Kato Shihan Course at York 31st March / 1st April 2007

Kato Shihan 8th Dan IJKA Chief Instructor

Another great weekends training with Kato Shihan, a different venue at St Peters school in York and a lot of old friends.

The hall gave us plenty of space to train and although different from a sprung wooden floor, it proved to be a very acceptable surface to train on.

Left: The Hall gave us the equivalent of 5 Badminton courts so there was plenty of room to train altogether or split down into grades.
The foundations of good karate is Kihon, if are basics are not good, kata and kumite can not be either. So that is why we spend a long time at lower grades doing, Kihon, Kihon, and a little more Kihon.

Right: Kato Shihan may apperar to be "the grumpy old man of Shotokan" at times, but now and again he lets his image slips and finds time to help a young katrateka with her belt.

Left: Training focused on movement, backwards and forwards, side to side, spinning in and spinning out, combined with basic techniques.

Left: The lower grades trained with Gullen Shihan, take a look at those stances... they need to be a little longer and lower.

Right: Karateka come in all different shapes and sizes, but as we rotated partners Helen comes up against Sensei Mark. Probably both ends of the Karate spectrum, "does he look bothered?", attack with all you've got Helen.
Left: A little ashai bari is introduced to the mid grade training.

Right: A bit of triangle training for the higher grades, even the most senior grades can get it wrong. Sensei Nick says Sensei is saying "Like that , like that!" but that is not how I remember it.

The Gradings followed at the end of the Sunday training, well done to all our students that attended the weekends training and to those who passed their gradings:
Rebecca Brant - 3rd Kyu
Dominic Schilke - Temp 3rd Kyu
Adam Preece, Daniel Kozelko and Sam Dennis - Temp 4th Kyu
Emma Moraes and Claire Hardy - 9th Kyu
Callum Taylor-Saunders, Phoebe Moraes, Lewis Coward, Josh Hardy and Harry Preece - 12th Kyu

Congratulations to all the York and Haxby Karateka that graded as well. We had a few students that did not pass and we have quite a few temporary grades between the three clubs. Sensei was disappointment with the standard of Kata, spirit and Kime. I have always said that within the IJKA we set ourselves high standards, because they are high we may not always meet them but we will keep training and we will get there. Karate is a lesson for life, if you are given something for free it is probably not worth having. If Sensei gives you a grade you can be proud to wear your belt anywhere.
Thank you Sensei for your time and Instruction, to those karateka that travelled to be with us and Sensei Ian Shaw for organising the weekend. Osu!

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