Black Belt success

Congratulations go out to two more of our students who were promoted to the rank of Junior Shodan this weekend. Daniel and Joshua both gave their all during a gruelling 3 hour examination at our Honbu Dojo in London under the watchful eye of our Chief Instructor, Sensei George Andrews 7^th Dan and Sensei Linda Marchant 6^th Dan. The grading took place following the morning training session, in which candidates had been worked hard, prior to the grading, which took place after lunch.

The grading session, in line with the IOGKF curriculum, was physically exhausting and all participants conducting themselves admirably. It is always a proud moment to see the development of your students and Michelle and I were extremely proud of Daniel and Joshua’s performance. Well done lad’s, now it’s time to start learning and training even harder!!!

Well done to all grading candidates and particularly the rest of the Sheffield contingent from the Hallam and Crookesmoor Dojos.

Sensei Bakkies Laubscher

Sensei Bakkies Laubscher, 8th Dan IOGKF – Chief Instructor, South Africa

Weekend training session at OTGKA Honbu Dojo

We arrived at 10am for the training session with great anticipation of what the weekend would hold in store. We were not to be disappointed.

Saturday morning began with an hour and half training specific to 2nd Dan and above, looking at the basic details within Sanseru kata. This was followed by an hour and half all grades training before lunch and a further 2 hours afterwards. Sunday morning was for 3rd Dan and above consisting of an hour and a half of detailed explanation and practice of Sanchin, Tensho and Sesan kata, before moving on to the all grades sessions with more ‘basics’, moving repetition and co-ordination training with a spin on self defence. As they say, “Time flies when you’re having fun!” the 10 hours training was over before we knew it.

If you have not trained with this inspiring instructor, you must. To sum up in one word “Awesome!” To see such a big man you instinctively think power, but couple that with speed and agility, you have Bakkies Sensei.

Demonstration and explanation around everything we did, coupled with Sensei’s sense of humour, masked the fact that we’d done almost two full days of basics, which, as Sensei said, is the foundation of Karate, there are no shortcuts (he assured us if there were, he would have found them!). It was pleasing to see his wry grin at times, in appreciation of the commitment and effort from everyone, especially when he increased the work rate, combinations and co-ordination patterns.

The course was very well attended and I am sure everyone left as tired, inspired and motivated as we were. The weekend was an absolute pleasure.

Many thanks to Sensei George and everyone involved in arranging a very successful course and most of all our thanks go to Bakkies Sensei, we are forever grateful of your time and knowledge.

Arigato gozai mashita.

Sensei George at Hallam Dojo

‘Quality not quantity’ is something that student’s of Sensei George have drilled into them from day one. It’s not about how many Kata you know, but about how well you do the ones you do know. Having attained 4^th Dan in December 2005 and having done Sesan kata on courses with Sensei George, Terauchi Sensei and Sensei Andy, I was feeling that my standard of Sesan was quite proficient, however, at the recent course at Hallam dojo, the opportunity for close scrutiny of this kata from Sensei George became apparent, but following many, many repetitions, I began to feel a significant improvement.

I always remind my students, that you only get out of training what you put in. Work hard, practice, listen and learn. With the right attitude and guidance you can achieve wonders.

Many thanks to Sensei George for the weekends training and especially the advanced kata practice, it was a very beneficial and thanks to Sensei Andy for arranging another successful course in Sheffield.

And thanks also to my students for their excellent turnout.

Terry Noble