Haxby Carnival 2017

We would have been hard pressed to have better weather for the Haxby Carnival, the sun shone all day and this set the tone for the entire event.

Brenda leading the club in the parade

Brenda had been busy for weeks before hand recruiting club members to take part in the parade, and a whole host of bakers (anyone know the collective term for bakers?). Cakes had started to arrive on Thursday night and there was soon a growing mountain of delicious treats for our stall.

Posing for photographs in front of the new event shelter

We started the carnival off is style by taking part in the parade through the village, (in no particular order) Jim, Thomas (G), Aidan, Brenda, Holly, Eden, Joshua, Ella, Nixon, Murphy, Olivia, Bethany, Poppy, Ben, Mary, and Elizabeth represented the club and seemed to really enjoy the walk through the village.

Just some of the delicious cakes on offer!

Once the parade was over (and we took the time for a couple extra photographs) we got down to the serious business of selling cake! We did a roaring trade all day and only had a very few cakes left at the end of the day, these we donated to the organisers and stewards who did a fantastic job of running the event.

We had several families express an interest in coming down to the club to give karate a try, which is great and hopefully we will see them soon. The club feels that it is important to support community events like this and it is more about showing our support for the community rather than making money or recruiting new members (although both are a bonus!).

Using the money raised at last year’s carnival (along with the money raised this year), the club has purchased an event shelter for this kind of event, and this proved to be a godsend it protecting us from the sun all day.

Parading through the village

Thank you to everyone who took part in the parade (Jim, Thomas (G), Aidan, Brenda, Holly, Eden, Joshua, Ella, Nixon, Murphy, Olivia, Bethany, Poppy, Ben, Mary, and Elizabeth), the legion of bakers who did a brilliant job supplying some of the tastiest things on sale at the carnival, everyone who helped us to sell the cakes and put up and take down the stall, and everyone who posted photographs on the facebook page.

Brenda and Jim made a friend from Long's Black Belt School!

Here looking forward to next year’s carnival!

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

A Brilliant June Grading

We were back at Manor School for the grading last month. Other than being a little challenging to find this is an excellent venue for our gradings as the sports facilities are self contained, and the staff on the day were brilliant.
 

Once again, thanks to Paul Sensei’s excellent planning we were graced with two fantastic guest instructors: Alan Campbell Sensei (7th Dan), Head of JKS England, and Hans Rana Sensei (5^th Dan).

 

Hans Sensei leading the Junior Grades

Soon enough the hall started to fill, and one of our members attending for the first time was impressed with just how many people were training. The Instruction begun with the class being split between the instructors, Hans Sensei was very impressed with how flexible some of the junior grades were and Alan Sensei took them through the perfect combination of Kihon, Kata, and Kumite to get them ready for their gradings.

 

Alan Sensei taking the clasc through Kumite drills

For most of our students though, there was another reason for attending course – taking the next step in their karate journey by attempting to grade for their next belt. As always there were some nerves evident, but that only shows how much we care about what we do.

Isla, Jaxon, Thomas (L), and Robert were first up and all successfully achieved 12^th Kyu. It is always nice to see our Karate Kids take their first step towards Black Belt. Sam and Murphy were also taking their first grading, and I know Sam was especially worried as he had a broken finger, but both of them produced very strong performances to double grade, joining Leon who successfully achieved 11^th Kyu.

Annie, Joshua, and Zach were all attempting 9^th Kyu, and as expected were all successful. These three are a great example of our Kids Class, they turn up week in and week out, and all try hard – the result of which was evidence in their grading success.

Daniel was the last of the Kids Class to grade, joining, Paul (D) at 8^th Kyu. Gradings become more difficult from here – there is a new Kata to learn each time, along with more complex Kihon and Kumite – Heian Nidan is next. There will be some hard work ahead, but it will be worth to achieve your Yellow Belt!

Poppy and Irena being instructed by Alan Sensei

Thomas (G) was hoping that all his hard work would pay off as he was attempting to claim his own Yellow Belt.  Thomas is a very good student, he always attends training, he tries very hard, he is polite and respectful. In a larger club he might be pushed into the background by louder or more boisterous students, but one of the great things about being the member of a small, community club is that the instructors are aware of everyone, and we are very impressed with Thomas (G). This confidence is his ability was shown to be well founded as he successfully gained 7^th Kyu and his Yellow Belt.

Poppy continued her steady progress with a successful grading, achieved Green Belt (6^th Kyu). Poppy has reached the end of the beginner grades, the standard that is expected gets higher from here, but I am confident that she will continue her steady progress towards Shodan.

Will (V) and Aiden were both attempting 4^th Kyu – the last grade before Brown Belt. Both Will and Aiden have recently shown a big improvement in their karate, and this was on display at the grading to take them to 4^th Kyu. Brown Belt beckons, but I am sure that you will both be ready for it.

