The first Course of a New Year and JKA Scotland brown and black belt members gathered at Dunfermline High School eagerly waiting to see what Sensei Ohta, 7th Dan JKA had planned for the next 3 hours.
From the start of the course all members could tell that this course was going to be nothing less than excellent as usual. After the warm-up and the first 10 minutes the cobwebs were gone, and the dojo had an energetic buzz within it.
The course started in the first hour with all Karate Ka training together under the instruction of Sensei Ohta. After the Warm-up we quickly realised that the first Kata we were being treated to was Jion. Sensei Ohta emphasised in detail the important points when performing Jion Kata. The transition between each move being smooth, the hip position and making sure the hips are used correctly when performing the kata, also the timing of specific moves to make the kata more effective. Sensei explained Teisho-Chudan Yoko uke . Sensei commented that if a student is considering Jion for grading in the future then they must study the kata in depth and the importance of the moves. To bring the kata to life, application of the kata was demonstrated and performed by students.
After a break the second hour of the course was split, with brown belts given specific in depth instruction for Kata Kanku Dai by Sensei John Deans (Technical Committee) making sure that all students understood the key points provided by breaking down the kata in several parts, incorporating application. Black belts were given Kata Jitte where Sensei explained and demonstrated the correct execution of techniques in clear detail referring to disarming an attacker depending on whether they are pulling or pushing an individual. We were put into groups of 3 where we performed various methods of application for the same move depending on which leg the attacker came forward on.
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 of kata Bassai Dai by Sensei Alan Simpson (Technical Committee) whilst Black belts concentrated on kata Nijushiho, where the main points were the correct stance and position and placement of the feet between moves. Again, at the end of the Kata we partnered to perform several application exercises.
Before we knew it 3 hours of excellent in-depth training had ended, and brown and black belts came together to finish the session with a presentation of Dan Grade Certificates for recent successful JKA Scotland students.
JKA Scotland would like to thank Sensei Ohta for a fantastic 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 and will take the information away and work on this in your own dojo.
The next events on the JKA Scotland calendar of events are the course and Kyu Grading for all Regions, closely followed by the JKA Scotland National Championships.
South & West Region – Thursday 20th February 2020
North Region – Friday 21st February 2020
East Regions – Saturday 22nd February 2020
JKA Scotland National Championships – Saturday 29th February 2020