Trip to Grantham Shotokan Karate Club

The after training photo

 Mike Sensei had been invited by Geoff Dixon Sensei to instruct at his club, so on Sunday afternoon Mike Sensei, Ian (T), and I were joined by Paul Sensei from Selby for the drive down the A1 to Grantham.

Arriving in good time we were warmly greeted by Geoff Sensei (who had just arrived after teaching all day for Steve Carless Sensei in Walsall) and welcomed to the club. Geoff Sensei has a small fully matted and well-equipped Dojo, which provided a perfect setting for the training session.

The junior class was just finishing up and we were able to observe Neil Bukavs Sensei taking them through some basics and games to finish off their training.

Soon enough the senior class started to arrive and we were pleased to see that Duncan Blades Sensei from Sho Gai Karate Club and Andy Beeston Sensei from Cotgrave Shotokan Karate Club were joining us for the session.

After a brief introduction Mike Sensei took us quickly through the warm ups and then started with some basic exercises focusing on hip rotation, and then building up to some more complex partner exercises to reinforce his points. From there Mike Sensei took us through some more unusual kumite drills before finishing with Heian Shodan.

I must say that I was impressed with the karate-ka that I partnered with, their spirit, technical ability, and focus was excellent, but more than that we were made to feel very welcome indeed.

Training over, we retired to a local hostelry to restore our fluid levels before the drive home. I would like to thank Geoff Sensei for the invitation to his club. If you ever get the chance to train there I highly recommend it. It was great to reinforce our links with other clubs in the JKS family and to make new ones.

Geoff Sensei will be visiting us on Thursday to look at the changes to the Refereeing rules that have just been brought in. I look forward to welcoming him back to our club.

OSU

Jim

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