Foreword Note: A piece about the gradings weekend course in Bournemouth is still to follow! But I thought that I ought to write the following out straight away while it is still fresh in my mind.

Training tonight at Childwall Dojo with Sensei Roy Flatt, the first class back after the black belt grading and general course in Bournemouth. Sensei congratulated the people who graded and also said a big "well done!" to the children who attended the EGKA competition recently in Wirral - then business as normal began and the class began. Anyone who turns up to the first class after acheving their black belt shouldn't be expecting the pressure to be lessened just because there is no longer a grading on the horizon!

The class started with lots of basics, followed up with basics with a partner - standing face to face, one person attacked using jodan zuki while the other countered with age uke (a jodan / head height block). Next this was incorporated into moving basics - stepping across the dojo floor in long stance (zenkutsu dachi), still with a training partner, one person attacking and stepping forwards and the other person blocking and stepping back.

On a side note, for moving basics this evening I was paired up with my good friend Mike Lyons, who has not been able to train for a while due to knee operations. It was great to see him back in the dojo once again though, and we had a good time trying to do as much damage to one another using jodan and chudan blocks during this part of the class, Mike didn't want to take it easy just because he was on his 1st night back, and I wasn't about to let him either! Straight back in at the deep end with some hard training, this is what we like to see. I hope your knee held up ok Mike mate!

After moving basics Sensei continued with the attack & counter theme and had everyone stay with their current training partner for ippon kumite. The exercise was for one partner to attack chudan zuki (a punch to the chest) 20 times, their opponent had to block the attack trying to use a different counter attack each time. 20 different counters is a lot to come up with "off the top of your head", especially when the person who is attacking you realises that you are thinking about what you are doing and they intentionally go faster with their attacks, trying to catch you out! All in all there was actually 40 attacks to contend with too (20 on each hand!).

Next on the agenda was kata, beginning with Gekisai Dai Ichi. However Sensei Roy had everybody practice that kata using arms only - standing in heiko dachi (parallel stance) and not moving below the waist. After performing the kata like this a few times we did the kata as normal, legs included. Sensei had us practice 4 different kata using this method; first perfrom the kata on-the-spot using arms only, then the kata proper, all the way through 3 times.

The class was split into groups as the katas progressed - when we moved onto a new kata, lower graded students were taken to one side with a black belt as their instructor to practice certain movements from gekisai kata. Then Sensei had the remaining black belts practice Kururunfa kata. But tonight was the first night as a black belt for one student - my good friend Paul - who was definately given a baptism of fire by Sensei Roy. First night with his new belt on, first senior kata, Kururunfa! I never got much of a chance to see how he got on (as I was busy practicing my own kata!) but I am sure he gave it a good go - a whole new kata after all this time studying for a black belt grading! It is over-aweing when you first learn something new. Sensei said "Now we're going to do Kurununfa" - looked at Paul - "You're in the big class now, big class, big katas". And that was that!

Sensei George Weston of EGKA Childwall Dojo performing Kururunfa kata during his yondan (4th dan) grading in Bournemouth, England.

This year's EGKA summer black belt gradings weekend was deemed a great success, with over 150 students from all over England coming together to train with our Chief Instructor, Sensei Ernie Molyneux, as well as other senior instructors.

The grading examination on Sunday afternoon saw 63 students tesing together, being watched by the EGKA Grading Panel.

More details of this event shortly.

Members of Childwall Dojo, with EGKA Chief Instructor Sensei Ernie Molyneux. Photo taken at The Littledown Centre in Bournemouth, England on 20 May 2007.

It is mentioned on IOGKF.com that Higaonna Sensei (IOGKF Chief Instructor) may be visiting Portugal in September 2007 for a Gasshuku, however this is currently described as "tentative" information, meaning nothing has been finalised yet.

Last weekend (12th & 13th May) the EGKA held the northern region children's kata & kumite tournament in Wirral, England. The event was well attended with many children taking part in the event.

I reliably informed that there are videos from this contest on Youtube, altough I am not yet able to find any of them in searches! When I find them I will link to them on this page.

The best dojo at the event was Sensei Paul Nolan's Asagi Dojo.

Well done to all that took part in the event!

The IOGKF 2007 World Kata Championships are currently taking place in Goa, India.

Training this morning was billed as an "open session" prior to upcoming gradings. We are having a dojo grading for kyu graded students in the next few weeks, also there is a national black belt gradings weekend due in 2 weeks time which people are preparing for. Tomorrow is a bank holiday here in England and, usually, our dojo is closed on the Sunday before a bank holiday. However, as we are so close to the gradings, Sensei decided to allow the dojo to be open today for students to gather together and practice.

Our karate association is due to have a children's tournament next weekend so some children have been preparing to compete in the kata competition. So not only were people hoping to practice for grading exams but also competition work.

Today's class was instructed by 2 4th degree black belt (yondan) instructors, both named Sensei Steve. Sensei split the class into levels of proficiency and everyone was given set tasks to perform, mainly to do with kata and applications. I trained with other black belts, we practiced Shisochin kata and Sanseru kata and all of the bunkai that accompany them. This was to help one of our senior students, Sensei George Weston, preparing for his upcoming attempt for yondan (4th degree black belt). We each took turns in calling out the attacks for application practice, with Sensei George always leading the class so that he was both teaching his techniques and practicing them at the same time.

Meanwhile the children were at the far end of the dojo being instructed by Sensei Steve who had them run through a mock kata competition, complete with a formal pre-kata walk onto the mat. When in competition it is just as important to enter the competition environment in a set fashion as it is to perform the kata correctly. Sensei has the children practice the correct way to approach the kata area several times, as well as practicing performing the kata as a team (keeping in time with their team mates while performing).

A quick word about this web diary: I have not been able to keep this page as up-to-date as I would like to of late, mainly due to work commitments. I have not been able to train at the dojo much in the past few months, instead I have been going to the gym and using chi'ishi (karate training stone) and a lot of cardio vascular work to keep myself in good nick. This year's European Gasshuku event with our world chief instructor Higaonna Sensei is on the horizon and I don't want to be out of shape for it!