A Very Special Course

On Sunday 7^th April, over 70 karateka gathered at York University for a ‘Special’ Karate Course. We had arranged for Alan Campbell, Scott Langley, and Rob McCartney Sensei to provide the instruction.

The course was split into two sections. Sensei Alan took the adults and senior grades for the first session on Junro Shodan, focusing on correct turning and spinning on the heel or ball of the foot. He then handed over to Sensei Scott who focused on the two handed simultaneous block and attack moves in Junro

Nidan. The class was completed by sensei Rob showing lots of applications to Heian Sandan. There was certainly a lot of discussion after each session about what had just been covered, and a lot of people practicing some of the moves to

make sure that they would not forget them – always the sign of very engaging, useful and motivating instruction!

Meanwhile the Junior karateka were put through their paces by Paul, Lorraine and Jim Sensei. The first hour consisted of warm up games – designed to increase their concentration and attention. For the second session Sensei Paul had arranged for

Kat, one of the Olympic torch bearers, to talk to the children about her experience of carrying the Olympic torch, and there were lots of games based around the campaign for Karate to be in the 2020 Olympics. Things got (a little) more serious in the final session when we had a kumite based competition for the children. There were several rounds of ‘grab the tag’ –

where you have to grab the ribbon in your opponent’s belt whilst protecting your tag – ideal practice for real kumite (and the upcoming Selby Competition!). Medals were awarded for the top competitors by Sensei Alan.

Kat’s endless patience in giving absolutely everyone who wanted the opportunity to have their photo taken with her and

her Olympic torch was rewarded when Sensei Paul surprised her with a cheque from the Selby Karateka who has done nearly 6000 sponsored karate technique in order to raise money to help Kat with her sports training.

This surely was enough to make the course special – an afternoon of excellent karate instruction, karate based fun, games, and a mini competition for the younger karateka, a visit from an Olympic torch bearer! But no, the main reason we were all there had yet to be revealed (well to two of the people there anyway!).

For the past seven months John, Paul and Jim had been plotting to deliver a little surprise to Sensei Mike and Sensei Ian. They had even gone so far as to involve the entire committee from the Haxby Club (with the exception of Mike and Ian of course). The reason given for the course was to allow those clubs which had recently joined the JKS (as the North Yorkshire clubs had) to have an intensive introduction to the Junro Katas, which they may not

have trained extensively in before. The real reason for the course was to raise funds to send Mike and Ian on this year’s annual JKS trip to Japan!

Ian was a founder member of the club back in 1981 and Mike has been instructing for over 20 years. Neither of them has ever taken any money out of the club, for their instruction or for anything else, in fact they have put their own money into the club on several occasions to keep the club going for their students. We felt that it was high time that we showed them just how much

this dedication and passion about the club means to their students. They have never mentioned the effort they have put in to the club or asked for anything in return – when the club nominated them for ‘Older People Champions’ last year it was clear that they did not look for any recognition (judging by the amount of trouble we were in for doing it!). Mike and Ian have never had the opportunity to train at the Hombu Dojo in Japan, and the entire club, felt that this was a suitable reward for their years of leadership of the club. Needless to say we (the plotters) were very grateful to have Sensei Scott there to make the announcement as he would be leading the trip to Japan.

We managed to pull off a total surprise and I don’t think that Mike and Ian could quite believe that over 70 karateka had come to help show what high regard they are held by our community. Indeed it is reflection of how well that they are respected that all the instructors volunteered their service free of charge.

We would like to thank everyone who attended the course for

helping us to surprise our instructors. In particular Sensei Alan Campbell, Sensei Scott Langley and Sensei Rob McCartney for leading the course and providing their instruction free of charge. We would also like to thank Sensei Paul Giannandrea (JKS Scotland – Chief Instructor) for the kind donation of a Hirota Gi for us to raffle – luckily the Gi will be order to size, as I’m guessing the lucky winner (the very tall Dave Stavenau from

Selby) will not be exactly a standard size! A huge thank you to Sensei Paul – without his organisational skills the course would certainly not have been anywhere near as fantastic as it proved to be!

The final thank you has got to go to Sensie Mike and Sensei Ian for their years of dedication to the club, without them the club would not have survived and certainly would not be the thriving, friendly and successful club that it is today.

OSU Senseis

visit www.haxbykarate.co.uk to find out more about our Club. For more information email info@haxbykarate.co.uk