Course Report - November 2000

- Saturday -

This is adults only day and this time round was attended mainly by our brown and black belts. We were also joined by three members of a Shotokai club in Airdrie.

As is normal, we started with a warm-up courtesy of Stuart Hendry (A.K.A. Dr Death, Mr Motivator, Dr Strangelove – only kiddin’ Stuart). After what seemed like gallons of sweat had made the floor slippy enough Stuart handed the group over to Hugh Hastings (4^th Dan) and Sanny Hunter (3^rd Dan) who demonstrated the overall point of the course. In this case, obtaining the first timing from your opponent and being able to move out of range before the attack started.

Session 1
We started by moving back and forth with a partner trying to sense their movement through the light contact of our outstretched hands. This progressed to more of the same without the hand contact. We then started putting in three punches to see if we could react without upsetting our body condition.

Around about now Hugh and Sanny obviously detected something missing in our body movement as they changed the practice and had us running the length of the hall towards each other and "twisting" the body at the time an attack would come. After some time at this it was on to Sanbon Kimite (3 attacks) and finished off with same kata.

Session 2
This session was devoted to the performance of all five of the Heian kata. These are groups of movements and techniques strung together to allow us to practice those techniques to the maximum effect without hurting a partner. You can use your imagination to make it feel real, so that when you have a partner in front of you, you don’t have to try anything dangerous with him/her – you know if it works or not from the kata. At the end of this session Hugh and Sanny announced the awarding of two new black belts to Stuart Hendry and Chic McEwan. As well as a new black belt and their certificate they were given a bottle of Champagne from the club to celebrate their new belts.

Session 3
We started off again with kata. This time split into two groups facing each other. Each group observing the other during their performance of a kata and trying to pickup their timings. From here we went on to circular attackers (not one of my favourites!). We had about twelve brown/black belts in a circle around one other. The rule was "when you look at someone – they attack you". It’s a very good practice for learning to pickup lots of different people’s timing, but it’s still scary!

- Sunday -

The kids are back today!

A very light (well it seemed like that after yesterday’s!) warm-up was supplied by new Black Belt Stuart Henry consisting of running, star jumps; arm swings etc and ended with the whole group doing Heian Shodan.

The juniors were then split up into three groups and assigned black belts to instruct them during the day. The white belt group worked on Gedan Barrai block, Oi Tzuki punch and the Taikyoku Shodan kata. The red, yellow, orange belt group worked on Heian Shodan and Nidan katas with emphasis on relaxation and movement then moved on to Sanbon Kimite (slightly out of range to avoid injury). The green,blue,brown and black belts went through Heian Shodan, Nidan and then basic techniques from the katas (Kihon), ending with sanbon Kimite (three step sparring). At this point Hugh and Sanny called a break and we all had crisps and cola to stop any dehydration.

After a short break it was more of the same as Hugh and Sanny circulated through each group performing the grading as they went. Around 2:30pm the grades were announced by Edwin Tibbles (2^nd Dan), Andy Vallance (2^nd Dan) and Aileen Tait (1^st Dan) and prizes were presented for best improved in each of the clubs in our group.

Some people went up a belt or tab, some didn’t. That’s the way of life – it just means you have to put a bit more in to it next time. And, if you do, you’ll find Hugh or Sanny with you all the way helping ‘cause that’s what they’re all about!

The adults had one more session to re-enforce what Hugh and Sanny had been trying to pump into our collective heads/bodies. Yes! Everybody was sore and tired, but just look what we got out of it!

At the end of the session Hugh presented Aileen Tait with her 2^nd Dan certificate and a bottle of bubbly to celebrate it with. Well done Aileen, you’ve worked very hard and everybody could see the results even before you got your new grade.