First of all - I owe you an EGKA black belt grading report. I never made it along to the grading (for the first time in years), sorry about that. But I have spoken with a few people who were there and some of them took part in the grading. I've also been sent some photos of the grading which are great, I'll put them on here shortly.

Last night was "business as usual" at our Dojo in Liverpool. Sensei Roy had the class run through a lot of stuff, including exercises to improve punching speed by working with a training partner. One drill that sticks in my head is to stand face-to-face with partner and, to a set count, both side punch out right handed towards one another at the same time. Then, on the next count, punch with your left hand, and so on and so on.

We also practiced a ippon-kumite (one-step sparring), some moving basics with a partner and also some other kicking and blocking drills taken from the weekend's training with Sensei Ernie Molyneux (EGKA Chief Instructor).

Today my arms are all bruised and bumpy from the blocking exercises. Great class last night.