Course Report - March 2001

This weekend course sees a change in our organisation of the seniors/juniors courses. We decided to make each a separate weekend with the adults having the Saturday and Sunday, and the kids on the Sunday a fortnight later (to allow the old muscles to recover).

We were joined for this course by Jim Reilly (1^st Dan) and Angus Galbraith (1^st Kyu) from another club who also practice Shotokai karate. Welcome to both of them.

Session 1
We started with the usual, and now almost legendary, warm-up from the good doctor himself (Stuart Hendry). We all give Stuart a hard time with names like Dr Death, Dr Strangelove etc, but I’d personally like to go on record and say as far as I’m concerned I’ve not pulled any muscles or strained anything at any of the courses since he’s started doing the warm-ups. Thanks Stuart!

After we were suitable sweaty (except the ladies of course!) Hugh and Sanny explained what they wanted to work on over the weekend. The theme of the course was our learning to relax in front of an opponent and know when we were safe, and as a result of that knowledge, when to move when it wasn’t safe. Sounds easy – believe me, it isn’t. The other thing we were working on was the technical improvement of our oi-tzuki.

After some kata to warm up and get "into sync with each other" we did some practices involving learning to stand just out of distance, moving towards and past your attacker and ended with Sanbon Kimite performed in a circular fashion.

After some more kata, we went back to Sanbon. This time either straight or circular.

Session 2
After a short break and another warm-up, it was back to kata and then we were split up. The brown/black belt group was given instruction on the correct basic use of the Shinai (Bamboo sword used in Kendo) and we then went on to use this in the Sanbon attacks. This greatly increases the concentration involved.

The Kyu grades were back practising Sanbon using punches as normal.

At the end of the session we formed a line and the three 2^nd Dans and the 3^rd Dan moved down the line and back to the top again with each person they faced attacking them in a different manner specified by Hugh (punches, kicks, attacks with the Shinai).

Session 3
The third and final session of the day saw us split into three groups with a 2^nd Dan in each and had us attempting to perform sanbon from the centre of the circle while being attacked by whoever you looked at. We also tried the same thing with the Shinai, but this got a bit silly!

I think the best part of the day was seeing Hugh Hastings aimlessly wandering around the circle reading the instructions on a box of elastoplast while we were trying to "whack him on the head" with the Shinai. Needless to say, nobody managed it.

- Sunday 11^th -

Oh my god! Where did all this pain come from? The old muscles had tightened up overnight. The warm-up was a nightmare, but we got through.

Session 1
After a bit of kata to pull the group together we were issued with the Shinai again. This time as extensions of our forearms and using two at a time we tried sanbon attacking with the tips of the Shinai. The length of the Shinai exaggerated the small incorrect angles of our attacks and made them easier to see (try it sometime – it’s a great training tool!).

After working at this for a while, we again moved back into sanbon kimite to check the results of the changes we had hopefully made.

After some more kata to "cool down" we had a short break.

Session 2
The second session was purely kata. We were split into two groups facing each other with each group trying to improve on the performance of the other (no, not faster – better!). This is as close as we come to any type of competition. All our practice is about helping your partner to a better attack/block, which in turn makes you attack/block better. There ain’t no egos here!!

During the second session Hugh and Sanny had had a brainwave!

Session 3
At the start of the third session we went back to the good old days and they had us performing sanbon by swinging our arms instead of punching. This improved the timing of the foot/fist combination during the later attacks.

From here we moved on to "piggy in the middle". One person in the middle of a line of 4 or 5 people each of whom will perform sanbon when he/she turns to face them. This is a great (but very tiring) way to learn to adapt to different people’s timing

- Sunday 25^th -

Who came up with the bright idea of having a kids course on Mother’s Day and the day the clocks went forward?

I had my alarm set for 8:30am. Up, showered and fed. Had a leisurely drive down to the hall for 10:00am (course started at 10:30am). Seem a lot of cars in the car park – Hmmm

Walked in to the hall – everybody is there and practicing already!! Dooh! Forgot to put the clock forward. Ah well…..

It was nice to see as many of the black belts giving up their Sunday to help the kids – thanks guys (and Aileen!).

Session 1
After a short warm-up (the hall was a bit cool for the kids) the whole group practiced Taikyoku Shodan kata to help them loosen up and attempt to pull the timing a bit tighter. This continues for a short time until Hugh and Sanny were satisfied with the results and then had the group going up through the katas with each grade group dropping out when they reached the kata they didn’t know.

When they reached the brown/black belt group Hugh called for a single line to practice Kihon (basic techniques) with the adult brown/black belts correcting as they went along the line.

The group was then split into three sub-groups by grades: - white belts; red, yellow and orange belts; green, blue, brown and black belts. An adult 2^nd Dan accompanied by two adult 1^st Dans were allocated to each group and we went to work! A lot of practice of katas relevant to the group was employed to try to improve timing, form and technique with demonstrations and explanations thrown in at the correct times. Gradually they improved a wee bit but started to fade physically. At this point Hugh called a break and we they got stuck into the crisps.

It always amazes me how much energy there must be in a packet of crisps. One minute these kids were all tired. One packet later they have so much excess energy they are running around the hall. If only we could harness the power of the crisp . . . . . .

Session 2
During the break Hugh and Sanny had come to the conclusion that there was too much of a difference between the red belts and the orange belts in that group, and that the brown/black belts needed the instructors to "flex" them a bit more. As a result the groups were now white, red and yellow, orange and green, blue / brown / black.

Again a lot more katas were practiced. Some of the higher grades were given limited Sanbon Kimite (one-step sparring) to try out parts of the kata in an attack/defence situation.

During this time Hugh and Sanny were wandering from group to group watching, diving in with the odd tip to help the instructors and motivating the kids were necessary.

Towards the end of the session, Hugh again called for a line sitting at the side of the hall and called up two kids at random to "spar" in the middle of the hall. Don’t panic – we don’t have the kids beating lumps out of each other! The rules of the "spar" are very tight. Each person is on opposite sides of a white line. They can move back, to the side, or jump about as much as they like. If any part of a "fighter" goes over that line they are out. Hugh is right in the middle and is very strict on this. This is a bit of fun for the kids and gets them used to trying various techniques in a "free" situation without the chance of anybody getting hurt.

Finally Edwin Tibbles, Aileen Tait and Andy Vallance (all 2nd Dans) read out the grading results with a round of applause for each new grade. Some people were disappointed with the results, but both Hugh and Sanny are honest in their assessment of you all. If you didn’t get the grade you were hoping for it means you need to work a bit harder next time and prove to them that you’re worth it.

If they handed out grades without you having to give your very best it would mean that the coveted black belt would only be useful to hold up your trousers!

Trust them, they know what they’re doing – and have been doing it for a long time with good results.