Grading success

Well, Sunday saw another very successful grading for the club, and built nicely on the Nidan and Sandan course that we hosted the day before.

Due to the unavailability of our previous venue, the grading was taking place at Milthorpe School, and other than being a little cold the venue seemed to cope quite well with having 100+ karate-ka and all the spectators.

Paul (B) showing off his back stance

It was always going to be a busy day, there were a lot of kyu gradings, a larger than normal number of Shodan (full gradings and re-takes) attempts, and of course some world class karate training led by our two Instructors Alan Campbell Sensei, (6^th Dan), Chief Instructor of JKS England, and Steve Carless Sensei (6^th Dan).

Unfortunately I did not get to see a lot of the training, but in common with our other courses it ranged from the grading syllabus to more advance kata. Judging from the noise I could hear from the balcony it certainly seemed that everyone was enjoying themselves and working hard.

It was also nice to see a number of the attendees of Saturday’s Nidan and Sandan course on the Sunday – they were fairly easy to spot – they were the ones complaining about the stiffness in their legs and stretching them out after all the burpees that we did!

It always seems that the gradings come around very quickly on these courses, and Sunday was no exception, soon enough the results were coming in thick and fast! Jasmine was first up, and got the club off to a good start with a successful 12^th Kyu pass. She was quickly followed by what seemed like most of the rest of the clubs junior members – Zach, Jeon, Daniel, Thomas and Grace were all successful and achieved 10^th (Zach)  and 9^th (everyone else) Kyu respectively.

Paul (D) and Mary, our adult beginners, were up next and despite Mary’s nerves both put in solid performances to pass their first Grading and gain their 9^th Kyu Red Belt. Not to be outdone by his Gran Nixon showed his usual determination to stay one step ahead of her by gaining his 8^th Kyu alongside Stanish. 

 

A successful Mary and Nixon with Mike Sensei

Mollie, our other beginner was up next. I know that Mollie sometimes suffers from a lack of confidence about her karate, but none of this was evident as she effortlessly (it seemed) doubled graded to 8^th Kyu. Mollie has a lot of potential and shows all the signs of being able to go very far in her karate journey.

It was then time for some more of our junior members with Edwin and Poppy stepping in front of the grading panel. Both of these young karate-ka take their karate very serious and this shows in their training, and it also showed in their grading – they were both successful in attaining 7^th Kyu Yellow Belt. This means that you are no longer beginners, but the training and expected standard does get harder from now on!

Not to be outdone by these youngsters, Paul (R) and Ben also passed their 7^th Kyu. For both of them this represents another step on their karate journey – they will need to keep up the hard work if they do not want to get overtaken by some of the talented younger members of the club like Poppy and Edwin!

Irena was next up, and considering that she did not think that she was ready before the grading she delivered an assured performance to reach 6^th Kyu Green Belt. It does go to show that we need to trust Mike Sensei’s judgement about if we are ready to grade or not.

It was then back over to the junior clubs members as a quartet of green belts stepped onto the floor and were all successful in trading in their tired old green belts for some shiny new purple ones!  Congratulations to William, Aiwin, Oliver and Aidan on all successfully achieving 5^th Kyu. This marks the midpoint of the kyu grades and you have some hard work ahead as we start to prepare you for Brown belt, and ultimately Black belt.

Olivia with a very proud Dad!

The last of our trio of Pauls (B this time!) was looking to take his first grading since coming back to Karate, and in the dojo his confidence had been knocked by some small memory lapses. However, none of this was present on the day as he put in an assured performance to achieve 4^th Kyu. Be warned Paul, Mike and Ian Sensei were watching your grading and will expect that level of performance in the dojo from now on!

Olivia was the last member of our club for a Kyu grading. Olivia seems to have blossomed since joining our club and this trend continued with a successful Brown Belt (3^rd Kyu) pass. She now has Shodan firmly in her sights, and got some useful feedback from Alan Sensei on what he will expect of her the next time she steps in front of him to grade.

A special mention needs to be made of all the club members that attend these courses even though they are not grading. Sometimes I must admit that I forget to mention them, but Kai, Elzabeth, and Bethany all trained hard.

 

With the Kyu gradings complete it was time for the Dan gradings. And to be honest, for our club, we were only really interested on one of them. Brenda was re-taking the Kumite element of her grading. She took an accidental injury to her shoulder whilst training, and despite being in a quite serious amount of pain was determined that nothing was going to stop her.

Before we knew it she was called up in front of the grading panel (Alan, Steve and Mike Senseis) and she started to put in her trademark focussed performance. Her concentration wavered when she received an impact on her injured shoulder, but Alan Sensei asked her to repeat one of the defences. This is an important point to make – the grading panels are looking to pass you if they can, they will ask you to repeat combinations or moves, if they feel it was a momentary lapse and you have the potential to pass.

 

A successful Brenda with her supporters!

Then began the intolerable wait for the rest of the gradings to be completed, and the paperwork done before the results were announced. Helen, Holly and Jonathan all appeared in time to watch the Dan grading and support Brenda, and everyone was on edge waiting for the result....

SHODAN PASS!

As a club we are very proud of Brenda. Her determination and spirit put many of us to shame and she is an excellent example and role model. A well deserved pass saw Brenda in floods of tears (with relief) and I am sure that I saw a tear in Mike Sensei’s eye! A fitting end to a very successful grading course for the club.

I would like to thank Alan and Steve Sensei for their excellent instruction, and of course Paul Sensei for this outstanding organisation and administration of the course.

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