Demonstration and Mini Competition

Informal Club photo

Due to the rather wet weather we had on Saturday we had to cancel the demonstration and mini competition that we had planned for the Haxby Carnival. However, as everyone had worked so hard to put it together we felt that we needed to give the club members the chance to perform and compete as soon as possible.

 

Brenda leading the Kihon part of the demonstration

There was the added complication that we had to change the venue for training at the last minute, but we managed to get everyone together on Monday night. After some last minute practice, Brenda led the Karate Kids through their Kihon. Everyone performed brilliantly, and I was particularly impressed with their performance to the new Karate Kids Motto “Karate Kids punch – HARDER, Kick – HIGHER, Shout – LOUDER!”

 

Eive and Aiwin, and Edwin and William perform Gohon Kumite

Evie, William (V), Aiwin, and Edwin then stepped out to the front to perform Gohon (five step) Kumite with good technique and spirit. Olivia was up next, but as William (M) had not arrived yet she had to partner me (Jim) which she did with her usual spirit, not minding when I proceeded to sweep her with most of my counters!

 

Olivia seems to enjoy being swept far too much!

Evie, William (V), Aiwin, and Edwin stepped up again and put in a very strong performance of Heian Shodan. Olivia followed them, this time accompanied by William (M) who had literally just walked through the door. Despite this they did a very good team performance of Heian Sandan.

William and Evie at the end of Heian Shodan

After one final round of applause the Demonstration was over. Everyone who took part performed brilliantly and should be very proud of themselves. I would like to thank Brenda and Dael for all the hard work they put in getting everyone ready for the demonstration. They did an excellent job.

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With a short break to brief the judges (Ian (T), Jim, Brenda and Helen) we were ready for the Mini Competition. We had never done one of these before so it was the first time for everyone. We had decided to focus on Kihon as the vast majority of the competitors were Orange Belts. There was a round of punching and kicking to check for targeting and correct technique, followed by punching and kicking to focus mitts to check targeting (again) and effectiveness. The final element of Kihon was moving in Zenkutsu Dachi – punching Oi Tzuki going forwards and blocking Gedan Bari going backwards, again checking for correct technique.

 

Helen and Ian put Stanish and Nixon through their paces!

We finished off (for almost everyone) with a kumite exercise – ‘grab the tags’ which is a favourite game of the Karate Kids. Each tag was worth one point, and you had to sit down if you lost your tag. To make it more interesting the higher grades (Evie, William (V), Aiwin, Edwin, Olivia and William (M)) were given a different coloured tag worth 2 points. I recruited some extra help to ensure that there were no injuries during the game and we were off! In a very short period of time there were very few Karate-ka left with a tag on their belt. The points for the tags were quickly added to the running totals.

 

Targeting was one of the key things that the judges were looking for

For the higher grades there was one final event – Kata. They all performed Heian Shodan together and then the judges convened for a brief conference to ensure that we had winners.

 

It was this level of focus that helped Aiwn secure a Silver Medal

Medals were going to be awarded in two categories – up to 8^th Kyu and above 8^th Kyu to make it a fairer competition for all. Luckily (for the judges!) the total scores provided us with a first, second and third in each category with no ties.

The results were as follows:

Up to 9^th Kyu.

8^th Kyu and above.

I would like to congratulate not only the winners, but everyone who took part, you all performed extremely well, were very well behaved and seemed to enjoy the competition. I would also like to thank my fellow judges – Ian, Brenda and Helen, who did an excellent job. Finally thank you to Lara for providing the photographs for this report – there are lots more on the group facebook page.

I hope everyone enjoyed the demonstration and Mini Competition, if we receive positive feedback we will aim to repeat this next year – who knows, weather permitting, we might even be able to do them at the Haxby Carnival!

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

Bears on the Beach 2016

Bears on the Beach 2016

It was a much more reasonable hour that I got out of bed to begin my journey to Cleethorpes beach on Sunday. The sun was shining as Holly, Bethany and I picked up Helen from outside the dojo, and with a short detour to collect Olivia, it seemed to follow us all the way to the Seaside!

The Haxby crowd!

 In short order fellow karate-ka started to arrive. Nixon and Mary arrived shortly after we did (along with several other family members), and despite her protests Mary was soon convinced to join in.

 

Nixon demonstrating with Paul Sensei

Andrew Sensei welcomed us and then turned the training over to Paul Sensei for the first session. The focus was on Kihon, and Nixon did a brilliant job of demonstrating the techniques with Paul Sensei. The first session flew by and before we knew it was time for a group photograph and a quick break. We had brought the few left over cakes and chocolates from the Carnival and these went down very well with everyone.

 

Group photo after the first session - just before cake!

Andrew Sensei led the second session with a focus on Kumite, and as traditional we took full advantage of the soft(ish!) sand to focus on take downs. This is part of the training on the beach that everyone enjoys, and this session was no expectation. My partner, despite being a complete beginner did brilliantly, and I spent most the session face down in the Sand (again as is traditional!). At the end of the session we dusted ourselves off and took another group photo as people seemed to keep arriving all the time! Another quick break and we were ready for the last session.

 

Andrew Sensei demonstrating the art of putting my face in the sand!

