A new venue in Mansfield Woodhouse was used for this month’s central regional training and it turned out to be a very suitable dojo. The surface of the floor had some ‘give’ in it and was accordingly very forgiving on aching joints!
The all grades session began with a vigorous warm-up drill using shuto uke and nukite, we then progressed to kicking practise. An energy sapping sequence of eight kicks complete with a double punch finish was repeated until an appropriate standard was achieved. In partner work we practised maewashi geri delivered from a variety of distances and then progressed to combination kicking. The combination kicking was quite a coincidence really as we have been working on this very theme at the club in recent weeks.
We studied Bassai Sho to conclude the class and many of the finer points were revised.
In the kata squad session in the afternoon there was a very good turnout of members from all over the region and beyond: the north east of England; the north west; and even several from Wales. I’m sure that they felt it was well worth the trip. We commenced proceedings with some basic punching and blocking drills working on co-ordination of the body in particular. We then worked with a partner refining the yoko geri keage/uraken uke combination found in many of the kata; especially Kanku Dai; which we did next!
We broke this ‘monster’ of a kata down into sequences and drilled the fine detail before running through it lightly. We then moved on to Nijushiho, again considering it in stages working on aspects such as the correct tempo and embusen (performance line). We then performed this kata lightly.
The session concluded with performances of the two katas at full intensity with special emphasis on spirit and martial attitude. After the second kata was performed, the command of “yame” was a particularly welcome sound resonating around the dojo as everyone had given their all and had nothing left in the tank… or so we thought! Sensei Brennan wasn’t happy with the first performance of Kanku Dai and wanted it repeated, and repeated better!
I knew what we were all thinking: “Once more unto the breach dear friends, once more” (Henry V, Act III, Scene I) – well that’s what I was thinking anyway!
We all braced ourselves for one last effort. The kata was performed with even more enthusiasm and vigour than the first time. This added verve was maintained to the very end of the kata to conclude another glorious day of training.
SOUTH NOTTS KARATE 