Wednesday, 18 November 2015

Holly gets her 2nd Dan


Haxby Shotokan Karate Club are celebrating after one of their junior members achieved a milestone in their karate journey. Holly Bamford, aged 16, attended a JKS karate course held on the 25th October in Nottingham under the watchful eye of Alan Campbell 6th Dan, Chief Instructor of JKS England and two other Senior 6th Dans.


After three hours of intensive group training Holly had to wait while many other students attempted to grade to their next level. Fellow Club member Elizabeth Massey and Sensei Mike Gude, Chief Instructor at Haxby Shotokan Karate Club, after completing three hours training, sat down to watch Holly take her grading. Holly was last to be called to be assessed on her 2nd Dan examination. Her nerves were visible at the beginning but her performance obviously impressed the examination panel because she was finally rewarded with the rank of 2nd Dan. All the club members and Instructors are extremely proud of Holly's example and dedication because this is the culmination of over 8 years of hard work.


Holly’s achievement is the latest success for the Club who have had many students achieve their black belt goals over the last 3 years. In 2013 two club members were awarded their 1st Dan. In 2014 five students achieved their 1st Dan and Club Founder member and Senior Instructor, Ian Shaw, was awarded his 4th Dan. This year as well as Holly achieving her 2nd Dan, 3 Club members were awarded their 1st Dan and their Chief Instructor, Sensei Mike Gude was awarded his 6th Dan.


Holly back at the Club training

Anyone interested in finding out more about the Club is welcome to pop down to one of our training sessions held at Wigginton Recreation Hall on Monday and Thursdays, 6.30pm to 7.30pm for ages 5 to 8 and 7pm – 9pm for adults and kids age 8 and above. See www.haxbykarate.co.uk or phone 0758 324 9115 for more details.


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

Saturday, 3 October 2015

Change of Venue and Training Times - Monday 5th October

Monday's (5th October) training session will be held at Ralph Butterfield Primary School, Station Road, Haxby, YO32 3LS.  Training times are 6pm - 7pm for Haxby Karate Kids and 7pm - 9pm for the main class.



Click here for a location map of the school.

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

Monday, 8 June 2015

Selby Competition

The view from the desk - a table official’s view of the Selby Competition

As someone who does not do, and never has done karate, it can be very daunting helping out at karate competitions.  I was roped into helping at the Selby Competition about 3 years ago and before I knew it ended up attending a Referee and Table Officials Course (I even had to take a test!). Geoff Dixon Sensei who runs the JKS Judge and Table Recorder Development Programme made what could have been a boring course into one of the most interesting courses I have ever attended. Since doing the first course last February I have helped out at the 2014 Selby Competition, JKS Nationals, Children’s Competition in March and this year’s Selby Competition.

As with most things there is lots of paperwork and Sensei Paul and Sensei Geoff provided very clear draw sheets for me to work from. They take a bit of getting used to.Unfortunately there were only 3 table officials at the competition to cover 3 areas. This meant that things had to go at my pace to prevent mistakes happening (sorry if you were watching and thought the competition took a long time). Luckily I had Sensei Steve Carless as the Chief Judge on my area who was brilliant at making sure I had enough time to write down who had won that round and waited for the scores to be calculated.

Kata is always easier to record and didn’t seem to take too long. Watching from the table is completely different to watching from the spectator’s area, something I have done lots watching my 2 daughters and husband at various competitions over the last 7 years. I have become very good at shouting and cheering inside my head something I did lots as Jonathan and Adam were doing their Kata on my area.

A lot of competitors find Kumite the most frightening and that is the same from my point of view. This year it was even worse as I was on my own and Sensei Geoff had introduced a computer into the mix, something I hadn’t used before. Despite all the stress (and an incident where someone unplugged the cable, switching off the computer system half way through a fight) I really enjoyed it. 


I can highly recommend getting involved with table recording as it brings a whole new perspective to karate competitions. The more officials we have the easier it will be for us all and the shorter the day! For more information about the JKS Judge and Table Recorder Development Programme please email Geoff Sensei at jksreferees@btinternet.com .

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

Wednesday, 20 May 2015

Family Fun Day


Join us at our annual family fun day. There
will be lots of activities including inflatables, Soak-A-Shodan (where you get to throw wet sponges at a black belt) free karate class, smoothie bike and refreshments. Entry is free with a small charge for refreshments. Profits raised from the sale of refreshments will be split between SNAPPY (a charity that provides social and recreational opportunities for children and young people with special needs in the York area) and Haxby Karate Kids. So if you want to join in the fun, eat lots of cake and get a black belt wet whilst raising money for charity then pop along to Wigginton Recreation Hall, The Village, Haxby on Saturday 6th June from 1pm to 3pm.


