Kangeiko 2019

A quick post run break

January 21^st saw our annual trip over to Cleethorpes for the penultimate day of Kaizen no-Michi’s Kangeiko on the beach.  A nice little group of us went across this year with Jim sensei, Paul B, Ben, Lucy and Ellie, this bunch of crazy karate-ka were up at the usual 5am for the cold drive out.

When we arrived at the beach, we greeted our friends from both Selby Shotokan Karate Club and KNM before we began our mornings training.  Down to the beach front for some quick warm ups to stretch out before the traditional beach front run to the pier and back watching for the slippery ground as we went due to a crisp -2 Degree C wind which battered us.  Finishing the run, it was down on to the beach for the rest of our training, which began with some more warm ups now ready for some sandy karate, followed by some basic drills on the spot trying to have balance on sand and beat the person on the opposite side of the circle.

Group photo in front of the pier

The next section looked at KNM’s Kaizen No-Kata which consists of the first few moves from each Heian and Junro Katas to for one kata, running through to count several times to get he hang of the kata we then had a go through full speed and power and mostly forgot how each kata starts, but it was good fun to give it a go.  Next, we had a go at some kumite drills starting with oi-tsuki, then ren-tsuki and finally sanbon- tsuki and practising the required blocks for each combination.  To round off our kumite we practised several counters to mai geri as beach tradition you must get covered in sand and catching kicks just right is the best way to ensure maximum sand time.  Our final exercise of the day was a karate Mexican wave, starting in the sand we had to jump up punching gyaku tsuki and get back down quick for the return of the wave.

A well earned breakfast

After training had finished it was time to retire to the local greasy spoon for a well-earned fry up, everyone was more than ready for this getting a healthy plate full, and a large plateful for Ben, who managed to clear up everyone else’s left overs as well.  We also had the pleasure to celebrate the birthday of terry from KNM that morning, which is true dedication to karate turning out at that time in the morning to do karate on your birthday.

A big thank you to Andrew Sensei for inviting us across for the morning it was a pleasure as usual and we can’t wait until next year to do it all again, where we plan to try and train the whole of Kangeiko in York through out the week and join KNM for the last day as usual.

OSS

Ben

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

Fab February Grading

Red belts running through kata with Steve Sensei

The last York course was another very good day. It began as usual at 9.30 with the adult beginners and red belts going through basics with Alan Campbell Sensei (7^th Dan) before moving on to their gradings, and the child beginners looking at basics and some kicking technics with Steve Carless Sensei (6^th Dan).  Following the first class the adult beginners and red belts moved onto some kata practice breaking Heian Shodan down with Steve Sensei, whilst Alan Sensei took the yellow to purple belts for a look at stances and techniques. 

Yellows and Greens Kicking it off with some kicking practise
with Alan Sensei

Finally as 11.30 loomed it was time for the main class to begin with Steve sensei taking the yellow belts to 1^st Kyu’s the first session looked at kicking technics to begin with looking at yoko geri kekomi and mawashi geri in partners, then after a brief 2 minute break he then took us through some advanced one step, looking at moving out of the way and several different counters for the same situation, then also some self defence technics as well.  At the same time Alan Sensei led the Dan grades through a  Nidan & Sandan grading syllabus, primarily focusing on kumite using several different methods, from moving on the spot to find your target to moving to target past objects to score.

Main class Yoko Geri Kekomi practise with Steve Sensei

After a heavy first hour of training it was lunch and welcome it was, the quick break was used by most for some last-minute practise before their gradings, straight after lunch the yellow and green belts were up for grading and the rest of the class carried on with the a session which focused again on kumite for the next part of the session.  Finally, the two classes finished with a detailed look at kata, the brown belts looking at Jion in detail, and Dan grades looking at Junro Yondan.

Grading results

First up, we had three child beginners grading, one of which is the youngest member of the club at 4 years old George gained his 12 kyu, along with Zane who also put in a good performance and gained his 12 kyu.  Last up in this group we had Jack who moved up to Red belt gaining his 10^th Kyu.

