On Saturday 9th October JKA Scotland held our first face to face post lockdown National Course and Dan Grading since March 2020 due to the pandemic. Students travelled from all over Scotland to attend with excitement, and the atmosphere was electric with all students smiling, laughing, and catching up with those they had not seen for nearly 20 months. Brown and black belts participated in 3 hours of instruction from Sensei Ohta 7th Dan JKA and as always, the training did not disappoint.
Following the warm up, the course began with all students together focusing on basic Kihon training. We concentrated on setting our position to make strong techniques for basic punches and blocks whilst moving forward and backwards. The focus being on the front and back leg and also moving body position. This was then further progressed, using the combinations that were practiced at the start of the course to focus with a partner both close contact and also sliding, shifting body away whilst making correct distance for attacking and connecting between moves.
After a short break brown belts were split from the dan grades to focus on Kihon basic techniques for Dan grading with Sensei Alan Simpson 6th Dan JKA, Dan grades moved on to practice Kanku Sho kata with Sensei Ohta. Sensei took his time breaking down the moves within the kata focusing on making correct hand techniques when moving from one move to another and correctly shifting the body weight. By the end of this session, I am sure everyone felt like it had not been as long since we last had a face-to-face course with Sensei.
After a final break, the class was split into 4 separate groups, where we were given the opportunity to choose which kata we wanted to practice and study in more depth, these kata were selected based on Dan Gradings. The kata’s were Bassai Dai, Jion, Kanku Dai and Jitte. Sensei Ohta and senior instructors gave in depth training and technical instruction for their respective groups.
After a fantastic 3-hour training session with Sensei Ohta the course sadly was at an end. It was evident that all students enjoyed the course, being back training together and as always could take something out of the course to further practice in our own dojos.
Dan Grading
Following the conclusion of training a JKA Dan Grading was held. We are delighted to announce the following students were successful in passing Dan Gradings.
Pass First Dan JKA (Shodan)
Shawn Kennedy North Berwick Dojo
Mike Mitchell JKA Bass Rock Karate
Adam Thomas Utsubo Karate
Ivan Macatangay JKA Dunfermline
Isaiah Macatangay JKA Dunfermline
David Forder Carnegie Dojo
James Simpson Carnegie Dojo
Tyrone Farlam Carnegie Dojo
Pass Second Dan JKA (Nidan)
Katie Laird JKA Orkney
Raj Negi Carnegie Dojo
Srishti Panthri Carnegie Dojo
Ruby Wallace Carnegie Dojo
Iain Robertson Carnegie Dojo
Congratulations to all the above students.
Thank you to Sensei Ohta for an enjoyable and highly informative course and thanks to all JKA Scotland Instructors and students who supported our first post lockdown event and made this such a successful National Course for JKA Scotland.