Jackie Sensei took the training for last session and used Bunkai for Kihon Kata to get us to focus on who we might move when doing Kumite.  We then did some running games and competitions to warm down before splitting into two teams for a game of Rounders (something I had not played in years!) – great fun for all!

 

Everyone enjoyed the day (especially when Lynne Sensei is thrown into the sand!)

It was great to train with our friends at Kaizen and Selby again, and it was fantastic to see Nixon and Mary (who have only recently joined the club) enjoying themselves so much. There was a slight tinge of sadness to the day for me, as the last time I trained at Cleethorpes (during Kangeiko) Joe was with us, but I know how much he enjoyed his last visit and I know he would have wanted us to enjoy the day.

Holly successfully sweeping her opponent

I would like to say how impressed I was with Mary. She threw herself into everything with a huge smile on her face, and seemed to enjoy every single minute of the day. There is something for us all to learn here, karate training is about the journey, not the destination (Black Belt?). Training cannot always be fun and games, but you must enjoy the journey. If you do not you will never reach your goal. Judging by how much Mary enjoyed herself – she will outlast us all!

Jackie Sensei demonstrating one of the take downs on Olivia

As ever I would like to thank Andrew and Jackie Senseis for their kind invitation, and their very warm welcome. I cannot recommend Bears on the Beach enough – I strongly encourage everyone to join us next year – it is something not to be missed!

Bethany and Helen get ready to sweep their opponents

 

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

Change of venue - Monday 11th July 2016

Due to an unexpected visit by the Blood Donours Training will be moved to Ralph Butterfield School tonight:

Kids & early class 6pm - 7pm

Main class 7pm - 9pm. 

The demonstration and mini competition will go ahead as promised!

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

Haxby Carnival - Wet but successful!

Despite the rain the Gis gleamed!

It was not looking good yesterday morning as to whether the Haxby Carnival was going to go ahead. As I sat listening to the rain hammering against my window and waiting for the organisers to make a final decision I realised that it would not be safe to do the demonstration and the competition due to the grass being too wet and slippy, but hopefully the parade and the stall would still be on.

The decision was made, and we were on! We had a fun half hour putting up the event shelter in the pouring rain (thank you Cathy for borrowing from St Nicks – it was a godsend!). Then Brenda arrived with an endless supply of cake – thank you to all the bakers from the club – you really did us proud. In fact there was so much cake we had to quickly go and get another four tables to put them all on!

After some frantic Facebook messaging to inform everyone that the parade was taking place we started to gather at Grey Firs. There was even a break in the weather for the parade which allowed the club members to show off their gleaming white Gis. We will have to work on our marching and smiling as only the promise of cake at the end of the parade managed to get a smile out of some of us.

And we made it!

The parade over, and after a final photo opportunity our Karate Kids were rewarded with some chocolate for braving the weather, and we fell into the serious business of tombola and cake sales! We had a great team who manned the stall – Evie and Nixon in particular were brilliant – the tombola completely sold out and we had about half a dozen buns left over at the end, so well done to everyone who helped and who baked the delicious cakes - and they were good, I performed extensive ‘quality checks’ throughout the afternoon to ensure everything was up to standard and everything I tried was excellent! (I have not eaten since the carnival, and it might be several days until I am hungry again!).

I would like to thank all the Karate Kids and their families who ignored the weather, all the bakers, and the team who ran the stall. You all made this a very successful carnival for us – despite the weather and having to postpone the demonstration and mini competition.

Never fear the demonstration and mini competition will take place tomorrow (Monday 11^th July) at 6:15pm in place of normal training. Everyone has worked really hard on their routines and we wanted to give them the chance to show off all their hard work. So bring your cameras!

As to the left over buns – don’t worry they will not go to waste. I am taking them to Cleethorpes with me this morning for Bears on the Beach to be enjoyed as part of our picnic after training!

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

Scouts Self Defense

Just part of the Scout Camp!

Kathryn Dunn runs Poppleton Explorers group, and we have been invited to run self-defense classes for them in the past, this time she came to us with a bigger challenge! She was organizing a weekend camp for 70+ scouts and wondered of we could run a series of hour long self defense classes throughout the day amoungst the other activities she and the other group leaders had planned. Never ones to back away from a challenge, and always willing to help out another community group of we can, we of course said yes!

Despite the weather forecast, it was a lovely and bright sunny day when I arrived at a field by the river in Sutton Ambro, The Scouts were just starting to emerge from their tents, but the group leaders were up and provided a warm welcome (and an even more welcome cup of tea!). It seemed like I had just got settled and was enjoying the sunshine when the first group of 10 or so scouts came for their lesson.

First lesson - how to keep your attacker away from you

The day went very well, all the scouts were well behaved, and despite the fact that I was teaching self-defense there were no injuries. All the scouts (and some of the group leaders) seemed to enjoy the sessions and take something away from them. I did stress that all I was able to do in an hour was to give them a taster, and if they really wanted to become competent they really needed to join a martial arts or self defense class and train consistently for a period of time. The focus of the session was very much on escape and evasion - do just enough to your attacker to allow you to get away and summon help.

Escape from a double wrist grab

All in all it was a very successful day, I very much enjoyed it, and it was great to support the various scout groups that were present. Thank you Kathryn for the invitation, and well done for organizing what looked to be a very successful camp.

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