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

Wednesday, 8 April 2015

Sensei Mike Gude is awarded his 6th Dan







7th March 2015 was a long anticipated date for some members of the club (and for some members of our extended ‘karate family’) not only because it was the Spring Seminar with JKS World Chief Instructor Masao Kagawa Shihan, but because it was the date of Mike Sensei’s grading!

With his usual self effacing style Mike Sensei had tried to keep his preparation as low key as possible. However I think that a lot of people noticed him practicing some of the more advanced Kata and wondered what was going on.

Mike Sensei had already trained on the Friday night - gruelling session focussing on kicking and Ura Mawashi Geri in particular, but seemed focussed and ready for anything when Lorraine Sensei, Holly (B) and I arrived on the Saturday morning.

As you would expect with an instructor of Kagawa Shihan’s calibre the training was superb. Particularly useful was covering all the Heian and Junro Kata and pulling out key teaching points.

Mike Sensei was looking nervous at times, and I must admit that some of us took great delight in repeating to him the advice he had been giving us over the years when we were faced with our own gradings!


As might be expected Mike Sensei was the last to be called up for his grading, after a seemingly endless wait. However from the first move of his chosen Kata – Unsu – any thoughts that his nerves might get the better of him were instantly removed. He gave such a strong, focussed and powerful performance that he got a spontaneous round of applause from everyone watching – something that I have experienced seen at any grading I have seen. I think those of us that were watching looked more nervous waiting for Kagawa Shian to announce his next Kata – after all he could choose any of Shotokan Kata include any of the Junro Katas, that’s over 30 to choose from! However when he announced Hangetsu I think we all breathed a sigh of relief – it is one of Mike Sensei’s favourites. And again he gave an assured and skilful performance.

We were a little unsure what was to happen next. Mike Sensei had been asked to prepare a Thesis on some aspect of karate, and we were not sure if that would be taken in place of Kumite, or if he would have one or more Kumite bouts. Kagawa Shihan requested that Mike Sensei pick a section of his Thesis and demonstrate his viewpoint – as the Thesis was concerned with Kumite he ended up performing Jyu Ippon Kumite with Craig Williams Sensei from Siebukan.

Although there was little doubt in our minds as to the eventual result it was great relief when it was announced that he had successfully graded to Rokudan (6th Dan).


Mike Sensei with Kagawa Shihan
I am sure that I speak for all of our club members (and the many friends that Mike Sensei has in the Karate Community) when I say how proud we are of Mike Sensei. This was a well deserved result, and one that he had worked hard for. Not only that Mike Sensei has devoted many years to helping countless people on their karate journey, he never asks for thanks, never demands recognition or special treatment, and often has let his own training suffer for the good of the club or the development of a student. This is a reflection of the many years he has devoted to his karate journey and hid dedication to the art.

Congratulations Sensei

OSU!


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

Thursday, 26 March 2015

Children's Open Competition 14th March 2015


Written by Roving Reporter Ian Massey

The Competition

This year’s JKS Children’s Competition had moved to the organisation’s now favoured venue of Nottingham’s Djanogly City Academy which, with the large car park opposite, meant that parking wasn’t as difficult as before.  An early start was still required for the HSKC team bus (in reality Sensei Jim’s car), however. Jim and Cathy were attending as officials, Elizabeth as, once again, Haxby’s sole competing representative and Debbie and I as her small cheering section. I’m sure that Jim and Cathy were cheering her on as well. They just had to do it silently.

The larger venue also meant more seating for spectators and, more importantly, the space for two tatami during the kata events, speeding things along considerably. There had been an indication a few weeks ago that the event might have been cancelled due to a lack of numbers. I don’t know whether that threat led to a sudden rush of further entrants, but there were certainly enough to make it another long day (if, like us, you stayed to the very end), but a very entertaining and well run  one as well.
  
 As ever, Sensei Alan opened proceeding by explaining the aim of the event, which is to give the younger JKS members a chance to see what competition is all about, to give them a chance to compete and, perhaps more importantly, a chance to win and lose with the correct attitude. For the most part, throughout the day, the competitors showed that they could be good winners and losers. Yes, there was a few who walked away not just smiling at their win but fist-pumping as well and there was also, inevitably, a few whose defeat led to tears but it was nice to see that very few had to be reminded to shake hands after a bout and those handshakes were usually accompanied by a pat on the shoulder as well.

This event is certainly a lot less noisy and a lot less busy than the Nationals and, as Sensei Alan explained, the referees apply the rules but apply them with discretion. Contact is frowned upon and, no matter how young the competitor, they still get warned for it. The officials, though, take time to explain their decisions, the rules and the etiquette of the event to the children, many of whom would be competing for the first time.

