Christmas Party

Monday the 10^th of December saw everyone arrive at the dojo for a reason other than training. It was time once again for our annual Christmas party. As had become a bit of a tradition with our parties we had hired something inflatable to keep everyone amused – this year it was an inflatable ‘jousting’ platform where you struggle to knock your opponent off their podium, whilst trying to stay upright on yours. No surprises it proved to be hugely popular with young and old, with a constant queue of excited potential combatants.

 

Making a welcome return were the fighting kangaroo suits, which whilst open to all some of our younger members struggled as they couldn’t see out of the neck hole as the suits were too big.

 

For those of us who wanted a welcome change from hitting each other there was a disco (kindly provided by Helen and Robin) and in the smaller room there was a quieter area for people to chat and enjoy some of the pizza and home baked goodies that were on offer.

It was great to see some of our friends from Selby had chosen to join us. Abi, Dave (and PJ) all came along. Abi has just started working down in Oxford so we don’t get to see her anywhere as much as we would like.



 

 

 

 

As usual we were touched by the generosity of our members and their families who once again amazed us with donations for raffle prizes. This proved to be a highlight of the evening and I don’t think we have seen anyone as excited as Thomas F to win a light fitting and a box of Tea!

We like to take the opportunity at these events to thank some of the people who have worked hard to make the club the success that it is today. Sensei Ian thanked Sensei Mike for his hard work and dedication in providing the instruction for the club – none of the instructors get paid or take any money for their efforts, but without them the club could not function.

Sensei Mike then managed to surprise Bob with a small token of our appreciation. Bob, as well as helping to man the sign in desk, has become the clubs unofficial photographer and bus driver. He cheerfully offers his help in any way he can. Without the support of parents and family members the club would not be able to provide as many opportunities for our members.

Thank you to Brenda, Lorraine, Helen and everyone else who helped out on the night, or to arrange the party. Thank you to everyone who donated gifts for the raffle and to Sensei Mike and Sensei Ian for making the club the warm family friendly place that we all enjoy so much.

2012 proved to be a very successful year for the club, roll on 2013 as I am sure will be going from strength to strength!

visit www.haxbykarate.co.uk to receive a free training session. For more information email info@haxbykarate.co.uk

Haxby Karate Kids - December's Friend

It was no surprise to me, who was taking Dojo home for Christmas!

Having been awarded him in November, Oliver was having so much fun that he didn't want him to leave just yet.
He was determined that he was going to keep Dojo so he made every effort and got those points rolling in.
Oliver was keen to check the points board every session to see who was closing the gap.

This is the first Christmas that Dojo has spent with friends and I'm sure that come the first training day that he will need to shed some of the festive cheer that he will of put on.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all members and their families a very Happy Christmas and a Wonderful New Year

Lorraine

visit www.haxbykarate.co.uk to receive a free training session. For more information email info@haxbykarate.co.uk

Beginners Class - Your Local Link

The January 2013 issue of the Your Local Link featured a photo alongside an article about our beginners class we are holding on January 14th. http://www.yourlocallink.co.uk/

With kind permsission of Your Local Link


visit www.haxbykarate.co.uk to receive a free training session. For more information email info@haxbykarate.co.uk

New Year Beginners Class

Have you made a New Years Resolution to keep fit, or would you like help shifting the extra pounds you have put on over Christmas - then come along to our New Years Beginners Course:



visit www.haxbykarate.co.uk to receive a free training session. For more information email info@haxbykarate.co.uk

JKS Christmas Course and Dan Grading

The JKS Christmas Course 2012

 The JKS Christmas Course is always a highlight of the year. To be honest we don’t really need a reason other than it is an opportunity to train with both Sensei Alan Campbell and Sensei Scott Langley. But it is also a great opportunity for some of our up and coming brown belts to come along and see the type of training they will be getting on the regular Black and Brown Belts courses, essential if they wish to be consider for their Shodan grading.

Sensei John standing out from the crowd!

This time we came by the bus load! Brenda having once again arranged the loan of the mini bus (which Bob kindly volunteered to drive). Representing the club were Bethany, Elizabeth, Adam, Jonathan, Dael, Brenda, Holly, Lorraine, Pete, Sensei Mike, Sensei Ian, Sensei John, and Sensei Jim.

Dael showing excellent control

The training, as you would expect, was excellent. Sensei Scott focussed on relaxed movement, only keeping kime for a split second, and using kime at any point of a movement not just at the end. This culminated in a different approach to Heian Shoad – where instead of stopping at the point where the attack or block is delivered, you stop at the preparation point for the next move, but still have to deliver the attack or block with full kime. This was a very interesting (and challenging) exercise and also nicely displayed just how useful kata are as a tool for teaching karate. We then finished off with defences from multiple attackers.

Bethany being toughened up by Brenda!

Sensei Alan nicely complemented this theme by looking at more relaxed and circular self defence techniques, and some toughening exercises. Finishing off with taking us through Nijushiho, and advanced kata, which has much to challenge you, but when performed well is very graceful.

All in all it was a hugely enjoyable course, and a great opportunity to train with some friends from the JKS, and make some new ones!

Brenda, Adam, Bethany & Elizabeth

The bus then departed leaving behind just some of the senior members of the club. A couple of whom were trying hard to control their nerves as Lorraine and Pete were going to be attempting their Shodan Gradings.

Sensei Mike, once again was asked to be part of the grading panel, and the rest of us could only watch nervously as the gradings started. Both of our karateka did themselves and the club proud, putting in very strong grading performances – I know that they will provide a whole list of small things that they feel they did wrong – but sometimes we are our harshest critic.

