Saturday
Our Saturday training day was planed for 7 hours. Sempai Skarpellis 1st Dan started off the day with a bag session. The emphasis
was on the hip movement to maximize power, this was a good session to blow away any cobwebs, as it was very physical working up
the full speed and power using various techniques in combinations. The second session was taken by Sensei Edwards 3rd Dan, he
wanted to utilize the movement we know as Uchi Uke. He used this technique in a multitude of ways including locks, strikes, blocks
and throws. This was an interesting lesson using a basic block in many ways. Sensei Paul 5th Dan was the Third instructor up to take
a lesson in knife defence. He covered ways of disarming an attacker from a variety of different angles and attacks. He used different
applications from his experience of his riot police training. The next instructor was Sempai Boughey 2nd Dan. He chose Aikido based
moves from a standing position and from the floor. This was more of a technical session than physical although the moves were just
as effective if not more painful. Sensei Paul Grimsey 4th Dan decided to take us through some Shotokan Kata bunkai training drills.
The 2-man training drills were a great way to work through the applications of the kata. With only 2 lessons left Sensei John Gillespie
4th Dan was up for his session. He started off with some kumite combinations, which was physically testing to some of the participants
as we were now starting our 6th hour of training. He continued with Ippon Kumite and progressed to 2 man attacks at 45-degree angles.
To finish off his session he had one participant stand against a wall with the other two in a line in front and at full speed just
defend the attacks for 1 minute from each person. The last session was taken by Sensei John Ayres 4th Dan. He chose Kihon Ippon Kumite,
working on being in the right place for the counter attack. It had been a long day so far but everyone was prepared to dig a little
bit deeper, which was just as well as anyone slacking with high stances were rewarded with the whole group performing 20 press-ups.
This session took us up to 16.50 and it was time for a cool down and stretches before heading to the Spa to ease out some sore muscles.
We had a private dinning room for the evening meal and after, most people went downstairs to Keller’s to listen to the live music.
The Après nightclub opened at midnight and the brave continued on dancing into the night.