White belt gradings

Second to hit the panel, adult beginners and Red Belts were up, overall some very strong performances with some karate-ka displaying some of their best karate to date.  Adam and Florence were up in front of the grading panel (who had a special guest examiner in the form of our very own Brenda Sensei!) together smashed it both walking away with 9^th kyu grading, going for their 8^th kyu we had Angel, Ella, Lucas, Alfie, Liya and Evan all of which came up, gave it their all, and walked away happy as can be.  Finally, up Jason, Matthew and Stanislaw, these guys looked great and proved they have what it took and came away with shiny new yellow belts.

Next up Daniel, Joshua and Jeon.  Daniel having had to learn a whole new syllabus for this grading had a great performance that he can be proud of and this was matched with a solid 6^th Kyu pass.  Josh and Jeon walked away with a nice 5^th Kyu pass and some sharp new belts to match.

Brown Belts grading

The final Kyu gradings coming up, first to the plate were Thomas and Paul (D), Paul is a credit to his skill and proof that with determination and passion you can do anything only deciding to grade three weeks before the day due to medical reasons which had stopped him from training before Christmas he came and smashed his grading and along with Thomas took their 3^rd kyu grade.  Finally, in front of the panel we had Oliver, Ben, Edwin, Ellie and Helen going for 2^nd kyu and Aiwin up for his 1^st kyu the last step before thinking about his Shodan, everyone put in great levels of focus and determination and great credit to Helen who smashed her kumite despite it not being her 
favourite area of training, everyone walked away with another grading under their belts.

After all the kyu gradings were out of the way and the rest of the training had finished it was time for the main event of the day, one of the busiest Dan gradings we’ve held at our course in a few years. Of the dozen or so karate-ka going for their Shodan we had two members up for their grading, Paul (B) and Olivia were looking to take the next step on their karate journey, Paul going through his grading showed true focus and power through all of his khion, kata and kumite demonstrating his skill to the best of his ability and it paid of with him walking away with a pass.  Olivia after having trained so hard over the last year and after putting everything she had in to her whole grading unfortunately didn’t quite make the cut this time, after this however we were so proud and impressed to see her walk back through the dojo door after the disappointment as it shows true strength of character and real dedication to karate and the determination to gain her Shodan no matter what.

Over all we had a fantastic course with fantastic turn out from all across the country, thanks to all who attended for your ongoing support, a big congratulations to all who passed their gradings, a big thank you to Alan Campbell Sensei and Steve Carless Sensei for an excellent course and last but by no means least thank you to Paul Brant Sensei who arranged the course and ensured it ran smoothly as always and to everyone else who helped during the day.

Oss

Ben

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

B & B Jan 2019

This Sunday saw the start of the year’s courses with the first Black and Brown belt course run by Alan Campbell Sensei (7^th Dan). For the first course of the year HSKC had a fantastic turn out with eight karate-ka in all. Leading the way and heading one car we had Jim sensei accompanied by Ben, Paul B and Olivia and in the second car, kindly driven by a parent, we had Ellie, Romie, Lucy and Will.

The Haxby gang

With good Haxby tradition we arrived in good time, so we had chance to catch up with friends from clubs across the country.  After a slightly delayed start we all lined up and had the pleasure of seeing Robin sensei from JKS Bradford being awarded his 4^th dan certificate.

The session was based around resistance training with the aid of resistance tubing.  Partnered in three we began driving forward gyaku-tsuki with waist resistance then the same with arm resistance both times we did fifty punches (with both arms) so yes that was 200 punches to warm us up! After that we did some more punches but this time we had twenty counts for both arms, but this ramped up quickly because for each count we equalled the amount of punches so for one it was one punch for ten it was ten punches, so another 110 punches done! To round off our punching we then did the exercise with gyaku-tsuki step oi-Tsuki fifty times both hands finishing the warm up drills with a grand 510 punches made just like that!

