Selby Hosts Sensei Kato - Feb 09

Above: The Course Photo

What an absolutely brilliant weekend!

Kato Shihan 9th Dan IJKA World Chief Instructor visited the Selby dojo, the first time in about 20+ years. Karateka from Selby, Haxby and York dojos trained on Saturday at Selby and Haxby on the Sunday prior to thirty one Karateka grading.

We were very pleased to have with us Sensei Stacey and Claire from Ireland, who brought with them Malcolm who graded to 2nd Kyu on Sunday. I believe it was his first grading with the IJKA, he didn't seem to be phased so far from home, congratulations on obtaining your 2nd Kyu!

On Saturday Sensei taught a two hour class for all grades and a further session for Black and Brown belts where he taught Shotei Sho, I have a couple of clips of some of the bunkai and Sensei teaching the circular hand techniques which I will post when I get a chance.

Sensei Steve Cook from Selby joined us for training on the Sunday. He has been unable to train for a few years due to family and business commitments, but he has not lost any of his skills. Great to see you training Steve.

Sensei Mark was over from Whitchurch on Sunday and Shihan put him on the spot when he sent all the Black Belts into the anti-room for Mark to teach us Joko Nisei. I am sure even when Kato Shihan is teaching one of the Asai Ryu kata he will give himself a few minutes to think through the kata again and get it back in his head. Sensei Mark did not have the luxury of even a few seconds. Twenty minutes later Kato Shihan was back to see the results, apart from one hand position on one technique we were ok, Sensei Mark had saved us all a lot of money because Shihan was going to charge us one beer for every mistake!

More photos of the two day course will be posted soon....(when I get a minute). The member table and all the individual member pages have all been updated with your new grades, my congratulations go to the seventeen students from Selby that graded today, well done to you all.

We now have at Selby eleven purple and Brown belts, look forward to some great sessions over the coming months. You now have some good foundations on which to build your karate.

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