The Dojo Diary – Training at the Weoley Castle Dojo (W/E 02/02/2019)

We had a great session on Monday night with Sensei Sue Hession at the Weoley Castle dojo, Ajay Reeves, Shania Hopkins, Archie Tullock, were competion training for an upcoming competition in March. They all did very well and did their parents proud.

Class group photo

Another great session on Thursday night finishing off with weopons training with Jacob McBride and Michael paul having their first attempt at a kata with the sai. Great first attempt by the two students.

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The Dojo Diary – A week in training (13/01/19 – 19/01/19)

This week at the Longbridge dojo on Wednesday Sensei Sue took everyone through their paces teaching what was new kata for some whilst also preparing some students for an upcoming competition. Sensei Richard took the opportunity to continue along the same theme and work on a kata the students were already familiar with, Bassai Dai.

It is always important to revisit and constantly practise everything we have learnt as well as learning new things as we progress along our karate journey. To that end on the advanced class we concentrated on the details of the kata trying to iron out any little mistakes that inevitably creep in to our kata and explain some of the common variations that are prevalent plus examine in detail each technique and possible applications for them.… Read the rest

A lot covered tonight at the Weoley Castle Dojo

A good second class tonight at the Weoley Castle dojo with the brown and black belts covering a lot of ground. All the Heian kata were revisted. Bassai Dai, Jion, Hangestu, Enpi and Kanku Dai for the 1st Kyus. For the dan grades Meikyo and Chinte were covered and we started / revisited Unsu for the 1st and 2nd dans.

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Great advanced kata session yesterday at Longbridge Methodist Church dojo

We had a great advanced session yesterday with the black and brown belts at the Longbridge dojo. Earlier in the session we revisited the Heian kata and later Sensei Sue Hession worked on the Shodan grading kata whilst Sensei Richard Amuzu took an depth look at Nijushiho and its bunkai before finishing off with Meikyo.

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A good nights training for the Black and Brown Belts

Another good advanced training session tonight with the black and brown belts at the Longbridge dojo. Todays session concentrated basics (kihon waza) and semi-free sparring (jiyu ippon kumite) with an eye on the upcoming gradings. The session emphasised the importance of correct fighting distance (maai) and strong technique in the attack and counter when sparring.

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Why have we been quiet, well we’ve been busy training!

Why have we been quiet, well we’ve been busy training!

We’ve been a bit quiet as of late, but it’s not because nothing is happening we are simply getting on with some good old fashioned karate training, whilst you will always see lots of posts about gradings and competitions most of the time we are doing the day to day task of becoming better at our karate. We have recently been looking at grading syllabus, Heian kata plus an in depth look at the kata Nijushiho and it’s Bunkai. A look at the katas Sochin and Unsu with their associated applications and much much more.

Here are a couple of photos we have taken after our black and brown belt sessions at the Weoley Castle and longbridge dojos.… Read the rest