JKS England ends the year with a superb Christmas Course

On Saturday 12th December students from across England gathered for the last event of the JKS England calendar year, the annual Christmas Course. This year instructors were Head of JKS England Alan Campbell Sensei, 6th Dan, National Head Coach Matt Price Sensei 6th Dan and Steve Carless 6th Dan, all of whom had recently arrived back in England following a training trip to Japan.

As ever, the event was extremely popular and the atmosphere in the sports hall at Nottingham's Djanogly City Academy was superb. The day began with the customary presentation of Dan diplomas that had arrived from the JKS Headquarters in Tokyo. Following this Jake Pointer, 3rd Dan from Norwich, took the whole group through a thorough warm up.

The groups then were split between Dan grade and Kyu grades. Matt Sensei worked the kyu grades through some fundamental kumite drills as well as covering Heian Kata. Steve Sensei too the Dan grades through kihon, Kumite finishing off with the Kata Jiin as well as the koten kate Kashu.

After a short break the second session began with Matt Sensei and Steve Sensei switching groups. Matt Sensei continued the kumite theme with some more advanced drills and exercises while Steve Sensei worked on Kihon, the use of body mechanics in karate movement to generate power before finishing with Heian Yondan.

For the final part of the day Alan Sensei took all participants through the non-syllabus shotokan kata Hyakuhachiho. This was a very challenging part of the course for many participants but very interesting for many competitors who are used to seeing Suparimpei in many WKF competitions

The course was an excellent end to the most successful year ever for JKS England!

Following the course was a dan grading.  Congratulations to the following successful candidates.

Shodan
Joel Bannister - Walsall Karate Dojo
Sebastian Colbeck - JKS Sheffield
Harrie Fairess-York - JKS York
Lewis Fewkes - JKS Sheffield
Stephen Green - Leeds Karate Academy
Paul Howe - JKS Sheffield
Nirmay Jadhav - JKS Harrow
Sydney McAleenan-Marks - Walsall Karate Dojo
Matthew Mellor - Leeds Karate Academy
Alastair Milburn - Kensho Karate Club
Matthew Murr - Grantham Shotokan Karate Club
James Quinn - Can Do Martial Arts
Rebecca St Clair - JKS Sheffield
Mark Vickers - Walsall Karate Dojo

Nidan
James Bamford - Haxby Karate Club
Lewis Bradbury - Walsall Karate Dojo
Joseph Bulmer - Leeds Karate Academy
Rowan Reeve - Kensho Karate Club