling me and showing me but I did have a very strong sense of; ‘here is someone who can teach me something I don’t already know’, and that was good enough for me. I still feel the same way now and that is one of the many reasons I am looking forward to the next three days. I hope everyone else who comes has the same expectation, they probably do which is why they are coming. I always do learn something new at Stavcamp and last year Ivar saw one of the exercises I had developed for teaching the staff, the Mann exercise I think and he said that it was actually better than the version he uses. Well, had to happen once in 22 years I guess. Ivar also gets a chance to check on what I am teaching and occasionally he has a word of advice on how I am heading in the wrong direction or how I could improve on what I am doing. Most of the time he seems quite happy, so the occasional words
have a great deal of value and I do my best to heed them
So, today is last chance to support the camp and reserve your copy of the recordings of teachings and training that happens. I don’t know for sure what will be included because I don’t know fully what will happen, but it will be interesting. http://www.stavcamp.org to reserve your copy.
regards
Graham