Saturday 15th March
Breakfast is from 8 am so most people were there early to allow time to digest their food. Everyone was in the Dojo by 10.00
and some of the students seemed a little anxious about the forthcoming day’s training. Sensei Pell started the day off with
some light sparring and stretching before handing over to Sempai Andy Skarpellis 1st Dan who split the class into groups of 5
with 1 in the middle. The first attack was Jodan followed by Chudan and finally Mae Geri at slow, medium and fast speeds. All
the blocks and counters were with kaisho. This session put the class in the mood to train for the duration. Sensei Angus
Pearson 3rd Dan took the next session with a practical application of Age Uke which was effective and fast which I’m sure
gave the kyu grades an eye opener. The third session was taken by Sensei John Ayres 3rd Dan. He started of with jabbing the
punch bag, then adding one by one the cross, upper cut and hook punch. Working the combination against different partners with
the emphasis on correct hip movement and close distance. He moved on to front kick, roundhouse kick, and back kick and then
elbows. To finish off, half the group (10) made a circle, holding the bags out. The other half then performed 10 techniques
each side at full speed and power rotating around the 10 bags. The class then had a (rest) by holding the plank position and
raising one limb off the ground at a time for 10 seconds at a time, working around the body twice. The fourth session was
taken by Sensei Paul Grimsey 4th Dan, although being a Shotokan exponent; he had spent 6 months in China at a Kung Fu school.
He had decided to teach Chi Kung a form of breathing to re-energize the group. Although their was little movement involved,
it was quite demanding, even if Sensei Grimsey made it look easy. We took a 20 minute break to re-hydrate and to take on board
some food as we still had 2 hours to go. The first session after the break was Sempai Boughey with one of his favourite sessions
‘a man walks into a bar’. The session was about controlling your adrenaline and pre-empting the attack, he also covered some
‘outside the bar’ techniques and a very effective arm-bar from a grab. The next session was Sensei Paul Raymond 5th Dan who
chose the Kata Gojushiho-Sho. First he broke the Kata down into the individual moves before piecing it all together; this was
an excellent way for the lower Kyu grades to learn the difficult Kata. Sensei John Gillespie took the next session with the
correct and safe application of basic stances. This was an informative and important lesson for everyone who practices Karate,
the front, back and straddle leg stances were covered. The last session was taken by Sensei Gavin Paul 5th Dan. Sensei Paul
chose practical knife defenses against various attacks which were practiced in turn with a partner using training knives. This
was the eighth and final session of the day and it was time for a comprehensive stretch and cool-down as after 5 hours training
everyone deservedly was feeling a little jaded. The rest of the day was free time until meeting in the hotel bar at 8 o’clock for
a pre dinner drink. Everyone stayed around the lounge in the evening just relaxing after the days training.