As well as those few tears in defeat, and despite the no contact rule, there were still occasional tears when enthusiasm and exuberance got the better of ability. In most cases these were more from the shock of taking a stinging punch to the ear or a kick to somewhere that shouldn’t be a target, rather than any actual injury and most were soon resolved by soothing words from the first aider on hand. In fact, throughout the kumite events of the afternoon, the most first aid given consisted of an ice pack held against one competitor’s leg for a few seconds. Again, it is to their credit that every single competitor who at some point held a part of their body in pain, got up and carried on.

There were also the inevitable moments of unintentional humour, both from the children and the referees. These ranged from one young boy who, each time the referee started his bout, seemed to think that running on the spot while in stance might frighten his opponent to an older black belt who, when the referee blew his whistle for the chair judges’ result after a drawn bout, launched himself at his rather startled opponent. “Awww” moments as tiny, young competitors danced around each other were also in evidence but my favourite moment of the day was when the crowd came together to support an underdog during a bout which saw two brown belts, one almost twice the height of the other, go against each other. Perhaps buoyed by the support, the smaller boy went on to win the bout two points to one.

Haxby Round-up

As to Elizabeth, well the good news is that she came away with a bronze medal…
First up for her was the Kata competition. The 3rd kyu to shodan, 10 – 15yrs female category saw her competing against ten other girls, including three other shodans, one of which was Charlotte Haxby. A bye in the first round meant that Elizabeth’s first opponent was Tegan, a 2nd kyu from York. They were given Heian Godan and, while I thought I saw Elizabeth stumble after the jump in the middle, mistakes from Tegan saw Elizabeth win the round with a unanimous score from the referees and that put her into the final four, along with her friend, Natalia, from the Seibukan dojo. Up first, Elizabeth chose Empi and produced what I thought was a very good performance, scoring 26.6. Unfortunately the other competitors, some of whom chose kata that I didn’t even recognise, scored higher and Elizabeth finished in a credible fourth place. While it was relatively close between the other three finalists the winner, who had previously beaten Charlotte, (and whom I had picked out as a potential winner then) was more than a full point ahead of Elizabeth. Final scores were:

Elizabeth                              26.6
Amy (York)                         27.0
Natalia (Seibukan)           27.1
Sophie (unknown)          27.7                       

In the kumite event, Elizabeth was in a category of nine. This time she was one of five shodans, again including Charlotte and again there was potential for her to be competing against Natalia. When Elizabeth got up for her first bout there was a moment of hope as her opponent seemed to be a 1st kyu and, more importantly, the only person in the category smaller than her. The hope turned out to be false, though, as a case of mistaken identity meant that she was actually up against a much taller 2nd kyu. The blink-and-you-missed-it bout saw Elizabeth take two quick hits and her opponent went through, eventually winning a bronze medal while Charlotte took gold.

So, with a four place and a first round defeat, how did Elizabeth win a medal?

The Children’s competition finishes with a team kumite event. Unlike team kata, this isn’t dependant on your dojo actually entering a team and teams are put together on the day, mixing abilities and competitors from different dojos. Higher grades are designated as “captains” and the rest of the entrants are split between them. With a very small amount of encouragement six teams of five were put together and given a few minutes to come up with a team name. Elizabeth, heading a team which comprised of brown and white, brown, purple and yellow belts, resurrected hers from two years ago and Team Stealth was reborn. Each competitor fights their equivalent in the other team and the team with most wins takes the match.

 By luck of the draw Team Stealth’s first match, against Team Geeks, was a semi-final. Elizabeth, up against a male shodan (taller again) put up more of a fight than she did in the individual event but still lost 2:0. She showed genuine excitement and pride as she supported the rest of her team and a clenched fist was evident as she saw Stealth’s brown and white belt, up against the same grade, take his bout 2:0. Two brown belts were up next and Team Stealth’s won the bout 2:1. (This was the “underdog” fight I mentioned above.) Stealth’s purple belt was a point behind to her purple and white opponent when her bout finished and the referees awarded the win to the Geeks. Again, Stealth’s yellow belt was a point behind to Geeks’ red. Not only had it come down to the last bout but to a referees’ decision and they awarded the win to the Geeks, leaving Team Stealth with a bronze medal.

So, yes, Elizabeth came away with a medal after, ironically, not only not winning a fight but her team not winning a bout, showing that it really is about competing and not necessarily about winning.


Well done to her for being there in the first place, well done to all the other competitors and medal winners for keeping us entertained throughout the day and well done to the referees and officials for a well-run event.

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

February Grading

Apologies for the delay in posting this report to the website, unfortunately things outside karate have delayed things a bit.

