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