Next Alan sensei decided our legs needed warming up, you guessed it, we did all the above exercises with mai-geri and if your legs hadn’t fallen off after 500 normal kicks your lucky, but we were still training with bands so our legs really felt the effort. After a very brief break we moved onto kata with the tubes, one person counting and 2 people doing the same portion of the kata in opposite directions so the tension on the bands increased with every step. To finish off the session Alan sensei decided that we could go without the bands and run through Heian Yondan.

We finished at lunch, earlier than usual, as squad training would take up the second half but that was fine with us as tube training for 2 ½ hours was more than enough for one day; expect it to be seen in the dojo soon. A big thank you to Alan sensei for hosting the course and taking us all through some very interesting and demanding drills.

Oss

Ben   

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

Xmas Course 2018

It had seemed to come around very quickly this year, but it was with a definite sense of anticipation that Ian sensei, Olivia, Romie, Lucy, Ellie and I met up down in Nottingham for the annual JKS Christmas Course. We all took advantage of the time before the course started to do some gentle stretching and warm ups, and to catch up with our extended karate family and friends that we have got to know by coming to these courses over the years.

Alan Sensei called the class to order and before training began invite Steve Sensei from Selby to say a few words about the recent trip to the JKS International Seminar in Japan. After that and the warm ups, we were handed over to Steve Carless Sensei (6^th Dan) for the first part of the course. The main part of this session was all about the legs – some additional warms ups to get the blood flowing and various exercises to improve our kicking ability and range followed before we moved onto practice not just kicking, but also defences against kicks which all built up to a really nice partner drill which emphasised the importance on moving sideways with the block and being close enough for a counter attack.

After a quick run through of Heian Nidan, Steve Sensei finished his teaching with and exploration of Meikyo Nidan, a kata not many of us had looked at before, but perfect for the Christmas course where you expect to be presented with something a little different!

Club photo a solid turn out

After a quick break for lunch Matt Price Sensei (JKS 6^th Dan) took over the instruction and the initial focus was about controlling the distance between yourself and your opponent in kumite, what attacks to throw when, and the importance of footwork. When then moved onto reaction times and reducing your ‘tells’ when you are attacking. From here the focus shifted with some self defence techniques and the ‘chaos’ drill – which we will have to try at the club sometime.

All in all, a great end to the year!

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

Bowling Bonanza

And it began

Our first family fun night work out as a success after the grading in October, with nearly 40 members and family showing up we had a great night bowling together. Gathering just inside the bar at ten pin we had all arrived at around 19.00 for our games to begin.

Upon checking in we found we had taken up not 1 or even 2 lanes but 6 lanes, yes that’s right 6 lanes. Separating across the lanes was no easy task with people of all ages running around but eventually we had managed it with the lanes consisting of Poppy M, Izzie, Tilly, Olivia and Bethany on one supervised by Rachel and Alex,  Paul B, Mary, Nixon, Matt and Robert together, Will M, Edwin, Aiwin, Joshua and Dan T together.

Annie and Poppy twinning 

Annie, Will V, Alfie, Poppy P, Ella, Julia and Herjan the next held Elizabeth, Romie, Lucy and Ellie and finally at the very end we had Jim, Catherine, James, Helen, Mark, Stuart and Me.

Herjan And I having a good time

Jim and David laughing along with Romie

While we bowled we got ourselves some food ordered 10 large platters came out and it looked like there was far too much for the group even with all of us eating but no all the plates seemed to get easily polished off.  After a good few hours bowling parents began arriving to collect their children and those of use who had already arrived began to move towards the exit, however not before we moved through the arcade and had a blast on a few of the games.

All in all, from the feedback that we have had and from what I saw on the night I think that this has been a real success and a n absolute pleasure to spend some time outside the dojo with you all, I feel it will be something that we try to maintain each year going forward.

                                                                                       OSS

                                                                                       Ben 

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

Outstanding October grading

Another grading came and went last weekend, and along with it lots of new successes. There grading panel armed with Sensei Mike (6^th Dan) and Sensei Keith (7^th Dan) as well as Sensei Alan Campbell (7^th Dan) for the senior grades.