The grading last month turned out to be a bit of mammoth event, there were over 100 karateka training, 50 or so Kyu level gradings and nearly 25 black belt gradings. Sometimes you may not realise the scale of these gradings (in particular the February one) especially as most people only attend for part of the day.

The Senior Class

Training was organised in the usual way to make sure that everyone got some input from Alan Campbell Sensei (Head of JKS England) and our guest instructor Shinji Nagaki Sensei (former WKF and JKS World Champion). Everyone I spoke to thoroughly enjoyed the training and the enthusiasm displayed by the instructors. 


Nagaki Sensei leading one of the junior classes

Grading at these big courses can be intimidating even for adults. Jeon, Alexander (S), and Alexander (C) were the first members of the club to go before the grading panel and they showed very little of any nerves that they might be feeling, all successfully grading to 12th Kyu.

Ben, Harry, Edwin, Liam, Jack, and Evan were next up and again all were successful to grade to 10th Kyu. A special mention has to be made for Ben, who managed to double grade – something that is very rare in the JKS.

Some of our Successful Karate Kids with a very proud Lorraine Sensei

I know that all the club instructors were impressed with all our Karate Kids, not just with the results of their gradings, but the spirit, technique and possibly more importantly, their behaviour was exemplary!

Aiwin was the first of the Senior Class to grade, and continued his steady progress and put in another solid grading to achieve his 8th Kyu.

Tom and Holly (C) were obviously inspired by Aiwin’s example and walked away with their 7th Kyu. Tom again managing to double grade, a feat which is even rarer for the adult grade categories.

Joe was the last of our club to attempt a kyu grading. He put in a accomplished performance to take home a purple belt (5th Kyu). Joe now has a brown belt firmly in his sights (only 2 gradings away). The standard required raises sharply between Purple belt and Brown Belt, but Joe is making excellent progress and his dedication will stand him in good stead during the tough training ahead.


Joe Training with Nagaki Sensei

With the Kyu gradings complete we skipped the Shodan grading (as there were over 20 on them) and first took care of the Nidan (2nd Dan) gradings. Jim and Holly (B) were joined by Matt Sensei (from Selby) and Lacie Stembridge (From Kaizen No-Michi). There was some excellent Kata and gruelling Kumite and I think all four of us were feeling the pressure and were not told the results until after the Shodan Gradings. Congratulations go to Matt and Lacie for successfully gaining their Nidan. Whilst disappointed not to have been successful at the first attempt Jim and Holly are determined to get it next time. Holly did very well, passing two out of the three elements of her grading and only needs to complete the Kata potion at her next attempt.

The final trio from the club to go before the grading panel were Adam, Dael, and Jonathan, all attempting their Shodan. All three showed signs of nerves during the training, and with the number of other Shodan hopefuls the grading seemed to take a long, long time. However all three put in assured, confident and powerful performances and ended the day as newly graded Black Belts!


Our successful Shodans – Jonathan, Dael and Adam

Congratulations to all three of them. This achievement is a reflection of their hard work, sweat and extra training in preparation for their grading. However, it does not end here – gaining your Black Belt is the first step to becoming a well rounded Karate-ka. I hope to see you down at the dojo for a long time to come to consolidate your skills.

As ever, our thanks go to our instructors for making the training so enjoyable, and to Paul Sensei for all his efforts behind the scenes to make these gradings run so smoothly.




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

Sunday, 18 January 2015

Kangeiko 2015


 It was another very early start for the four intrepid karate-ka that set off from Haxby at 5am this more to make what has become an annual trip to Cleethorpes to join our friends at Kaizen No-Michi on the last day of their Kangeiko . As ever we were joined at the beach by some friends from Selby Shotokan Karate Club.

Karate-ka from Haxby, Kaizen No-Michi and Selby Shotokan Karate Club
Holly, Elizabeth, Helen and I received a very warm welcome from Andrew Sensei and the rest of his club despite the early morning chill. Training started with a quick warm up then a run along the sea front and the beach. Paul Sensei despite promising to take it easy soon sprinted off with the front runners and left us mere mortals in his wake! 
The Haxby Four!

After some very quick basics to get the blood flowing we then moved onto two quite complex combinations for partner work, which of course resulted in us being thrown around the beach and covered in sand!

The method in Andrew Sensei’s teaching was soon discovered when we did Junro Yondan and discovered that these two combinations were in fact bunkai for two of the more curious parts of the kata.


It was inevitable that we would end up face down in the sand!

A quick team based running game finished of training and then as is traditional we all retired to Browns Cafe for a hearty fry up!


The well earned reward!

I would like to thank Andrew Sensei for his invitation, and to all from Kiazen and Selby who were mad enough to train with us on the beach. It was a brilliant morning, well worth the early start and I would strongly encourage you to join us next year – you never know we might even arrange our own Kangeiko!



OSU Jim

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