Sensei Mike with the grading panel

All too soon (but having been there it seems like an eternity!) it was the time for the results to be announced – Pete aced both the Kihon and Kata sections, but was asked to repeat the kumite part of his grading at the 24^th February 2013 – to us it looked like he easily dominated his opponent, but there were a couple of technical points that the panel picked up on.
As soon as it was announced that Lorraine had successfully passed her Shodan grading she immediately burst into tears! (Thank you to Sensei Wendy for running over with a tissue for her).

Pete practicing one of the self
defence applications

Well done to both our karateka. It takes a huge amount of dedication and courage even to attempt your Shodan grading, let alone put in the quality of the performances that Pete and Lorraine did. It is a testament to Pete’s character that he was back to training as normal the following week – karate is a journey and there will be the occasional bumps along the way – it takes dedication, commitment and determination to overcome them.

Following the training there was a JKS Instructors meeting, where once again Haxby & Selby were thanked for our donation to the England Squad fund last year.

Sensei Mike ensuring that Lorraine
 attacks with maximum spirit!

The final part of the day was a meal out in Nottingham with Sensei Alan, Sensei, Wendy, Sensei Scott and others. To our surprise the Haxby & Selby contingent made up half the table! It was hugely enjoyable meal, we all relished the chance to socialise with our top instructors in a very informal setting. Thank you to Sensei Wendy for making all the arrangements – not only for the meal and the course, but thank you for all your hard work throughout the year organising the regular Black and Brown Belt courses, other JKS courses and particularly ensuring that everyone who trains holds an up to date licence. This is a huge task considering the size of the JKS and you do it brilliantly!

visit www.haxbykarate.co.uk to receive a free training session. For more information email info@haxbykarate.co.uk

JKS Nationals 2012

Alex doing Heian Nidan

A dozen or so club members travelled down to Nottingham very early one very wet and windy morning to represent their club at the JKS National Championships. For some of us this was their first test of competition, others have been competing for several years now, but there is always something about the JKS Nationals that make it special, maybe it is because it was our first taste of competition, maybe it is because it is our associations flagship event, or maybe because both the competition and the standard of the competitors has been getting better year on year.

Elizabeth doing Heian Nidan

Jemimah, Bethany, Elizabeth, Thomas (F), Oli, Kian, Holly, Tom (S), Alex and Jim were all stepping onto the mat on behalf of the club. We put in some very strong performances, several team members getting through the first round of kata, and some blistering bouts of kumite but unfortunately missed out on the medals. Our Kata team (Holly, Oli, and Thomas (F)) did themselves proud by getting through to the quarter finals in a very tough field, especially as they only had about a month’s practice!

Look at the focus on Jemimahs' face!

Although we didn’t bring any medals home the squad did themselves, their families and the club proud. The technical standard of our kata was excellent, there was spirit and attack to spare in the kumite, and as always I was very proud of the sportsmanship of the team.



Thomas getting stuck in!

I was particularly impressed this year by our small, but very vocal cheering section. Several sets of parents took the time and effort to bring their children (and others) to the event, and made sure that when Haxby was on the mat, everyone knew about it! Thank you also for making sure that everyone got lifts etc… Without families that are willing to support their karateka it would be impossible to get everyone to the courses, competitions and gradings that they need to go to in order to keep progressing.

A final thank you must, as usual, go to Sensei Mike and Sensei Ian. They always put themselves forward to help with the judging at these events, and if you thought it was tiring sitting on the side lines watching one of these events, imagine how exhausting it must be to have to concentrate on judging competitors all day!

The Kata Team (Holly, Oli & Thomas) perform Tekki Shodan

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Sensei Kitigawa Course 13th November 2012

In November Sensei Tahashi Kitigawa 6th Dan JKS came to England for a week. Sensei Kitigawa usually instructs in New York and we were offered to opportunity to host him in York for an evening’s training. Understandably we jumped at the chance and decided to focus the course on the higher grades so we could pick up some more advanced techniques and ideas from this very experienced instructor.

The course was held at Scarcroft School (which proved quite challenging to find!) as none of the normal training venues were available that night. We knew that it would be a small course, but saw this as an opportunity to get more personal instruction, still four clubs were represented, with our friends from Kaizen No-Michi making the trip over from Grimsby.

The course was excellent, Sensei Kitigawa particularly impressed with his ability to deliver multiple kicks in quick succession, the secret to which he quickly demonstrated was to ensure that the initial knee position was correct and the knee did not drop after delivering the first kick. Another focus of the course was about keeping relaxed when punching and punch from the elbow not the fist, and kick with the knee and not the foot.

We finished off then excellent and memorable evening with an informal meal which gave us the chance to get to now Sensei Kitigawa in a more informal atmosphere.

Thank you to Sensei Paul for handling all the arrangements with JKS England, Sensei Mike for hosting Sensei Kitigawa during his stay in York and Brenda for making all the arrangements for the course and the meal.

For those of us who journeyed to Nottingham for the Black and Brown Belt course the weekend after, we had another opportunity to train with Sensei Kitigawa, and he was the guest instructor on the course. This helped to reinforce the key messages and to start working on some new ones, like correct use of hips and ensuring you get maximum hips twist.

visit www.haxbykarate.co.uk to receive a free training session. For more information email info@haxbykarate.co.uk

New Year's Resolution

If you have made a New Year’s resolution to get fit or loose weight then why not give karate a go. Karate is a fantastic way to keep fit, increase flexibility and improve self-confidence no matter what your age, size or fitness level. If you want to give it a go and see how karate can benefit you then pop down to our free beginners session on Monday 14^th January from 7pm-9pm.

To find out more email info@haxbykarate.co.uk or call 0758 324 9115

visit www.haxbykarate.co.uk to receive a free training session. For more information email info@haxbykarate.co.uk