Last weekend saw the welcome return of JKS World Chief
Instructor Masao Kagawa Shihan for the JKS England Technical Seminar.
Mike
Sensei, Jim Sensei, Elizabeth, Dael, Brenda, Olivia, Paul and Ben all made the
trip to Nottingham early on Saturday for what promised to be a day of
exceptional karate. Once we had all gathered at the correct venue (Ben!)
training was underway. The first session focussed on Kihon and Kata. Hip
movement was emphasised through some excellent exercises that I am sure will be
repeated in the dojo, and then much to Dael’s delight Empi was the kata chosen
by Kagawa Shihan to go through in minute detail. One point that echoed Mehrdad
Sensei’s teaching from Thursday was immediate and correct preparation for Shuto
when performing the jump. We were then treated to some Bunkai applications for
some of the combinations which brought some interesting discussion and
experimentation with parts of the kata.
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| Kagawa Shihan |
Following a short lunch break, we were back to training with
a slightly different focus. Kagawa Shihan demonstrated his legendary kicking
ability using Matt Sensei (from Selby) as his target (or more specifically his
head!). We very much enjoyed attempting (not entirely successfully I must
admit!) to replicate this. There followed various partner exercises mixed in
with number of conditioning exercises. Kagawa Shihan made the point very
strongly, that is order to reach our potential we must practice every day, the
benefit of which he displayed most clearly during the seminar.
The last two
hour session seemed to fly by, and it was a sense of disappointment (that it
was over) that we lined up for the closing ceremony. After thanking Kagawa
Shihan for his instruction, Alan Sensei paid a heartfelt tribute to Sensei Paul
Massheder from JKS Bradford who passed away recently.
One of the things that came out strong from this seminar was
Kagawa Shihan’s sense of humour and how much he was enjoying the seminar – it
was a real joy to see a karate-ka of that calibre demonstrating and sharing his
knowledge with us. The other great enjoyment from this type of seminar is to
meet with old friends and to make new ones – you should always try to train
with people from different Dojo’s it gives you a broader range of experience
and input, and helps forge links between clubs.
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| Dael, Mike Sensei, Olivia, Brenda, Jim Sensei, Elizabeth, Paul (B) and Ben with Kagawa Shihan |
Seminar over, Mike, Brenda and Jim stayed to watch the
Sandan and Nidan gradings. There were some very talented karate-ka grading on
Saturday and they all performed brilliantly after a very gruelling and
challenging 4 hour seminar.
A nice surprise for those present was the awarding
of Nanadan (7th Dan) to Alan Campbell Sensei, Chief Instructor of
JKS. Congratulations Sensei! This was swiftly followed by another nice
surprise, the awarding of Godan (5th Dan) to Andrew Jones Sensei
from Kiazen No Michi in Cleethorpes. Congratulations Sensei!
With that rather happy ending we got back in the car for the
journey home, all of us were a little tired and sore, but very contented after
a day of exceptional karate.
visit www.haxbykarate.co.uk to find out more about our Club. For more information email info@haxbykarate.co.uk
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