Kangeiko 2017

Jim, Mollie, Mary, Helen, and Ben after training

It was a very cold morning, just over a week ago that I stepped out to scrape the ice from the car at 5am. Once again I was off to Cleethorpes to join our friends at Kiazen No Michi for the last day of their annual Kangeiko (traditional cold weather training). Once again I was not alone, this time I had Helen and Mollie in my car and Ben was taking Mary, this was the most people I think we have ever had attending Kangeiko.

 

Mary and Mollie doing one of the warm ups

We met up with Ben and Mary, the Three Amigos from Selby (Paul Sensei, Simon and Karl), and a host of people from Kiazen on the cold Seafront in Cleethorpes, and soon enough training was underway.

Andy Sensei taking us through Meikio kata

Jackie Sensei took us for a quick warm up and then we were off on the run along the Seafront to get our blood pumping. When I say we were off – I’m really talking about Ben and Mollie, who disappeared like a shot, leaving us more seasoned karate-ka to complete the run at a more sedate pace (thank you to Paul Sensei for being my running partner and making it easier to keep going!).

 

Helen and Ben doing Jackie Senseis' partner drills

We then moved onto the beach and the instruction started with Jackie Sensei taking through a session devoted to Gyaku Tzuki. I was partnered with Kevin from Kiazen, always good fun to train with him. Andy Sensei then took us through a series of running games and finished the training off by taking us through Meikio, with some useful and interesting Bunkai, I was partnered with Karl from Selby for this bit, who I have never trained with before – this is one of the joys of these courses – training with someone new.

More Meikio practice!

Training over, there was a short photo session and we all rushed to the café for one of highlights of the day – a substantial fry up! – although admittedly Ben’s was a bit more substantial than everyone else’s! We then left for the ride home, which, with conversation flowing didn’t seem to take long at all.

 

The obligatory group photo!

I’d like to thank Andy and Jackie Sensei for their invitation, and encourage any club members who might be interested to join us next year (or in the summer for Bears on the Beach).

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