We commenced the evening’s events with some static punching. Lower grades: kizame tsuki and gyaku tsuki. Brown and black belts: uraken and gyaku tsuki. The tempo was then raised with a 3 count set: single, double, treble punches for lower grades; double, double and quadruple punches for the higher grades.
We then warmed the legs up by light practise of the three kicks we would be using in the kumite exercise to follow: mae geri; yoko geri kekome; and maewashi geri. The kicks were delivered consecutively. The first kick without any entry step; the second with a single step and the third with two steps.
Ippon kumite and jiyu ippon kumite followed using mae geri and kekome attacks. These were the cues for the defender to move left or right, off line, to fire in a counter punch and later a maewashi geri counter kick. Emphasis was placed on using flowing evasive footwork keeping the body weight forward behind the counter.
Heian Godan was practised by the whole class before the black belts were introduced to Gankaku which includes several moves found in Godan. It was very good to see Arthur resplendent in his gi after a period of ill health, and tackling the difficult balancing manoeuvres in this advanced kata with his usual enthusiasm!
Time defeated us, but not before everybody performed one or other of these two katas at full intensity.
10 members trained in the session: Bob Dainty; Frank Dennis; Miguel Dennis; Becky Cassapi; Steve Cassapi; Audrius Mikalauskas; Kerry Lee; Caroline Todd; Arthur Hall; Rosemary Hall.
SOUTH NOTTS KARATE 