Will (M) and Paul (B) were both hoping to break through into the ranks of the Brown Belts, and both showed their quality by successfully achieving 3^rd Kyu. Not only does the training get a bit more fun and varied now, the standard that is expected of you gets higher as well.

 

Some of our Karate Kids are pout through their paces by the grading panel

Olivia was our last student attempting grading, going for her 2^nd Kyu. Olivia, has been impressing her instructors lately, she often is the only junior member of the club training for the last hour, and never seems phased by that or anything else the Mike Sensei throws at us! She took one step closer to Shodan, by claiming her 2^nd Kyu, and will now be able to concentrate on building up to her Shodan grading.

I was able to put my Gi on and join in with the most of the Senior Grade training, almost missing all the squats / conditioning exercise that Alan Sensei lead the class through, but was able to take part in the kumite based drills that the Senior Class enjoyed.

Hans Sensei took over the Senior Class for the final session whilst Alan Sensei sat on the grading panel for the Brown Belts. After some warm ups (including Jyu Kumite – the best way to get to know someone on a course according to Hans Sensei), and stretching Hans Sensei took us through the Kata Rentai (the kicking Kata). This is a Kata that I have only done occasionally on courses, but is was surprising how much of it I had retained, and to me the way the class approached it emphasized so many things that I love about our association. Hans Sensei had the attitude of ‘leave no one behind’ and was only too happy to slow things down or repeat a section if someone was struggling. The Karate-ka who knew the Kata were happy to spread themselves out throughout the class to be used as a guide by those learning the Kata.

 

Jim Looking a little confused (?) by Rentai!

All in all it was a brilliant days training (although my legs were not too happy about it on Monday morning!), and a brilliant result from the grading for our club.

As ever I would like to finish with some thank yous: Alan and Hans Sensei for their excellent instruction, Paul Sensei for all the time and effort he puts into ensure that these course run smoothly, Mike Sensei for devoting his day as part of the grading panel, Brenda for he help signing people in, and Angie Teasdale for helping with selling belts (around watching Olivia’s grading).

OSU

Jim

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

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

Trip to Grantham Shotokan Karate Club

The after training photo

 Mike Sensei had been invited by Geoff Dixon Sensei to instruct at his club, so on Sunday afternoon Mike Sensei, Ian (T), and I were joined by Paul Sensei from Selby for the drive down the A1 to Grantham.

Arriving in good time we were warmly greeted by Geoff Sensei (who had just arrived after teaching all day for Steve Carless Sensei in Walsall) and welcomed to the club. Geoff Sensei has a small fully matted and well-equipped Dojo, which provided a perfect setting for the training session.

The junior class was just finishing up and we were able to observe Neil Bukavs Sensei taking them through some basics and games to finish off their training.

Soon enough the senior class started to arrive and we were pleased to see that Duncan Blades Sensei from Sho Gai Karate Club and Andy Beeston Sensei from Cotgrave Shotokan Karate Club were joining us for the session.

After a brief introduction Mike Sensei took us quickly through the warm ups and then started with some basic exercises focusing on hip rotation, and then building up to some more complex partner exercises to reinforce his points. From there Mike Sensei took us through some more unusual kumite drills before finishing with Heian Shodan.

I must say that I was impressed with the karate-ka that I partnered with, their spirit, technical ability, and focus was excellent, but more than that we were made to feel very welcome indeed.

Training over, we retired to a local hostelry to restore our fluid levels before the drive home. I would like to thank Geoff Sensei for the invitation to his club. If you ever get the chance to train there I highly recommend it. It was great to reinforce our links with other clubs in the JKS family and to make new ones.

Geoff Sensei will be visiting us on Thursday to look at the changes to the Refereeing rules that have just been brought in. I look forward to welcoming him back to our club.

OSU

Jim

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

JKS England Technical Seminar with Kagawa Shihan

 Last weekend saw the welcome return of JKS World Chief Instructor Masao Kagawa Shihan for the JKS England Technical Seminar. 

 

 Mike Sensei, Jim Sensei, Elizabeth, Dael, Brenda, Olivia, Paul and Ben all made the trip to Nottingham early on Saturday for what promised to be a day of exceptional karate. Once we had all gathered at the correct venue (Ben!) training was underway. The first session focussed on Kihon and Kata. Hip movement was emphasised through some excellent exercises that I am sure will be repeated in the dojo, and then much to Dael’s delight Empi was the kata chosen by Kagawa Shihan to go through in minute detail. One point that echoed Mehrdad Sensei’s teaching from Thursday was immediate and correct preparation for Shuto when performing the jump. We were then treated to some Bunkai applications for some of the combinations which brought some interesting discussion and experimentation with parts of the kata. 

