Kangeiko on the Beach 2014

With a groan I forced myself out of bed before 5 am again this morning to start the long, dark drive to Cleethorpes for join our friends at Kiazen No-Michi who once again had invited our club members to join them for the last day of their cold weather training (Kangeiko) on the beach at Cleethorpes.

However, I was not on my own this year – Lorraine Sensei, Holly, Brenda and Helen had all agreed to join in the fun, and soon the car was full, and the conversation ranged from how mad we all were to do this, to karate and then off at various tangents!

The Haxby contingent (Helen, Holly, Lorraine Sensei, Jim Sensei, Brenda)

Before long (or so it seemed) we arrived to find most of the Selby contingent (Paul Sensei, Rebecca Sensei, Ian Sensei, Matt Sensei, Dave, Kelvin and Phoebe) already there. Shortly afterwards the Kiazen No-Michi club members arrived and soon there were 30 karate-ka who were very cold but raring to go!

The 2014 Kangeiko Class

The warm ups and the jog up and down the beach with the chant of “Washoi” (be brave) quietly ringing out over the beach soon got our blood flowing. Andy Sensei led us through a series of combinations and partner work, which the footing of the frozen beach made quite challenging! Before finishing off with kumite work, Kihon Kata and another exercise which consisted of putting the beginning 5-6 moves of all the Heian Katas together to form in effect another kata – I had never done this particular exercise before, but it strikes me as an interesting way of remembering the Heian katas.

We finished off with a few photos and then hurried to a local beach front cafe for a well earned fry up – a just reward for getting up so early and the hard work we had put in!

A well deserved cuppa whilst waiting for breakfast

I’d like to thank Andy Sensei and Jackie Sensei for inviting us to their Kangeiko again. I’d also like to thank all the members of Kiazen No-Michi for being so welcoming and such fun to train with. I was very impressed with how many Tigers (their junior class) were training, and even more impressed that some of the parents were joining in!

The talk in the car on the way home was of us running a Haxby Kangeiko next year. 6 days of early morning training on the park finished off by joining the everyone at the Kiazen No-Michi Kangeiko on the beach for the final day. If you are interested then let me know and we will get it organised.

OSU

Jim

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