It was an even earlier than usual start
this morning for Kangeiko, usually I wake up at 4:45am (which I’m sure you
agree is ridiculous enough for a Sunday morning!), however this morning is was a
4:15am start courtesy of a text from Ben (who was taking Brenda and Elizabeth)
checking the where to meet! However, this proved to be a blessing in disguise
as it gave me the time I needed to hack through the ice on my car in order to
make to the dojo to pick up Helen, Romie and Lucy at 5am.
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| Karate-ka from Kaizen No Michi, Selby and Haxby Shotokan Karate Clubs who braved the beach! |
The journey was quick and easy, very little
traffic and the weather was fine, but cold. Minutes after we arrived, Ben
pulled in next to us, and in short order Paul Sensei and rest of the attendees
from Selby arrived, followed shortly after by the home crowd – Kiazen No-Michi.
After some quick warm ups, we started with
a run to get the blood pumping, everyone did very well despite the cold and
ice. We then moved onto the beach for some more warm ups and conditioning
exercises, followed by Kihon combinations, that initially seemed very simple, but soon had everyone’s arms in knots (apart from the
Kiazen Karate-ka who had been practicing them all week!).
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| Kaizen No Kata |
All too soon it was time to start wrapping
things up, and after a quick look at ‘Kaizen No Kata’ (the first sequences of
all the Heian and Junro Katas strung together) it was time for some photographs
– with Brenda accosting an innocent passer by to take them.
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| The Breakfast! |
We then adjourned to the local café for the
fry up. Arriving first I took the liberty of ordering for everyone from Haxby
-getting everyone a normal fry up for everyone but for Ben the extra big one seemed to be the
right decision! The breakfast seemed to hit the spot and it was well earned as
we had all worked hard. Everyone said that they had a great time and were looking forward to coming back for
Bears on the Beach in the Summer and Kangeiko next year (maybe we will finally
get around to organizing our own version Brenda?).
Although it may seem mad to get up
extremely early and drive for 3 hours for an hours training followed by a fry
up, but that is really missing the point – it was brilliant to catch up with
our extended Karate Family, meet new friends, and have done something memorable
before a lot of people had even got out of bed!
The journey back was nice and smooth and
the weather remained kind as the first flakes of snow only started to fall as
I dropped everyone off at the Dojo.
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| The Haxby Contingent: Brenda, Jim, Ben, Helen, Lucy, Eizabeth, and Romie |
I would like to thank Andrew and Jackie Sensei
for inviting us to join the last morning of their week long Kangeiko, everyone
at Kiazen No Michi and our friends from Selby for being as friendly and welcoming
as always, and Brenda, Elizabeth, Helen, Ben, Romie and Lucy for doing
themselves and the club proud.
For me Kangeiko is an important event to mark
the start of the Karate year, and we got off to a very good start this morning!
OSU
Jim
