15th January 2022
What a great start to the new year with the first JKA Scotland Kata Course since 2020. Brown and black belt members gathered at Dunfermline High School excited, and the buzz in the dojo could be felt whilst eagerly waiting to see what katas Sensei Ohta, 7th Dan JKA had planned for the next 3 hours.
After the warm-up and shaking the cobwebs off from the festive break, everyone knew it was going to be an excellent course as always.
The first hour brown and black belts trained together under the instruction of Sensei Ohta. Sensei started the day working combinations to emphasise hip rotation, using zenkutsu dachi with Gyaku zuki, which definitely got the hips warm ready for what was to come.
Sensei then moved on to kicking techniques, Mae Geri, Keage Geri and Mawashi Geri from zenkutsu dachi using the same leg with the focus on ensuring proper preparation. This was followed by the first kata of the day, Enpi. Sensei Ohta emphasised in detail the first move and most importantly the knee and foot position when performing this move and making sure that we move both hand and foot as one and not separately. It was noted that we should not be leaning prior to the jump.
After a break, the second hour of the course was split, with brown belts given specific in-depth instruction for kata Hungestu by Sensei Bert Stewart (Technical Committee) making sure that all students understood the stance and breathing throughout the kata. Black belts were given kata Chinte, sensei explained and demonstrated the correct execution of techniques in clear detail with the focus being on the proper stance position and moving the arms together with the feet, therefore able to generate correct coordination, timing, and power.
The third and final hour of the course again was a split class for brown and black belts. Brown belts were instructed on the finer details and key areas of focus for kata Jion by Sensei Alan Simpson (Technical Committee) whilst Black belts concentrated on kata Gojushiho Sho. Sensei Ohta made sure we were all aware of how we should be making transition between the knife hand strikes by using the hand/arm to make a circle with the hand for the next move.
Due to covid restrictions being in place, no application of kata was performed but Sensei’s clear and concise instruction throughout the course allowed us to see the techniques and power that can be put into the application.
After a very quick 3 hours of excellent in-depth training, we all gave our thanks to Ohta Sensei for such an informative course and giving us all so much to take away and focus on to help develop our Karate. We would also like to thank all the JKA Scotland members who supported this course, we hope you enjoyed it. The next events on the JKA Scotland calendar of events are the course and kyu gradings for all Regions in February, please contact your instructor or Regional Officers for more details.