Another grading sucess

The entire club has really been putting in the effort to get ready for this grading, everyone has been training hard and this really showed on Sunday.

The day started with training for 4^th Kyus and below. We were lucky enough to have both sensei Alan Campbell (now a regular instructor at our grading courses) and Sensei Matt Price (making his first, but I am sure not his last, visit as our guest instructor. Having seen Sensei Matt running the Squad Training sessions after the Black and Brown Belt courses I knew that his instruction is excellent, but what impressed me most was how quickly he had the junior members of all the clubs instantly engaged and hanging off his every word and command.

Sydney with Sensei Matt

After the first hour or so Sensei Matt moved to the more senior members of the clubs whilst Sensei Alan led the gradings. Everyone put in maximum effort to impress the examiners, and impress them they did with Thomas and Harriet both attaining 11^th Kyu, and Sydney (after being singled out by Sensei Matt for her good Stance) passing 10^th Kyu. Richard and Lisa both did well (standing out somewhat as two of the very few adults that were grading and training at that time) and secured 9^th Kyu, well done I always think the first grading can be the most difficult as you don’t really know what to expect! Kian continued his pursuit of his brother Aaron by taking 8th Kyu along with Abigail, Sam and Rebecca (who is managing to keep one step ahead of her mum!).

Phew! The first section of the grading over and already we had 10 successful gradings. More importantly everyone that I have spoken to since the grading has said how much they enjoyed the training and that they have taken a lot from the day.

Sam showing good form with his Yoko Geri Keage

After a short pause and some more instruction from Sensei Matt, this time with the higher Kyu and the Dan grades. The next group of our young karateka were ready to face their examiners. Seven members of the club going for purple belt and I am delighted to say that all of them were successful. Well done to Alex, Rachel, Robert, Lauren, Bailey, Fraser and Jemimah – several of you have other family members who train at the club and you’ll need to work hard to make sure that they don’t start to catch you up! Bethany managed to stay ahead of the pack by not only consolidating her temporary grade from the last grading but also achieving a full grade to 4^th Kyu.

Whilst this was going on Sensei Matt was taking the higher grades through some excellent kumite drills and discussing his views on kumite. I think the one that got the most agreement was that it is a lot more fun to hit the other person than be hit by them! We finished this session with some self defence applications that whilst being practical also proved to be very entertaining! Sensei  Alan finished off the training with a session on Kata, firstly looking at Heian Yondan in detail then taking us through Joko Issei, which was new to most and proved to be a very interesting and demanding kata. I really enjoy these ‘snapshots’ of some of the more unusual or not often practiced kata as they show us the variety and breath of the Shotokan Style of karate.

Bethany and Thomas appear to be enjoying
 their training far too much

With most of our club members already successfully graded the focus now fell onto the higher grades. First up was Alex, who has recently returned to the club after a break from training and sometime experiencing other martial arts. I think it is no secret that Alex was very nervous going into the grading despite the assurances of her instructors, however she really dug deep to put in a strong performance to grade to 3^rd Kyu. Well done Alex, I am sure that your drive and determination will see you to your Shodan.

Last up were our Brown Belts. Thomas, Oliver and Lee were all attempting their 2^nd Kyu and as this was the last group grading there was some extra pressure as all eyes were on them. Needless to say they all rose to the challenge and claimed their next grade. A special mention must go to Lee who achieved this in spite of injuring his ankle earlier in the week.

Oli and Lee get stuck in with the kumite
section of their grading

What a day! With 90 people grading from 6 clubs thanks must go to Sensei Paul for all the hard work he puts in behind the scenes to organise and run these events, and to sensei Alan and Sensei Matt for their excellent instruction. I look forward to the next grading course in February which promises to be even bigger and will be taken by Sensei Alan Campbell and Sensei Scott Langley.

In the meantime, back to the dojo to carry on the journey….