Some Happy Faces After Their Grading

Training started promptly at 9.30 for the peewee grades and red belts, led by sensei Alan and Sensei Matt price (6^th Dan) they ran through basics and some fun kumite drills along with some last-minute kata prep. First up grading we’re the peewee grades with success from James, Vismaya and Jack  to 10^th Kyu next up after a short break we’re the red belts with more success from Ella, Angel, Liya, Kevin, Alfie and Evan to 9^th Kyu as well as Harley, Jason and Mary all taking very strong gradings to 8^th Kyu.

Lunch fell after these gradings and it was time for a quick bite to eat, and a much-welcomed surprise came in the shape of Brenda Sensei popping in to say hello and see how the gradings were going. 1.40 came and it was the yellow- purple belts up for their gradings and strong gradings they were, showing off their skills in front of the full panel of Sensei Mike, Kieth and Alan, first up was Joshua with a confident grade up to 6^th Kyu Following Joshua, Paul and Irena steamed there way to getting their 4^th Kyu                                                                                                grading in the bag.

         

Following these gradings it was on to the last set gradings for the day from 4^th kyu- 1^st kyu and it was success across the board with some very strong gradings and for some the best karate they have displayed to date, first up Poppy (M), Edwin and I (Ben)  then alone from HSKC taking his 2^nd Kyu Aiwin came up and took charge of his grading and made sure he deserved it finally we had the 1^st Kyu grades coming up Lucy, Will (M) and Joe stepped to the mark and all three put in maximum effort, determination and

held their heads high absolutely amazing.

The senior kyu grades and black belts that weren’t grading were being put through their paces by Matt price Sensei who started them on with some kumite drills followed with detailed kata taking a deep look at enpi.

After a great day of successes we departed the grading with some very big smile on our faces, I’d like to say a big well done to everyone who graded and thank you to Sensei Alan and Sensei Matt for their instruction and to Sensei Mike, Sensei Keith and Sensei Becs for their time on the grading panel, and as always a massive thank you to Sensei Paul for all his work arranging the course

OSS

Ben 

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

Autumn Course With Kanayama Sensei

Kanayama Sensei 7th Dan
AKA "The Machine"

It was an unseasonable warm morning as we struggled out of bed for the very early start for our trip to Nottingham for the second day of the annual JKS England Autumn Seminar. The warmth, combined with the rain did not bode well as we had already seen on Facebook how gruelling the first day had been. Despite this there were eight intrepid Karateka (Mike Sensei, Jim, Ian, Helen, Paul (B), Lucy, Romie, Olivia – Paul (D), and Ben had to drop out due to illness and injuries) all looking forward to training under Kosho Kanayama Sensei, 7th Dan JKS Hombu Dojo Instructor.

We all arrived in good time, and took the opportunity to warm up (and catch up with some of our karate friends) before training started. Kanayama Sensei soon showed the quality of his karate and instruction with the first series of exercises (squat then drive into front stance in four directions (forward, each side, and backwards – firstly without any other technique, then punching, then kicking (a different kick for each direction!), then punching and kicking!) which were used to make some excellent technical points about driving forward into stance.

All eyes on Sensei during his
demonstration

Following that we did some work on Tobe Konde (stepping and sliding forward) with the emphasis on landing in Shomen (hips square), and being under control at all times. This was then done with a partner to ensure correct hips position, and then with Oi Tzuki and Mae Geri with the opponent as target, then with the opponent blocking.

Kata came next and Kanayama Sensei took the class through Junro Shodan, Nidan and Sandan. Selecting a karateka to demonstrate each kata to reinforce the key teaching points.

Mike Sensei and Mehrdad Sensei with
"The Machine"

Finally Sensei led the class through a series of exercises and cool downs to finish off what was a truly excellent three hours of karate. It was one of those courses where the time seemed to fly by, but when you reflected on the amount of karate we did (and how much we had sweated!) you realised that it was time well spent.

Once the course was completed, Mike Sensei was once again asked to join the examination panel for the Shodan and Nidan examinations. Once the grading were complete it was time to brave the rain once again for the journey home.

