Xmas Course 2018

It had seemed to come around very quickly this year, but it was with a definite sense of anticipation that Ian sensei, Olivia, Romie, Lucy, Ellie and I met up down in Nottingham for the annual JKS Christmas Course. We all took advantage of the time before the course started to do some gentle stretching and warm ups, and to catch up with our extended karate family and friends that we have got to know by coming to these courses over the years.

Alan Sensei called the class to order and before training began invite Steve Sensei from Selby to say a few words about the recent trip to the JKS International Seminar in Japan. After that and the warm ups, we were handed over to Steve Carless Sensei (6^th Dan) for the first part of the course. The main part of this session was all about the legs – some additional warms ups to get the blood flowing and various exercises to improve our kicking ability and range followed before we moved onto practice not just kicking, but also defences against kicks which all built up to a really nice partner drill which emphasised the importance on moving sideways with the block and being close enough for a counter attack.

After a quick run through of Heian Nidan, Steve Sensei finished his teaching with and exploration of Meikyo Nidan, a kata not many of us had looked at before, but perfect for the Christmas course where you expect to be presented with something a little different!

Club photo a solid turn out

After a quick break for lunch Matt Price Sensei (JKS 6^th Dan) took over the instruction and the initial focus was about controlling the distance between yourself and your opponent in kumite, what attacks to throw when, and the importance of footwork. When then moved onto reaction times and reducing your ‘tells’ when you are attacking. From here the focus shifted with some self defence techniques and the ‘chaos’ drill – which we will have to try at the club sometime.

All in all, a great end to the year!

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