IJKA Championships Hungary

Above: Shuitsu Okazaki Shihan IJKA Japan (7th Dan)

Sensei is chief instructor and president of the IJKA in Japan he instructed a number of sessions in the two training days on the Thursday and the Friday.

Above: The Championships had the support of the Hungarian Sports Minister and IJKA Hungary, the 2007 Championships were designated as the 1st Asai Shihan memorial championships.

On the Sunday a minutes silence was observed for Asai Shihan.

Above: kato Shihan with the young ladies from Russia

As you would expect the Russians put forward a really strong team, with an equally strong determination to win. The Young lady to the left of the photo had a particularly strong kata and kumite. I believe her name to be Anastasia Nazarkin, she came first in Kata and second in kumite.

Above: Kato Shihan teaches in the training sessions

I will do my best to bring back some of the training that was undertaken on the course to the club. The emphasis was on Kihon and Kumite, a pleasant change. Okazaki Shihan ran us through some kumite training in the Japanese way. One Karateka at the front of the line with all others practising techniques. Kato Shihan concentrating on basics first and their interpretation. How a single block can be developed into blocking a wealth of attacks.

Shihan was encouraging us to think for ourselves and not like a karate robot, to develop our karate. To brings things back to our Shihan for the development of all.

I watched closely as Shihan demonstrated techniques, I am always amazed at the way Kato Shihan moves etc but what I had not perceived before was in the same dojo I saw some very senior Japanese grades with the same look of amazement. Look forward to some very interesting training sessions over the next few weeks.

Above: Rebecca is taking part in team training

Above: Rebecca at the championship venue pre competition

Above: Female 14-15 yrs Kata presentation

1st Lasma Avotinja, Latvia, 2nd Natalia Avdeeva, Russia, 3rd Rebecca Brant, England, 4th Lorincz Viktoria, Hungary. Rebecca and Victoria managed to communicate quite well considering neither could speak each others language, they even exchanged e mail addresses to keep up their friendship.

Rebecca put up a good fight in kumite but was unsuccessful in getting past the first round.

Helen had quite a height and reach disadvantage in kumite but came a very close second in her kata. Andre Shihan for Russia awarded her the decision against the four corner judges who saw it differently. It looked very close to me. The competition was especially tough in the ladies division

In my first round of Kata I had to perform Heian Godan, this is my least favourite kata, but somehow I managed to get the decision. In the second round I had to perform Heian Yondan and was knocked out. I enjoy Kata in the dojo at the club but have this fear that it will all go horribly wrong when I am in front of all those people on the day. It was a relieve to get it behind me. I could focus on the kumite.

Sensei Alec from Scotland had given me some sound advice about being positive a couple of days before the competition, he was not impressed that I considered I was just making the number up. I would have liked to have Gullen Shihan there as a coach but a pep talk from Sensei Alec may have been just what I needed. When the draw came out I was due to compete against our host Tamas Molnar, Sensei Tamas has a long reach and was a difficult opponent to close, I lost but was reasonably happy with my effort. Tamas went on to win the Veterans competition and I was called back with all the others that had lost against him in the repachage, I won all my fights but still I was not sure where it placed me.

My jaw was still aching from a wicked left hook from Tamas, PJ from Ireland had also received a devastating punch from Tamas that had put him to the mat for a second, so perhaps I had done better than I thought.

The results sent through from Tamas showed the positions as 1st Tamas Molnar, Hungary, 2nd P.J. Ireland.3rd Paul Brant England and 3rd Gabor Windt also from Hungary. I had remembered Sensei Gabor from Cyprus, a fine kumite exponent.

It is proposed to run the next Championship in Cyprus followed by Poland and Italy. If we are going to compete effectively we need to train as a team and be established with a coach. If you have any thoughts on this please e mail me.

See you in Cyprus next year!

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