Huntington Primary Academy Demonstration

Following an email from the Huntington Primary Academy PTA Jim, Elizabeth, Brenda, Mary, Nixon, Zach, Will, Annie and Poppy all gathered on the playing field of the Academy on a bright and sunny Saturday morning a week before the grading.

As this was a demonstration for a primary school, we had deliberately encouraged the junior members of the club to participate, and as it was only a week before the recent grading we had made sure that what we were demonstrating was taken as much as possible from the grading syllabus.

The Demonstration team

We started, as we usually do, with some Kihon, and once everyone remembered to Kiai on each move we really started to draw a crowd. We then moved onto Kata, with the junior gardes performing Heian Shodan, then Will and Poppy performing Heian Sandan, Will then stepped out on his own to do Heian Godan (one of his strongest kata performances so far!), then Elizabeth finished off the kata section with a very focussed Bassai Dai, showing some more sophisticated combinations in a black belt level kata.

Heian Shodan

The build up to the grand finale started with target kumite, and Gohon (5 Step) kumite, with everyone putting in very spirited performances. Will and Elizabeth then took the centre of the arena to perform some very strong and focused Kihon Ippon (1 Step) Kumite. Jim then took Will’s place to demonstrate some more advanced Kihon Ippon techniques all of which seemed to result with Elizabeth ending up on the floor getting punched!

For the finale, and as it is traditional that just about any demonstration ends up with Jim getting beaten up!  Brenda was demonstrating some self-defence applications with Jim. She might have got a little carried away – chasing him around the arena to finish him off (with a kick up the bum!) – but the crowd loved it! And it definitely demonstrated the point that age is not barrier to karate.

Poppy and Will performing Heian Sandan

All in all it was a brilliant demonstration, it showed off some of the values that we love in our club – family atmosphere, sprit, focus and an attention to the foundations. Several members of the audience (and the PTA) came up to us afterwards to say how much they enjoyed the demonstration.

Brenda looks like she is enjoying this far too much!

Everyone who took part in the demonstration should be very proud of themselves, and a big thank you to Jim, Elizabeth, Brenda, Mary, Nixon, Zach, Will, Annie and Poppy for all their hard work getting ready for the demonstration and for giving up their Saturday Morning to show what a brilliant club they belong to!

Thanks to James Vince for the photographs.

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