From the start of the course all members could tell that this course was going to be nothing less than excellent. After the warm-up and the first 10 minutes the cobwebs were gone.
The course started with all Karate Ka training together for the first hour under the instruction of Sensei Ohta. After the Warm-up we quickly realised that the first Kata we were being treated to was Hangetsu. Sensei Ohta emphasised in detail the important points when performing this Kata especially the stance by tightening and the control of the body. Sensei broke the kata down into segments, so that we could work on the application and understand more about what we are doing to help bring the kata to life.
After a short break, the second hour of the course was split, with brown belts given specific in-depth instruction for Kata Enpi by Sensei Bert Stewart, making sure that all students understood the key points provided by breaking down the kata into parts and incorporating application.
Black belts were given Kata Jion where Sensei explained and demonstrated the correct execution of techniques in clear detail and again also breaking down the kata to provide instruction of application by everyone working in pairs and using both sides of the body to add an extra element of practice. Sensei explained that with kata Jion it is not easy to execute correctly and must be studied to understand the kata in depth to be able to perform as expected in an examination.
The third and final hour of the course, brown & dan grades remained split. Brown belts were instructed on the finer details of kata Jion by Sensei Alan Simpson whilst Black belts concentrated on kata Sochin, where the main points were the correct stance and position and placement of the feet when transitioning from one technique to another. To follow on from the previous 2 kata’s we again partnered to perform several application exercises.
At the end of each Kata, Sensei asked if any students had any questions and provided an explanation of each to make sure that all questions were answered and understood.
Before we knew it 3 hours of excellent in-depth training had ended, but before the brown belts returned to join the Dan grades, Sensei Ohta asked that 3rd Dan and above perform Jion followed by 2nd Dan and below.
All students took something away from the course to focus on and practice.
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 Squad Training and the Course and kyu gradings for all Regions in February, closely followed by the JKA Scotland National Championships. Please contact your instructor or Regional Officers for more details.