Kagawa Shihan

Following a short lunch break, we were back to training with a slightly different focus. Kagawa Shihan demonstrated his legendary kicking ability using Matt Sensei (from Selby) as his target (or more specifically his head!). We very much enjoyed attempting (not entirely successfully I must admit!) to replicate this. There followed various partner exercises mixed in with number of conditioning exercises. Kagawa Shihan made the point very strongly, that is order to reach our potential we must practice every day, the benefit of which he displayed most clearly during the seminar. 

The last two hour session seemed to fly by, and it was a sense of disappointment (that it was over) that we lined up for the closing ceremony. After thanking Kagawa Shihan for his instruction, Alan Sensei paid a heartfelt tribute to Sensei Paul Massheder from JKS Bradford who passed away recently.

One of the things that came out strong from this seminar was Kagawa Shihan’s sense of humour and how much he was enjoying the seminar – it was a real joy to see a karate-ka of that calibre demonstrating and sharing his knowledge with us. The other great enjoyment from this type of seminar is to meet with old friends and to make new ones – you should always try to train with people from different Dojo’s it gives you a broader range of experience and input, and helps forge links between clubs.

Dael, Mike Sensei, Olivia, Brenda, Jim Sensei, Elizabeth, Paul (B) and Ben with Kagawa Shihan

 Seminar over, Mike, Brenda and Jim stayed to watch the Sandan and Nidan gradings. There were some very talented karate-ka grading on Saturday and they all performed brilliantly after a very gruelling and challenging 4 hour seminar. 

A nice surprise for those present was the awarding of Nanadan (7^th Dan) to Alan Campbell Sensei, Chief Instructor of JKS. Congratulations Sensei! This was swiftly followed by another nice surprise, the awarding of Godan (5^th Dan) to Andrew Jones Sensei from Kiazen No Michi in Cleethorpes. Congratulations Sensei!

With that rather happy ending we got back in the car for the journey home, all of us were a little tired and sore, but very contented after a day of exceptional karate.

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

Grading success

Well, Sunday saw another very successful grading for the club, and built nicely on the Nidan and Sandan course that we hosted the day before.

Due to the unavailability of our previous venue, the grading was taking place at Milthorpe School, and other than being a little cold the venue seemed to cope quite well with having 100+ karate-ka and all the spectators.

Paul (B) showing off his back stance

It was always going to be a busy day, there were a lot of kyu gradings, a larger than normal number of Shodan (full gradings and re-takes) attempts, and of course some world class karate training led by our two Instructors Alan Campbell Sensei, (6^th Dan), Chief Instructor of JKS England, and Steve Carless Sensei (6^th Dan).

Unfortunately I did not get to see a lot of the training, but in common with our other courses it ranged from the grading syllabus to more advance kata. Judging from the noise I could hear from the balcony it certainly seemed that everyone was enjoying themselves and working hard.

It was also nice to see a number of the attendees of Saturday’s Nidan and Sandan course on the Sunday – they were fairly easy to spot – they were the ones complaining about the stiffness in their legs and stretching them out after all the burpees that we did!

It always seems that the gradings come around very quickly on these courses, and Sunday was no exception, soon enough the results were coming in thick and fast! Jasmine was first up, and got the club off to a good start with a successful 12^th Kyu pass. She was quickly followed by what seemed like most of the rest of the clubs junior members – Zach, Jeon, Daniel, Thomas and Grace were all successful and achieved 10^th (Zach)  and 9^th (everyone else) Kyu respectively.

Paul (D) and Mary, our adult beginners, were up next and despite Mary’s nerves both put in solid performances to pass their first Grading and gain their 9^th Kyu Red Belt. Not to be outdone by his Gran Nixon showed his usual determination to stay one step ahead of her by gaining his 8^th Kyu alongside Stanish. 

 

A successful Mary and Nixon with Mike Sensei

Mollie, our other beginner was up next. I know that Mollie sometimes suffers from a lack of confidence about her karate, but none of this was evident as she effortlessly (it seemed) doubled graded to 8^th Kyu. Mollie has a lot of potential and shows all the signs of being able to go very far in her karate journey.

It was then time for some more of our junior members with Edwin and Poppy stepping in front of the grading panel. Both of these young karate-ka take their karate very serious and this shows in their training, and it also showed in their grading – they were both successful in attaining 7^th Kyu Yellow Belt. This means that you are no longer beginners, but the training and expected standard does get harder from now on!

Not to be outdone by these youngsters, Paul (R) and Ben also passed their 7^th Kyu. For both of them this represents another step on their karate journey – they will need to keep up the hard work if they do not want to get overtaken by some of the talented younger members of the club like Poppy and Edwin!