Despite our aching legs I am sure that everyone who attended the course will agree that it was definitely worth the trip to train with an instructor of Kanayama Sensei’s pedigree. We will all retain some of what we have learnt of this course, and our karate will be much the better for it.

The whole gang with Kanayama Sensei

Oss
Ben

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

Hot, Heavy and Humble Hans Rana Course

A course with a lie in, unheard of, but well worth it. August 11^th by invitation from Mike Sensei we hosted one of the most phenomenal instructors we could, Hans Rana Sensei.  Starting at 13.00 with greetings with karate ka attending the course from Haxby, Selby Shotokan Karate Club, JKS Bradford and a few members from Hans Sensei’s club JKS Loughborough.

All who Attended 

Promptly at 13.30 we began training with Hans taking us through some warm ups focused on stretching us out but also some strength conditioning. From stretches, to squats, to everyone’s favourite push ups we did it all, continuing the warm up theme we then moved on to some hip rotation exercises with a combination making up a forward’s arm swing followed by a nagashi uke, countered with Empi-uchi, repeated on both sides.  

After our intense warm ups, it was straight in to it, starting with basics changing stance, we started with front Stace partner work mirroring each other, then after 10 or so attempts we added on a gyaku tsuki finishing the combination with change stance mai geri gyaku tsuki.  The next combination we look at back stance with a similar feel changing stance to get a feel of the correct stance, then we added Nukite in Zenkutsu-dachi. Our final combination put our kicks in to practise all on one leg we demonstrated mai geri, yoko geri keage and mawashi geri.

After a brief water break it was back to training, we started with some kata to change up the feel, we began with Jono-kata (beginners kata) which looks at basic stances attacks and blocks, then we practised gyaku tsuki no kata (all attacks in gyaku (reverse)) running though each several times to get a good practise at them finally Hans sensei allowed all the dan grades to show us what they had and they ran through each kata to their own timing. The next part of the class took us through some short but intense kumite sections of 15 seconds where we just had to push against our partner with several combinations without stopping, along with some speed building exercises in the essence of preforming 10 star jumps as fast as possible before your partner and punching the gyaku tsuki.

Posing in our favourite kata stances

The final part of the session saw Hans Sensei for the benefit of the dan grades running through joko issei the first kata of Asai Sensei’s joko katas to help them with progression in their grades and to teach them an unfamiliar and unusual kata. After running though joko issei several times and almost everyone (even Hans Sensei) getting a little confused with some of the finer points of the kata we moved in to the cool downs which after such an intense training session were a god send.

After thanks to Hans Sensei and thanks to all who attended the course we departed in traditional Haxby karate fashion after a very hot heavy session we retired to the local hostelry for a few cold refreshing (slightly alcoholic) beverages with friends to show karate in its other light as a social hobby rather than just all training all the time.

Leading into the evening it was time for the club to show our thanks to Hans sensei for his one of a kind instruction and we headed in to your for a good night out, starting in the punch bowl Jim, Holly, Dave and myself (Ben) were the first to arrive quickly joined by Mike and Ian T and we sat outside waiting the eventual arrival of Paul Brant sensei with our guests Hans, Janak Rana and his son Deepak. Moving on from the punch bowl we stopped in the cross keys for another beverage and finally we ended in the Viceroy for a fantastic meal. 

Our spread

As the night drew to an end we dwindled in numbers till for a final drink back in the key there were only Jim, holly, Dave, Mike and myself before we then all retired home after a long and frankly amazing day from the start of Hans sensei’s training to the last sip of our last drinks.

Hans, Mike and Paul Senseis enjoying a G&T

All been said and done I would like to the everyone who attended the course and showed up for the training especially those who had to travel quite some distance to be there from Selby, Bradford and even a few who drove all the way from hull to attend but most of all I would like to thank Hans Rana for coming all the way from Loughborough to humble us with his instruction and to Janak and Deepak for joining him as well.

OSS

Ben 

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