The Diary of a Dan Grade Course

Day 1: Medicine Balls exercise!

Sensei David Ginger couldn’t join us for this exercise as he was still quite poorly – ‘Black lung’ “cough cough” (zoolander!), he did, however, supply the medicine balls. This exercise is fast, furious and of course painful but worth it!
We then went back to basics and stripped them right down to all of the finer point before building them back up again.
With partners, we began work on sweeps and blocks. This was fun! I learned a lot from this lesson.
After lunch we began work on the first two Heian Katas. This involved stripping them right down and re-building them to be able to perform them at an advanced level. During this we also included the bunkai to these Katas which was interesting and good fun. We worked on Bassai Dai for a while too, but didn’t do the bunkai.
After our tea break we learned Wankan. As well as the Kata itself, we learned the bunkai which I personally found very interesting.


Day 2: Medicine Ball Exercise, AGAIN!!

Today was much more painful than yesterday, but still fun.
We started syllabus work today. For today, all of the kyu grade students had to work as 1st kyus. It was awesome but still hard work.
Kumite was next; this was a really good experience, especially for the kyu grades. We did a few different kinds of kumite like, Kihon Ippon, Jiyu Ippon and Ju Ippon. I really enjoyed all of the kumite and it gave us a taste of what the higher grades would be doing for their grading.
After lunch we worked on the Katas again, as we did yesterday. When they were finished we learned Jion.
After our tea break we learned a new Kata called Chinte.


Day 3: Syllabus work again, today.

This, we sort of did ourselves as Sensei Gilliland was recording us. He called us in turns to let us watch ourselves perform. I liked this because it’s easier to see what is wrong than it us to just have someone tell you. We then had to go away and try to correct ourselves.
We learned some self defence in the form of chair and knife defences. This was great fun.
We also worked in the first two Heian Katas again so that we could be recorded. We all watched ourselves again so we knew what, if anything needed work.
In the evening we did more Kata. We were allowed to choose to work on. I chose Wankan because I think it’s unusual as well as fun.


Day 4: Back to Basics again.

We made our own decisions about which basics needed work. So we got on with that.
After that we moved on to syllabus work. Everyone’s work was different depending on their current grade.
We worked on different kinds of kumite again before going back to knife and chair defences.
After lunch we worked on improving our Katas again.
Then to wind down, we were divided into groups to do exercise which was more like a game, but awesome fun either was.






 

Day 5: Grading Day!

Today’s warm up was kumite, so it was good fun.
Then Sensei Ginger took all of the kyu grades to work on the syllabus for all of their next grading.
Kyu grades were lucky enough to be allowed to watch the Dan Grading. This was an excellent opportunity because it’s going to be us up there one day.

The Dan grade course was very different to any karate lessons I have ever done before, and I couldn’t have enjoyed this week anymore if I tried. It was awesome and I can’t wait until next year to do it all again.

Beginning Karate

I began going to Karate a little while before the summer after a fiend conviced me to join with her. It is just the two of us in the class, so there is a really friendly atmosphere.
At first I found our instructor, Sensei John, a bit scary, because he is about twice the size of me, and when I attempted to hurt him i just ended up hurting myself!
Now I realize he's just really great and easy to get along with, apart from when he demonstrates self defence tactics on me! Sensei always makes the lesson interesting because we do different things each week.
We learn valuable self defence skills, if you want to learn of find out more come along to his classes. My confidence is growing week by week especially when I am out, because I know I would be able to deal with the situation if I was attacked.
I felt really pleased when I did my grading because I passed and I relly felt I had achieved something. I have enjoyed learning new techniques towards new belts, and it is improving my fitness and flexibility as well.
I am definitely going to carry on learning Karate so that I will always be able to defend myself and I will have control in any situation, one day Sensei John I will get revenge...

Article written by Jenny Hickson

Punching, Striking & Kicking

Karate for most is the means of striking with the hand or kicking, whilst many instructors believe they understand the techniques of striking and kicking they rarely teach or practise the variances possible within each ‘major’ technique.

Using the hand there are 10 variations for striking techniques, many methods are practised only within kata, whilst this is in itself important, it is more important to understand how to use the methods and techniques properly and which targets they would be most effective.

 

Methods of striking utilising the hand include:

  • Seiken - Regular fist
  • Uraken - Back fist
  • Shuken - Hand fist
  • Ippon Ken - Single point index finger fist
  • Chukoken/Nakadakaken - Single point middle finger fist
  • Tettsui - iron hammer
  • Nukite - Spear hand
  • Nihon Nukite - Two finger spear hand
  • Ippon Nukite - One finger spear hand
  • Shuto - Knife hand
  • Haishu - Back of the hand

Methods of striking utilising the foot include:

  • Koshi - Ball of the Foot
  • Sokuto - Sword foot (edge of the foot)
  • Tsumasaki - Toe tips
  • Ensho - Back of the heel
  • Sokko - Top of the foot

Kicking and striking using other parts of the hand and foot often change the delivery and effectiveness of the respective technique, sometimes these variations mean that a previously effective technique may become ineffective, it is important therefore to practise kicking and stiking using the various areas of the strikes to ensure that you can use them to their best.

Kawashi

Kawashi is literally "interaction" in Karate kawashi can be explained by the ability to read and understand your opponents actions.

In Kawashi practise, you pass through your opponents attack, in effect exchanging places. Unlike kumite, you do not catch the attack and sweep it away, nor do you stop back or to the inside. Instead you step in, towards the attacker, whilst turning (kawasu) your body to avoid the attack

In practise the distance between attacker and defender is about 90 centimetres, so that is the defender does not step in to avoid the attack they will surely be struck. ~This is therefore real practise in distancing (maai). It is a close quarter fighting drill, where you must quickly read your opponents intention to attack.

In a fight or battle interaction is implicit, however in kawashi practise there should be no clash or conflict, it means to pass by or cross through the opponent without any physical contct in tother words to interact.

Have you mastered kawashi????