Boroughbridge Course and Dan Grading

28th to 30th August 2009

The north region hosted its all-grade kata course at Boroughbridge Sports Centre on the 18th July.

It started at 11 - 2, followed by grading at 3 pm. The course was run by Sensei Ohta who was assisted by Sensei Gary Stewart and Sensei Roy Tomlin. Roger arrived at 10 am to set up shop and to get the ball rolling and put everything was put into place fairly quickly. By 11 o'clock over 100 students had registered to train and grade. Mick would like to thank all those people for attending and making the day successful.

(Click here to download grade passes)

The warm-up was taken by squad member Adam Moulding and once we were all warm and stretched, Sensei Ohta took the first half of the course. The first theme of the day was "hips" and Sensei took us through different drills to emphasise hip rotation and hip vibration, leading on to correctly performing oi zuki - gyaku zuki. Sensei then moved on to hip work with mae geri, encouraging us to think about the timing of push of the hips with the snap of the kick. Sensei then demonstrated how to use the hips for yoko geri kekomi, without losing upper body position. (interesting!). The final part of the first session revolved around ippon kumite partner work, trying to incorporate hip rotation, ma-ai, and timing. This led on to the importance of Jiyu Kihon Ippon Kumite for developing these skills. And don't forget Zanshin!

Only a short interval was allowed (5 minutes!) then off we went into the kata session in grades. Sensei Ohta took black belts through Gojushiho sho, incorporating bunkai. At a kata course, each student will perhaps have a different "lightbulb moment" depending on how much they already know about the kata. For some perhaps this time it was making the link between the hipwork and mae geri practice we had done in the first session with the techniques of Gojushiho sho, or maybe the point that the nukite sections need hip vibration as in sanbon zuki. The second kata the black belts did was Meikyo, including bunkai. One of the points mentioned about this kata was the importance of showing soft and sharp techniques, which is easy to say but hard to do! .

Brown belts were taken through Bassai Dai by Sensei Roy, and Jion by Sensei Gary. Kyu grades did Heian kata up to Tekki Shodan, and some did gohon kumite with Sensei Gary, followed by Sensei Roy concentrating on correct stances and moving from one to another.

With the students grading, Sensei Ohta was as thorough as always and focused on each student individually so we weren't all done until 5.30. Senseis Ohta, Gary and Roy gave all participants who will need to retake their grading useful information as to what areas needed to be improved.

Congratulations to all those who passed.
Oss - Mick Lowe

Click here to download grade passes