October Black and Brown Belt Training
The October Black and Brown Belt Course took place on the 8th of October at the Djanogly Sherwood Academy. The course began with an introduction by Head of JKS England, Alan Campbell Sensei, who congratulated Paul Brant Sensei, Wendy Campbell Sensei and Nick Midgley Sensei on their successful 5th Dan gradings. Their performance had been assessed by Kagawa Shihan following the seminar conducted in September, very much meriting the round of applause given by the class to show appreciation for the level and progress these karateka display.
Alan Sensei then handed over to Geoff Dixon Sensei, who spoke about the new refereeing development qualifications. The newly introduced credentials are available to JKS England members looking to try their hand at judging and refereeing tournaments, providing an ideal stepping stone onto the EKF circuit. Geoff Sensei was very pleased to be able to award the first of these qualifications to Mehrdad Kanani.
After bowing the class in, Alan Sensei asked Hans Rana Sensei to lead the warmup. Hans Sensei focused on fitness exercises, partnering students together to inspiring their competitive streaks. Students pushed themselves to outperform each when other doing press-ups, crunches, and burpees. The warmup also contained a number of flexibility exercises, which many will know are personal favourites of Hans Sensei. Leading by example, and always encouraging vocally, the class walked up and down the dojo whilst maintaining a low shiko-dachi stance to get the blood flowing to the legs and relax open the hips joints.
Once Hans Sensei had suitably warmed the class up, Alan Sensei recruited each of the new Godan instructors to help share in the teaching responsibilities. Paul Brant Sensei was first to do this, seizing the opportunity. Initially Paul Sensei looked at the breakdown of mae-geri into its individual components, before doing some hip flexibility exercises and then onto yoko-geri keage practice. Paul Sensei was very positive and forthcoming with vital teaching points to improve the execution.
Nick Midgley Sensei then focused on punching, first with choku-tsuki and then later with gyaku-tsuki. Nick Sensei built towards a sequence of eight punches, turning to the side and then behind to cover different stance transitions whilst increasing the speed and power after everyone completed sequence. Nick Sensei progressed the drill to ensure students were following and given the chance to understand the finer points and benefits of it when performed clinically.
Wendy Campbell Sensei then took the class through a blocking combination utilising age-uke, soto-uke, uchi-uke and gedan-barai, all of which immediately followed by a gyaku-tsuki. Wendy Sensei emphasised the importance of rotating the hips to ensure full protection when blocking while also importantly enabling full power to be delivered on the counter attacking strike. The timing of these hips and necessary relaxation were all elements that Wendy Sensei addressed so students knew exactly what needed to be targeted.
Alan Sensei then resumed control of the class, asking students to partner up and perform gohon kumite, with jodan, chudan and mae-geri attacks. Alan Sensei observed closely, getting students to find new partners each time to ensure the subtle differences with each new partner were experienced. This sequence shared many similar teaching points that had already been encountered by the students in the earlier parts of the course, allowing them to translate much of the basics into the five-step sparring exercise. Afterwards, Alan Sensei identified the lack of use of the preparation hand for many students which laid the foundation for the next portion of the course.
The first focus was on age-uke and the opening emphasis was on using the preparation hand as the initial blocking contact, with the rising action to follow becoming rather more of a secondary block in order to guarantee the defender’s safety. This functioned as a two-step block, but Alan Sensei also stated that utilising the preparation arm stops the defender’s hip from turning outwards before the block is made. After the first step in gohon kumite, the preparation hand could then be used as a push or strike on the attacker’s arm, interrupting their movement and upsetting their balance as they attacked.
The second technique was to use the preparation hand in soto-uke as another disruptive movement, “slapping” the attacker’s arm to disturb their punch, and enabling full movement of the hips for the defender. As with the previous block, Alan Sensei described this as “two for the price of one”, explaining the benefits that two points of contact can give within one traditional blocking technique.
Finally, gedan-barai preparation was used to help defend when presented with a mae-geri. As with soto-uke, the preparation hand was used to manoeuvre the kick offline, often with enough force to negate the need for further disruption other than to achieve greater control of the opponent’s positioning for added safety or to allow a quicker or more effective counter. All three of these sequences were performed with a variety of different partners, before bringing the whole product together and performing gohon kumite whilst focusing on the modifications that Alan Sensei had highlighted.
Throughout this part of the lesson, Alan Sensei communicated how it is always in student’s best interests to fully engage with any exercise they are tasked with and to try to understand the instruction given and ask questions of anyone invited to instruct. At the end of this section Alan Sensei reiterated the theme of the exercise; to develop the self-defence aspects of our karate but simultaneously advance the kihon elements as well, such as hip rotation and the options to fully utilise the preparation.
There was then a short break, after which the class split into two groups. Those interested in judging and refereeing, many with the upcoming JKS National Championships in November in mind, went with Geoff Sensei to develop those skills, while Alan Sensei continued the training course.
Alan Sensei shifted his focus onto kokutsu-dachi, taking students through the correct method of transitioning from one stance to another. Students were shown how to transfer their weight over the front knee, engage the core to turn the hips to a front-facing position and then move the back foot through the centre to drive forwards into a new stance. Alan Sensei stressed the importance of the foot landing toes first, which was something he noted that both Kagawa Shihan and Inada Sensei had featured in their teaching at recent courses. The final technical point made was regarding the positioning of the knees in kokutsu-dachi, with the back knee not being forced too far out, and the front knee having a natural bend in order to be able to offer purchase and therefore speed and control when stepping backwards.
The final back stance exercise was done with student’s partnering up once more, and then making kokutsu-dachi back-to-back. When the class had all assumed the correct position, the stance was held for 30 seconds on each side. This also afforded students the time to concentrate on which aspect(s) of their stance may not be meeting the optimum position which Alan Sensei has covered comprehensively. The end sequence of Heian Shodan was then performed to practice the transitions introduced earlier. Alan Sensei encouraged students to focus on using their whole body to move, reminding students of Kagawa Shihan’s lessons of “full body action”.
Alan Sensei concluded the course with a split into three groups. Steve Carless Sensei would teach Enpi and Hans Rana Sensei Bassai Dai to those grading, whilst the rest of the class would explore the kata Sochin. In a swift run through the kata, Alan Sensei looked for an initial focus on fudo-dachi and explained how this is achieved, alongside other intricacies that make it a challenging but very valuable kata to be able to perform.
Meanwhile, Geoff Sensei had been taking the referee development group through various rule changes and the different interpretations of these. Many of which had been identified on a course Geoff Sensei had attended in August with Javier Escalante, Chair of the WKF (World Karate Federation Referee Commission). With a clean focus on how to improve the group’s understanding and ability to implement their knowledge, Geoff Sensei covered many aspects which would serve the student’s well at the JKS Nationals and fielded any questions that students had on any of the theory or practical aspects of competition officiating.