Irena was next up, and considering that she did not think that she was ready before the grading she delivered an assured performance to reach 6^th Kyu Green Belt. It does go to show that we need to trust Mike Sensei’s judgement about if we are ready to grade or not.

It was then back over to the junior clubs members as a quartet of green belts stepped onto the floor and were all successful in trading in their tired old green belts for some shiny new purple ones!  Congratulations to William, Aiwin, Oliver and Aidan on all successfully achieving 5^th Kyu. This marks the midpoint of the kyu grades and you have some hard work ahead as we start to prepare you for Brown belt, and ultimately Black belt.

Olivia with a very proud Dad!

The last of our trio of Pauls (B this time!) was looking to take his first grading since coming back to Karate, and in the dojo his confidence had been knocked by some small memory lapses. However, none of this was present on the day as he put in an assured performance to achieve 4^th Kyu. Be warned Paul, Mike and Ian Sensei were watching your grading and will expect that level of performance in the dojo from now on!

Olivia was the last member of our club for a Kyu grading. Olivia seems to have blossomed since joining our club and this trend continued with a successful Brown Belt (3^rd Kyu) pass. She now has Shodan firmly in her sights, and got some useful feedback from Alan Sensei on what he will expect of her the next time she steps in front of him to grade.

A special mention needs to be made of all the club members that attend these courses even though they are not grading. Sometimes I must admit that I forget to mention them, but Kai, Elzabeth, and Bethany all trained hard.

 

With the Kyu gradings complete it was time for the Dan gradings. And to be honest, for our club, we were only really interested on one of them. Brenda was re-taking the Kumite element of her grading. She took an accidental injury to her shoulder whilst training, and despite being in a quite serious amount of pain was determined that nothing was going to stop her.

Before we knew it she was called up in front of the grading panel (Alan, Steve and Mike Senseis) and she started to put in her trademark focussed performance. Her concentration wavered when she received an impact on her injured shoulder, but Alan Sensei asked her to repeat one of the defences. This is an important point to make – the grading panels are looking to pass you if they can, they will ask you to repeat combinations or moves, if they feel it was a momentary lapse and you have the potential to pass.

 

A successful Brenda with her supporters!

Then began the intolerable wait for the rest of the gradings to be completed, and the paperwork done before the results were announced. Helen, Holly and Jonathan all appeared in time to watch the Dan grading and support Brenda, and everyone was on edge waiting for the result....

SHODAN PASS!

As a club we are very proud of Brenda. Her determination and spirit put many of us to shame and she is an excellent example and role model. A well deserved pass saw Brenda in floods of tears (with relief) and I am sure that I saw a tear in Mike Sensei’s eye! A fitting end to a very successful grading course for the club.

I would like to thank Alan and Steve Sensei for their excellent instruction, and of course Paul Sensei for this outstanding organisation and administration of the course.

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

Nidan and Sandan Course.

As most of the training and courses that we organise focus (rightly) on our Kyu grades, Paul and Mike Sensei decided that we would put on a course aimed solely at our Dan grades. Both clubs are in the fortunate position to have a growing number of Dan grades who might be considering grading in the next 12-18months. It was with this in mind that we invited Alan Campbell Sensei, Chief Instructor of JKS England, to our club on the Saturday before the grading.

 

The Nidan Course

We were very pleased that over 30 karate-ka attended the course, and made it a very dynamic and enjoyable training session. Alan Sensei seemed to be inspired by his recent Kangeiko training at the Honbu Dojo in Japan as he took us through a gruelling set of burpees as part of the warm-ups – not only did the windows in the dojo steam up, but the floor began to get quite slippery as well!

The warm ups out of the way, and some well received lessons about paying attention and listening to instruction given, we moved onto the Nidan syllabus. Alan Sensei took us through the Kihon Syllabus in detail, focussing on the key points for each combination, and what the examiners are looking for. We then covered Empi in the same level of detail and stole a little time from the Sandan session to look at one of the Junro Kata.

 

The Sandan Course

After a quick break, we moved onto the Sandan Syllabus. As there is no requirement for Kihon at this level the session focussed on kata: Jitte, Hangetsu, Junro Yondan and Junro Godan; again after an intense kangeiko inspired warm up!

All in all a brilliant afternoons karate. It was great to host Alan Sensei and to welcome so many karate-ka that we have met on the training courses to our dojo. After the training there was only time for a quick change before we were busy again – this time it was into York for a leisurely meal as the opportunity for some socialisation before the stress of the grading course the next day.

 

A well deserved meal after training!

I would like to thank Alan Sensei for his excellent instruction, and as ever Paul Sensei for his organisational expertise.

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